Been given notice to leave our home, panicking.

[ReanimatedSGB]

The council halved the amount of housing benefit we were getting, I have been fighting with them for about three months and we are a bit behind with the rent. Now we've been given notice (it's a section 21, so 'notice to leave' of two months, not a matter of kicking the door in and throwing us out) but I don't know what we are going to do, if we are going to be able to find somewhere in time when we get housing benefit and a lot of places won't take tenants on benefit...

I am so sorry you are going through this. Not in UK , so no practical advice.
Seen so much about UC lately , but the reality of the consequences is an eye opener.
As if life isn't difficult enough, I am sorry that your time and headspace is being occupied with this stress.
Hope the practical advice from oTh ed MNers herlp you resolve this.

@ReanimatedSGB

I honestly believe you and feel your pain re overpayment of benefit
I had to take out a £2k loan to repay mine - completely and utterly all their fault re their dreadful calculations and shoddy procedures and no communication - and they then set a computer to take back the overpayments at a huge lump sum to try to recoup it quicker

I have made contact with them 7 TIMES to tell them I no longer live at my old address but they keep sending me 2 council tax bills for 2 properties this year and simply just don’t reply and will probably try to take me to court

I made a formal complaint this did not get me anywhere I still had to pay it

You need your MP. ASAP. The fact they are making you homeless by cutting your benefits and messing you around with overpayment needs urgent looking into. They are very hard to hold to account

I switched to UC to get away from local council and it is far far better for me for this reason

Contact MP and CAB, write a formal letter to the council about how their process has left you facing homelessness.

In my case they:
-Put down that I earned £1000 a week and wouldn’t listen even when I was standing face to face with them that this was £1000 A MONTH

• forgot to calculate my 25% council tax discount into housing benefit back in 2008 when I first applied and then sent me a bill for £2000 in 2016

I fucking hate them

If you have not heard from the council in the required 15 days your next step is a letter to the complaints department. Copy in your local councillors (the council website will have their details on their democracy pages) and the Chief Executive. Look up the amount of time they have to respond to you. Say if you don't hear by that date you will contact the Ombudsman. You can only do this once the council's complaints process has been used.
As others have said also see if their is a homelessness prevention service which will probably be run by a different department to the housing benefit one.

Go to your MP and local councillor, get them to kick up a stink, only way to get the council moving. How horribly stressful.

@VetinarisTerrier You're right that bailiff's can evict without notice, but generally landlords won't go down that route unless they have reason to believe that the property will sustain damage in the interim. Even if the OP's landlord takes that route he will have to inform the OP that he is applying to the High Court to use private bailiff's so she will have some warning.

That said the best plan for the OP is to sort out the issues with HB and stay where she is. CAB are a good starting point.

Update(ish) - the council are apparently going to 'act on' my claim today. I also had (coincidentally) the after-diagnosis appointment with CAHMs regarding DS recent diagnosis of ASD and the clinician said I could use that as extra leverage if they carry on being unhelpful. Mercifully I have managed to keep DS to the mindset that moving house is an 'adventure' rather than a trauma.

Fucking hell! They’re evicting you after 15 years over 3 weeks of half rent! Heartless cunts.

There is something in the back of my mind about giving notice for nonpayment having to be at least two months overdue with rent. I’ve maybe misunderstood that though. Does anyone know?

ILoveMaxi No fault section 21 notices can still be issued in England. They don't have to say why.

You're thinking of one of the Section 8 clauses.

No I was talking about notice for non payment. Which surely wouldn’t be a no fault notice?

Unless a section 21 is just a no fault notice? Can a section 21 only ever be “no fault”? I don’t know English law.

I hope that the Council deal with your claim quickly now. If they don't does your MP do a drop in surgery? A lot of the London ones do in which case you could go along with a copy of what you have from the HB people, plus a note of where it is wrong and ask them to chase the Council up.

Are you going to go back to your ll and plead? As I said above it’s going to be costly for them to get a new tenant.

If a family member can afford to lend you a deposit, why don't you ask them to lend you enough to pay off your rent arrears?

I so hope you can get something more secure!

Consider speaking to a councillor or your MP if you haven’t done so already. That may well spur them into acting more quickly. Have you requested a review of their decision? You can also ask for the overpayment recovery rate to be reduced. Have you looked at applying for a discretionary housing payment? Have you provided proof of your current rent and your latest payslips? If your child receives DLA, has that been included on your housing benefit assessment? You don’t need to answer these questions on here of course. Housing benefit assessors can and do make mistakes. I’d want a manager to take a look at it. I hope everything works out for you.

Not read the full thread as the rental advise often given on mumsnet is terrifying.

OP this is my professional area of expertise.

Is it a section 21 or a section 8 you’ve been served?

Re references they will need to say if you’ve been in arrears, it tends to be one of the only things that’s asked, but you can usually get around this with a guarantor or explaining your situation to a well meaning landlord.

I work for a local authority if Housing Benefit are being rubbish I would;

Contact Housing Options/Homeless Prevention urgently - if you are made homeless because of an HB mistake you will not be intentional and the council will have to house you - they don’t want to so will try and sort the HB out & speak with your landlord

Make a complaint using the complaints process say in it you believe that the HB departments maladministration is at risk of leading to serious injustice to your family (ie being made homeless) and your are asking for an urgent response. Say you will escalate to the local government ombudsman if they are unable to resolve your complaint

Contact your MP and local councillors and get them to help - they get listened to!

Contact Shelter england.shelter.org.uk/get_help

Good luck