Friend and daughter can't pay rent and being evicted. Is there any social housing left?

[Wtftoadvise]

Both work with agencies on min wage, as far as I can tell must be on zero hour contracts. Friend gets hours 9 - 9 some days then other weeks far less work available. Upshot is they cannot pay the rent on October 1st and landlord has asked for it and told them to get out by November 1st.

Friend is distraught and has nowhere to go, no family as a temporary option. I don't live in the UK anymore and am not in a position to be able to lend money for a deposit and first month's rent. What can I suggest to help? I suggested applying for discretionary housing payment a few weeks ago, she's still waiting to hear about that but now things have got worse because the landlord is actually saying to get out as he now knows there's a problem paying the rent.

She has been to CAB, and tried many times to call Shelter but constantly gets the busy message.

They're in the Southeast but would go anywhere, is there anywhere left in the country that has social housing stock left? if they approached the council and asked to be re housed somewhere else would that be an option?

Are there any other ideas? I am really worried, friend is talking about trying to live on the streets because she can't think straight anymore and is completely frightened and exhausted.

I know someone whose landlord did just as a PP said. He changed the locks and chucked her stuff into the garden.

You can change the locks as a tenant and not give the landlord the key as landlords only have the right to enter in an emergency. In an emergency e.g. gas escape the landlord will very likely be accompanied by other workers anyway. There is case law for it in England. Most of the people who post on forums who say you can't do this are landlords who think their contact overrides the law. (I was harassed by a landlord when renting, since then known other people who were harassed and the law hasn't changed.)

In regards to October's rent - tell them to pay something towards it. As long as you don't go 8 weeks into arrears the landlord can't kick you out during the fixed term. A friend of mine, who rented out a property, had a couple of tenants doing this to him for a whole year during their fixed term. He then started eviction proceedings and they immediately left. Later he found out they had done this to their previous landlord.

The tenants trick was to do this at every place they rented and when the landlord started eviction proceedings to immediately move out. One tenant was an estate agent.

Also are they paying their council tax? If not they risk having bailiffs round and a prison sentence.

I lost about 3k worth of stuff. Tell her to change the locks. If she does, it's a civil matter, not a criminal matter. Let him pursue her through the courts. The alternative is he locks her out (and all her stuff in) or he locks her out and turfs her stuff outside.

Tell her to be clever about this and if he breaks in a downstairs window, make sure she calls 999 and has her tenancy agreement on her person at all times.
When it happened to me, the police were like 'have you a tenancy agreement?' 'Yes, it's in my room'. 'Have you ID?' 'Yes, it's in my room'.

Don't let this cunt forego the law. Honestly.

This thread highlights the ignorance of the general public when it comes to the state of living for vulnerable parts of society. 'is there any reason they can't get salaried work?'. Is that a joke. My dh applied for maybe 30 jobs recently, he received 2 interviews at care homes. He has good references, a degree and work experience.

It's these people that have never experienced any hardship and find this situation hard to believe, when it's the reality of life for many, that are voting conservative. Just glad she doesn't have young kids.

Sorry no advice. I truly hope your friend gets the support she desperately needs. Good luck.

You're the one who's talking nonsense, the s21 and a debt claim are two separate legal entitlements. He won't be able to evict her unless he follows the proper procedure. That has no bearing whatsoever on his (debt) claim against her for breach of contract.

I didn't say it was easy to relocate but this woman will be out of options if she is evicted, as I don't think she will be immediately rehoused. Do you want her sleeping in a doorway?

( www.gumtree.com/sellerads/1352328346?page=1 link )

Hope that works if not copy and paste,.. there are some associations in the uk (usually wales and the north of England) that offer properties no one on the list wants to the public. Google “council homes available now” I’ve enclosed an example of one such association and their homes open to the public I think only one available now. But if they’re desperate it’s worth looking into (maybe not wales try to find something a bit closer)

Lots of Social Housing in The North East.

Not going to give advice as the advice given by others is good advice.

Just wanted to say that this is the reality of today. High rents, low wages, not enough social housing or housing in general. There has to be thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people in this situation.

What kind of landlord rents a place to a group of people where neither of them has a steady, reliable income. Fair play to the young ladies for wanting to be independent and not live at home bit the landlord must have known they were a huge risk. Taking on tenants like this and it should come as no surprise to him that the time has come where they can’t pay. He’s no better than those loan sharks who lend to people they know full well can’t pay it back.

What utter crap.

Loan sharks charge shitloads more interest to people who can't repay their loans. There is no suggestion that the landlord is trying to extort more rent from the OP's friend because she can't pay the rent she's contracted to.

People on low and uncertain incomes often complain that they can't find a place to rent, and there's plenty of sympathy for them and scorn for landlords who won't let to them. There is no history of late payment as far as the OP knows, so it seems as though they were able to afford it at first.

The landlord is being harsh and going about getting them out in totally the wrong way, but he's not at fault or like a loan shark for allowing them to live there in the first place. The thought that a landlord would deliberately rent to people who can't afford the rent, like a loan shark lends money, is completely stupid and ignorant of the difficulty and expense of evicting unwanted tenants.

What does the husband do about it. Shouldnt he be the man and ensure he provide for the family?

Blimey, get out of the 70s, dear.

@ColaFreezePop please can you link to the case law or something else which says a tenant can change the locks even when the tenancy agreement prevents it?