Being evicted

[Dontknow1234]

I have name changed for this. We are going to be evicted. I have two children one with health problems. I lost my job due to covid. Have lived here ten years. Still by starving myself paid my rent all through lockdown. Can't get a private let as now not working and have no guarantor. Landlord served me with section 21 as selling due to ill health before rules changed so section 21 runs out in four days. I have begged estate agents but they all have this rule of a guarantor. I have gone to the council. Have even been put on two waiting lists as have connections to both areas. Have bidded on everything even areas 50 miles from everyone I know to avoid temporary accommodation and bailiffs. Now the estate agent and landlord are upset with me and dont care about my situation at all. I am sorry for staying but what can I do. Why I've posted is I'm so sad. Ive gone to my MP. The council now don't even answer my calls. My fault I guess for angering them getting a MP involved. What upsets me is some of these properties have ten bids and I'm tenth as only band c and have only been on it couple months but I didn't need to be on it before. I need to go into temporary accommodation for 6 months to be a higher band. I will have to rehouse my pets of years. This will devastate us all. I've told them I will have anything. I will have a private let that will take DSS. No one not even family will help/ be a guarantor so that hurts too. That's just the way my family is though I guess. I have paid for a doctor letter and the doctor agrees with me but he said doctor letters get accused of being a opinion by the council as he's had them tell him it before for someonelse. But I done it anyway as I'm desperate. I don't even need to be band a. If I was band b I could get a house in a week as they all go to people in band c but have to be on the list for two years. I'm not asking for more help than I deserve but I don't agree with my banding. I've been told they need 16 weeks to reassess so that's after a bailiff and I doubt it will change as apparently a health condition that isn't caused by the housing situation doesn't account. No but if my child is unwell and has to leave the b and b all day that's not okay. I've told it will be a b and b. Yet I know people here who have got a house before the section 21 runs out as they have 5 children. I know someone this week who has turned down four properties as not good enough for them. These have never been advertised on the bidding. It's not really a aibu I posted here for traffic. Please be kind as my landlord has said he wants us out by Xmas and I don't get why the nastiness. It's clean, looked after rent paid and always has been but now I'm hated. I've said he can have the court costs out the deposit. I'm not a bad person or a bad tenant. Estate agent has wrote a glowing reference. Yet he told me if I'm not out by next week they have to stop being nice. Like why is what I've done that wrong. I have nowhere to go. I'm sad all the time. I feel like I've let my kids down so badly. I'm on my own and have no family support. The dog comforts ( always lies on me) me but soon he will be gone too and he will be so sad he lives for these children.

Would he not have to go to court now to get you evicted if you haven't left?

That sounds awful. Have you been in touch with any homelessness charities?

I would love to be able to help with your pets on a temporary basis
If not to take them in but to cover food , vet bills etc

Poor you

I have not got much practical advice but please stay strong
There are people who will help you xxxxxx

Speak to the council and do not leave your house until the bailiffs arrive to evict you.

As soon as you’re homeless you become Band A priority and will get housed atleast in temp accommodation immediately if you have children and are eligible for bidding

Sounds really stressful. Keep your chin up. There’s hope

I think from what im aware the best thing to do right now is sit tight and wait until your actually evicted then you will have to go to the council and they will have no choice but to house you. May be far from where you are. And it may only be a bedsit or a room for now. It may be long winded and stressful. But it’s the first step to possibly getting a more secure home. Even if it’s just until your back on your feet and your able to private rent again

Best of luck x

What I meant was - sit tight until your evicted and have the eviction letter of notice in your hand. Then go down to the council and show them the letter and explain you have been evicted.

Good luck x

Hope it all works out for you
Why did you feel the need to name change though ?

Have you contacted Shelter?
I think if you move out before you are physically evicted, then you can be deemed to have given up the tenancy voluntarily, which affects the council's obligations towards you.
Don't move out until you have proper advice.
Once the section 21 notice expires, the landlord has to apply to the courts for an order, and that has to expire before the bailiffs can enforce it. I think there are big backlogs in the courts, so that may take some time. If the agents are harassing you, or threatening to, that is illegal and you may have to report them to the police.
The council cannot treat you worse because you have contacted the MP, but make sure you are in frequent contact with the MP. Keep in regualr contact with the council too- do you have email contact with them if they are not answering the phone?
It is a horrible, scary position to be in. I hope there are people out there who can offer you more practical advice. I know councils vary as to terms of what they are able to offer - if you say which council you are dealing with maybe someone can offer realistic advice?
I have known schools that help liaise with housing officers - if your children are in school, is there a welfare officer you can speak to?

Firstly, check if the S21 notice has been validly served. The rules have been changing a lot during Covid. Depending on when it was served it may need to be 2/3 or 6 months' notice. In order for it to be valid, the Landlord will also need to have protected your deposit within a certain time frame of receiving the money from you and provided you with the prescribed information (info about where the money is protected etc). They should also have given you an EPC certificate, gas safe certificate and How to Rent booklet. All of these things could invalidate the notice.

As some others have said, the local authority won't treat you as priority until there is a Court Order with a date for eviction. If it gets that far, then you should get moved up.

The other thing that could help is that the Court will usually have a moratorium on evictions over the Christmas period. You can also ask the court to delay it for up to 56 days if you can show hardship. Doctor's notes etc will help there.

A few things to look at - and they may help!

Good luck!

I would say hold firm, stay polite, apologise to landlord for the situation and ask for their help moving forward. Make sure the house is spotless. My relative evicted somebody from their home last year. They weren’t being horrible. They really needed to move back to their own property. But they couldn’t do anything at all as the tenant had a child. Tenant just refused to move out until council rehomed her. The council called my relative to tell them off for forcing the tenant out. My relative became really angry with them - telling them unless the council found a home for the tenant, they would be knocking on their door homeless themselves. It soon moved things along. Maybe ask your landlord to contact the council? Don’t rehome your pets yet op. I really hope things work out for you.

Do not leave when the section 21 runs out. Stay in the property. Landlord will need to go to
court for a warrant for eviction and then bailiffs can evict you if you don't leave by an agreed date. There is a huge backlog at the moment, I would hazard a guess at February being the earliest you would be looking to leave.

If you leave before being formally evicted the council may view you as having made yourself intentionally homeless. If you have children this will over ride that though. But don't leave until a court orders you to. If you get to that point the council will have a duty to put you into temporary housing.

The council may not be getting back to you at the moment as you are not yet at the point of being homeless. I know my local council
Is completely overwhelmed with housing and homeless cases, and understaffed is to Covid. They will be prioritising. But they should have given you clearer info by the sounds of it.

I would call Shelter or Crisis and explain everything and get their advice and guidance.

And yes to getting the notice checked. Shelter or Crisis can look at it and confirm.

With the backlog the courts have got for a no fault s21 you would be looking at a minimum 9-12 months before they will evict you. Stay put in your rented property. Do not leave on the date of the s21. The landlord will have to go to court and then get it escalated to get the bailiffs in.

The section 21 is valid verifyed by the council. I am staying but the estate agent said if I stay they can no longer help me. Not sure what that means as they have offered me no other properties. The landlord is a very nasty man imo. Although not threatening very cold hearted and ruthless hence wanting court/ eviction done and dusted by Xmas. I fear he will go to higher court straight away. I have spoke to shelter who told me to stay put. But if he goes to higher court I will get no warning I think and the pets are here. A couple with big cages so not like I can just take them out the door with me. Thank you to the person offering vets bills/ food but we are okay in regard to that. Very kind of you though. It's only me who's been without. And I name changed only because like I said apparently next week it all stood being "nice" and some of my other posts are quite identifying. Even though I doubt the landlords on here just made me feel better. I keep emailing the council and just get generic things back days later like thanks for patience banding is taking 16 weeks to reaccess. The council don't answer me and never ring back and the council office near me is shut. So if he did go to higher court wouldn't even know where to go.

I think my higher court he means will try to go for accelerated (faster) possession? He needs grounds for that , rent arrears I think. Are you in any arrears? What is his reason for eviction - apologies if I've missed it.

Even accelerated possession will have a longer wait than usual.

I'm sorry my typing is rotten tonight!

You need to contact your local councillors. They’re the ones who can help with this. What pets are in big cages?

It's the section 21 that runs out in a few days do landlord is applying to for repossession order next week. And the housing assessor won't answer the estate agent either as he has tried to ring her back to confirm I can't stay. And I highly doubt he will keep trying after the few days has passed.

There is a poster on here called ph47bridge who is amazing at this stuff.

Could you try PM'ing her?

All rent is paid and always has been. And I've offered him my deposit to cover court. He wants to sell.

Ahh ok so he could technically go for accelerated possession. Accelerated possession can still take a while in normal times, and is also delayed.

Regardless, I know it's really stressful but you do have some time for things to change.

Maybe start just in case getting in touch with local animal shelters for possible short term care or fostering? Hopefully it won't come to that.

You won't wake up one day and be told to leave, you will have a few weeks notice.

One thing you could do is search ok right move and zoopla for housing associations in your area. They often advertise 'available now' properties you don't need to be registered to any bidding system to apply for. You're being evicted but it's a no fault one, housing association won't care.

Your landlord can't apply for a high court bailiff until an order for possession has been made by a county court. He will need to apply for a possession claim first as well. Also, due to lockdown, no evictions are taking place until it has been lifted and even then, on December 17th the Christmas amnesty of 4 weeks kicks in where no possession can take place.

Courts are currently experiencing an enormous backlog when it comes to possession claims. Your landlord is threatening you, you don't need to leave until evicted by a bailiff. If he does try to evict you, he will be committing a crime actually.

Could a friend look after the dog? So sorry about your hard time

I'm sorry OP. It's a horribly stressful experience that no one should be made to go through. The sooner the government gets on with making good their promise to ban Section 21 the better. In the meantime:

First, you won't have to leave before Christmas. From Shelter:

The government has also said that there will be a temporary pause on evictions between 11 December and 11 January 2021.
england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/

There's a backlog of evictions and the government has said that evictions because of antisocial behaviour or domestic abuse will be prioritised.

Your landlord is deluding himself if he thinks he can force you out by Christmas. That, or he's trying to intimidate you. As, by the sounds of it, is the lettings agent.

It's illegal for your landlord to:

harass you
lock you out of your home, even temporarily
make you leave without notice or a court order

Illegal eviction is a criminal offence.

england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/eviction/what_you_can_do_after_illegal_eviction