To think renting as single mum is horrific

[Blueysmum12]

My bff is a single mum to two young boys. She works in a nursery and gets universal credits. She has a small dog who she got when she split with her husband and is her baby.

she’s lived in the same house for 6 years, rent paid every month on time etc.

the owner is selling their house and obviously she has to move. Between us we have rang 40 properties in this town and surrounding villages. Not one will accept her because she’s either on in universal credits and she has a dog.

the council rang today and said they suggest she takes anything and rehomes her dog because they will put her in a bnb for around 8 months.

I would have her dog, but I have a cat and a dog and 3 kids already, my husband isn’t keen.

I feel so bad for her. She’s lost weight, she looks an anxious mess.

:(

@2bazookas
As for "karma".... I made very sure a long time ago, to make my own money and never have to depend on a man or his bank balance. God played no part in that so I've never needed to pretend to be holy.

I made sure too…until I was left for dead in a hit and run at age 39. Lost everything. Job, career, half my memories of my DC,…DH overnight became my unpaid carer lost his job/career too. While fighting through years of rehab with hope to work again (and 4 DC dependent in us), we were forced to sell the family home (which had only just recovered the value lost in the crash to what we’d paid for it, so no equity gained there) and back into renting. Will never own again even though I’m well enough for him to work PT although not myself.

I hope you can recognise that luck at least, has had a hand in where you are today.

It’s horrific. I was single parent with 2 DC, at the time I was working full time as a TA but also claiming tax credits and housing benefit. I’ll never forget the sneering, disdainful way I was spoken to by letting agents. “Of course there’s an affordability issue” said one, as soon as he found out I was a single parent but before he even knew what my job was. Another said, after I saw a house I really liked and put an offer in for the full rent “ they’ve decided they want a working family” 😮Then there were the landlords who would accept child maintenance as income but not tax credits, and vice versa.

I agree with whoever said get to know the agents, get them on your side. The agent who eventually found me my house was a lovely, understanding woman who was really nice to my DC and totally got my situation. She called me straight away as soon as something came up in my budget with a decent landlord. Also ask around on local Facebook groups etc to see if anyone is renting privately.

I finally managed to buy a place after my divorce was settled and I have never been so happy! I still think I was so lucky to get out of rented.

No, the deposit was about £6,000, so there was a shortfall.

This is why we now use it as a second home ourselves; large family homes like this don’t get a great yield, especially given the tax treatment, so this is the better option for us.

There does seem to be a very significant upward squeeze on rent though so we might look at renting it out again if the numbers make sense.

Well they've lied because that's illegal! No mortgage company would say such a thing!

Please please don't encourage her to lie about the dog. As someone with a pet hair allergy, I would need to know before visiting the property that there was an animal living there. If the landlord or agent have an allergy then it's a much more serious problem than having to redecorate or repair damage.

You're breaking the law then! It is now illegal to disregard somebody because they're on benefits

The accident of course is terrible luck, and an awful thing to happen, but choosing to have four children and then not to take out critical injury and insurance to enable your mortgage to be cleared was very much your choice.

We made the sacrifice to pay for this sort of cover until it was no longer needed, and fortunately it never was.

I’ve also been know to exceed the speed limit on the M1 occasionally, and will of course take my punishment if and when I’m found guilty. For that to happen if course we’ll first need to have someone on benefits ask to rent, which isn’t very likely.

This is why I didn’t own a dog til had own house -
Landlords really don’t like pets.

I too had to rehome a cat once. ( She lived on a Farm) because of a relationship break up, no way could I return to London with a cat trying to rent.
It was very painful.
Luckily Farmers Wife liked Tarragon the cat and kept her as a house cat.
A dog is much harder to rehome.

Bit shit for anyone who is permanently renting. No kids you cant ever have a pet because we cant afford to buy our own house.

Then do what Edinburgh is doing planning permission is required for any short-term lets with the council minded to refuse. At the moment AirBnB is limited to 90 days anyway.

You can’t knock rooms together, build a lift extension, or get it pebble-dashed either, but on the other hand you aren’t tied down, so can easily move, you don’t need to worry about replacing the boiler or redecorating, and know exactly how much you need to budget for your home for the period of your tenancy agreement.

There are pluses and minuses to renting; we’ve done both at different times and may well rent again in the future.

Well said!

I rented as a single parent on UC - it was a private rental. I wasn’t actually asked if I was on UC - was simply asked for my income which at the time was £22k per annum plus child benefit, child maintenance…

Also had a small well behaved dog…… which I kept secret from my landlord!!!! House didn’t smell, kept the garden immaculate, no damage to carpets - we just popped her to a friend/neighbours house every time I had an inspection

@ChelseaRobertsofMalibu its illegal to advertise ‘no DSS’ or ‘no benefits’ as it used to be. Realistically, landlords can pick whichever tenant they like. Tenancy referencing disregard certain benefits (child benefit for example) and quite often disregard benefits like housing allowance. They can also specify guarantors on an income of x36 the monthly rent.

So when you have two applicants, the one receiving benefits is going to have a lower affordability ratio than somebody not. The affordability ratio is a perfectly legitimate and lawful reason to select one applicant over the other.

I agree.
It’s really hard.
Some London flats ( Mortgaged) don’t allow pets either.
It’s because of noise issues I assume?
Barky dogs in million pound complexes?

Well not really. After all, if you subscribe to the idea of karma (I don’t) then maybe being stuck in a bad rental unable to buy is also karma in action.

Maybe it’s also the case that people such as the poster above wishing ill on others are just less likely to be able to hold down the sort of job that lets them afford to buy a nice house.

children do more damage than dogs

Not in my experience. V rare for children to chew furniture or skirting boards, and peeing on the carpet tends to be quite a limited phase. See also barking, shitting in the communal garden and fleas.

Well yes, if you want to give your children a pet during their childhood then make sure you are financially secure before having them??

@lisaJN1986 Seriously I would be banned if I said what I want to say to you.

This is all down to owners-My dog is parasite free, clean and house trained-
But not every dog is, hence problems.

People shouldn’t be forced to give up their animals, there needs to be more flexibility regarding pets, they are a lifeline to some people and why should people who rent be discriminated against? It’s not just dogs either, a lot of landlords don’t want to rent to those with children, would you say they should also hold off having children?
Everyone is entitled to a food over their head and right now our country is a complete embarrassment with the way people are treated and the mess we are in regarding the shortages of properties and the ridiculous increases in rent.
Families are being forced onto the streets and it’s appalling!

What a disgusting attitude. So nobody should ever have children if they are in low paid jobs? Someone has to do those jobs.

It does not have to be that low paid a job to not be able to afford to buy a house these days.

I don’t wish you ill 😂 and I do have a very good job and now own a house of my own. What I’m saying is, no one knows how life may turn out for them. I had to rent for a period when dcs were very little as I couldn’t get a mortgage on my part time wage. I saved like crazy to be able to do this. I never intended to be a single parent, have to rent etc but have rectified this. Not everyone will be so fortunate. You never know what life may throw at you, anyone can end up in a pickle. Life is not perfect no matter how well planned out