Potentially could become homeless and don’t know what to do

[89719lu]

When I first moved into my house it was affordable. I’m on a low income, UC pay my housing element. A year ago, my landlord put up the rent again. Was a struggle but managed to get by. In June last year it went up again and this time was £125 shortfall over my housing element amount. This is not manageable for me at all.

I have been looking for another job and so far found nothing. I’m a single parent with a young child.

I started receiving discretionary housing payments but they’ve now stopped. I applied again and was turned down and now I’m really struggling to make up the amount.

landlady has messaged me to say she’s putting the rent up once again in June and I already can’t afford it.

I just don’t know what to do. Does anyone know where I can turn for advice?

No cheaper houses in the area and this one is very cold old drafty house. Spending loads on heating bills too on prepayment meter. Landlady also not keeping up with repairs/maintenance and has been quite rude and awful to me every time I’ve seen her. Also has been asking me to do repairs that were already like it when I. Moved in and I have photo evidence of this with time stamps.

Really struggling to know what to do

I think Shelter is your first stop. They may have advice about the repairs issue as well as the money issue.

You need to contact Citizens Advice. https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/contact-us/contact-us/contact-us/

They can advise on your housing situation and check you’re getting all the benefits you’re entitled to.
Have a look at the link you should be able to get an appointment locally.

Speak to your local council environmental health department if she is not doing essential repairs. They can take enforcement action.

The housing situation is absolute disgraceful in this country, and the local housing allowances are a joke. Round these parts it’s £795 for a 3 bed property but I’ve never for years seen one below £1,000!

Ask Landlady to keep rent as it is because you can’t afford to stay if it goes up again, and would end up underpaying rent. All she can do is issue you a section 21 - which you can string out for months but also can use it to show the housing authority that you are facing eviction. Sounds like an unsuitable and overpriced place to live anyway!

The LHA will be going up in April(after being frozen for ages) so that will help a little but you have a landlord problem!

rent increases should be reasonable and repairs should be done.

apply to housing associations and see if you are eligible to apply for your council’s housing register.
if not- you will have no choice but to do what pp has said- get an eviction notice- wait for the bailiffs to evict. It’s a horrible situation to be in and horrible for landlords but it’s pretty much the only way the council will help you.

Make an appointment with the council housing team and speak to them. You need to know your options as you don’t want to make yourself intentional homeless by accident. Let them know without DHP you can’t make up the short fall now (or by June)
most likely you will have to wait to be evicted before they will help give you temporary housing. And or allow you to join the social housing register, not a quick fix could still take years depending on where you live.

Least with a child you will have a roof over your head somewhere. Having evidence of damp and unsafe conditions could also give you more points on housing list. I agree LHA is just a joke in most places now.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-housing-allowance-indicative-rates-for-2024-to-2025/indicative-local-housing-allowance-rates-for-2024-to-2025

if you look here it will give you the LHA rate for April 2024 gone up by 10-30% depending on areas. Might give you more of an idea as to what extra you will get in April

Thanks everyone. I will check out these links and contact Shelter. My landlady actually increased my rent by 11% last year. I’ve heard the maximum they are allowed to increase each year is 9%

I second getting an appointment with the council housing office. If they won’t help then try Shelter.

I really you get something worked out.

Go to citizens advice.
There are laws stopping landlords from taking advantage of tenants.
If you get an eviction notice then you can go to the council and be put on a priority list for a council house, may take a while (did for us) but because you have a child, you'll not be homeless even if they put you in a hotel temporarily.

There is no legal limit on the increase in private rent op, only social housing rent, I’m sorry.

@Jf20 thank you for confirming. I must have been given wrong information

However I never actually agreed to the rent increase. I told my landlady at the time that I couldn’t afford it and then it went up anyway so I’m not sure if that was right as I disputed it but she said there was nothing she could do and that it was going up

I’m so sorry to hear this OP @89719lu. I had a similar ish situation not too long ago, I called Citizens Advice who helped a lot, they also made sure I was calling Shelter. CA were great but the calls are long and the process takes time. But I would agree with other advice in stringing it out until a section 21 is served. By the way, rental increases should be inline with RPI. In the tenancy agreement I was in it stated minimum 3% and maximum 5% so 11% doesn’t sound right at all. Can I check was there a break clause or did she set up a new contract? If the tenancy agreement was fixed for a period the Landlady shouldn’t be able to raise the rent?

First of all, was notice of the rent increase served correctly?

Check here:

https://blog.openrent.co.uk/how-to-increase-the-rent-by-serving-a-section-13-notice/

As you'll see, you have the right to challenge the increase:

The tenant can challenge the rent increase. This is done by referring the increase to the first-tier tribunal (also known as the Property Chamber), which handles disputes over property and land. The tenant must do this before the starting date of the proposed new rent.
The tribunal considers the tenant’s application and decides what rent the landlord could expect if the tenancy were offered to the market on the same terms as those being offered to the tenant. The tribunal can order that the rent remain unchanged, be increased by a different amount, or even set a lower rent.

As mentioned, you should also seek help from Shelter, CAB and your LA housing office.

Regarding the inadequate/non-existent repairs, Shelter and the council's environmental health department should be able to advise.

Is ACORN active in your area? They're a kind of union for people who rent. As a last line of defense, they might be able to offer support for physically resisting eviction if becomes realistic. They're kicking up a stink in my area at the moment over an attempt to evict a disabled council tenant, getting his story into the papers and drumming up support

https://www.acorntheunion.org.uk/

I hope you can get something sorted, the rental situation is so bad. I was lucky enough to be able to get out of renting but I know people who can't, their experiences are upsetting