Becoming homeless for my dream job

[ForTidyFinch]

I've been offered and ideal job in the town where I currently live but my short term tenancy is due to end in a couple of weeks. I have tried everything to find a new place to live. There is nothing available in this small town and I have no friends or family living close enough to help. I have decided to start the job and then live in my car. I've reached a desperate point now where I think there is little chance of me being able to rent privately even if something does become available. A run of bad luck has drained my finances and a CCJ was taken out against me without my knowledge (for overstaying in a service station when my car was broken down!) This was taken out while I was living abroad and I have only just found out. So there goes the chance of renting privately. So the choice I see it is being homeless and destitute staying with relatives or living in my car and starting this interesting job opportunity. I think I will live in my car. WWYD

But it's not mobile?

Do you have a degree by any chance? Even if you do not, one option to be would be to forget this job for now, and start applying for TEFL positions abroad (somewhere with decentish wage but low cost of living) that start ASAP. Exaggerate your suitabiltiy if necessary. Live in your car for the time being and then sell it as/when necessary to purchase flight tickets, and given you a few hundred quid to tie you over until first pay day. Perhaps friend/family could also give you a short loan. Save as much as you can and get sorted financially, then come back in 2/3 years.

I’m on lunch so haven’t RTFT and apologies if it’s already been mention, but speak to Shelter.

If you are being evicted and made homeless, you need to go through the proper process so the council will house you. This means staying in your current property until bailiffs attend to remove you. Do not move out on the date given if you have nowhere else to go.

Call Shelter.

You could email you MP, they are there to help their constituants and they may be able to help you.

You’ve said you’ve already decided to start the job and live in your car, and you’re shutting down all suggestions. Please just be aware that you’re very vulnerable sleeping in a car.
When you start your job you could ask your new colleagues if anyone has a spare room they could rent to you for a short while. You don’t need to explicitly say you’re homeless or sleeping in your car, you can just say that you urgently need a room for a few weeks because of a tenancy ending and difficulty starting a new one. If there’s a notice board you could put up a notice. The CCJ won’t matter if you’re essentially just asking to stay in someone’s house or flat for a short while. You wouldn’t be entering into a tenancy agreement, just an informal arrangement. I’ve had to do this and was offered something very quickly by a friend of a workmate. A mattress on a floor wasn’t ideal but have me time to find something longer term.
Since your current tenancy is about to end and you don’t have anywhere to go, you’re legally homeless. Contact the council housing department and tell them. They have a duty to help you and might provide emergency accommodation. Not asking means not getting anything at all and not getting on waiting lists.
You could also ask local churches. A friend of mine was put up in a spare room for a few weeks by one of the clergy.
People are generally very keen to help in situations like this. Most people would be horrified to think of a co-worker, a lone woman, sleeping rough when they have at least a bit of floor they could offer in their home.

OP on the postal address point, maybe this lax attitude to thinking about why would you need one, and then with regard to redirecting post or have it opened by a relative when you are abroad, is why you got the CCJ in the first place rather than being able to challenge it in the first place when the parking invoice was sent, when the court forms were sent, and rather than having the opportunity to pay it off in full at the point of judgment so that you didn't get a CCJ logged against you? They may have made mistakes, and this could help you.

Have a look here with regard to how to deal with your CCJ situation and get further advice from Citizen's Advice, a free/cheap legal clinic or a solicitor as needed:

www.gov.uk/county-court-judgments-ccj-for-debt/cancel-the-judgment

Also get reputable advice about how to check your credit file and how to get a suitable note put on your credit file about this in the meantime. It will help if you've paid it off. And how to otherwise build your credit score over time so that in every other respect it's good.

You need to look at insurance issues if you are sleeping your car. The DVLA and your insurer are going to need the actual details of where you are keeping the vehicle overnight, and a postal address for your vehicle documents and your driving licence (even if you get this stuff by email they still need a useable postal address for you especially as the DVLA information will be used for any speeding or parking notices, bounced payment notices, and so on). I don't know the insurance situation with sleeping in your car regularly, but you need to find that out.

I think that you’re being really brave here, you’re not in an easy situation and you’re trying to find a solution.

Depending on the job, I’m wondering whether it might be possible to work from home one day per week.

Thinking about how this lifestyle would look, I feel like 4 nights a week in the car with 3 at your parents/friends would be a lot lot more doable than living in the car all of the time. If you could work from home on a Monday or Friday then you could make that happen.

That setup would also allow you to think about a bnb room or Airbnb (message the owner last minute and ask for a cheap rate) on weeks when the weather is forecast to be bad because it’s not the prime weekend days.

In my opinion your priority here needs to be getting your car fixed (or changing it for a working one) so that you can move around if needed. Can you ask friends or family to help you with the cost of fixing the car?

Im also wondering whether it would be worth putting on Facebook that you’re looking for a room to rent from 1st September for a year and see if anyone suggests something? I think that the whole plan will be a lot less stressful if it’s got a clear end date to it, and quite a few people might be glad of the rent from September onwards even if they don’t want to give up the peak August weeks.

I'm usually in favour of people (especially people without other commitments and responsibilities) doing rather 'out there' things to get into their dream industry, but I am not sure that your plan is going to work out for many of the reasons given in the thread already. Unless this is a temporary dream job of a few months' duration where you'll be moving on before winter, otherwise you are just going to continue to have worse housing issues in the winter and your CCJ will stay on your file for 6 years from when it was put on there unless you can get it removed, so this is not a temporary problem.

You could ask your new employer if there is anyone in the company or that they know of who would have a room to rent (do not say "tent to pitch" or anything about your car and beware that in this rural area news may travel fast about enquiries about the tent or rooms (no bad thing) but also if have been seen or heard talking about sleeping in your car, which may go down less well.

You should ask every hotel, B&B, landowner, farm and campsite in the area if they have a space for (your car?), your tent, or any pokey little room e.g. with a non-ensuite or that needs improvement, that they are currently not letting out but would let to you.

                             <strong> &gt;&gt;Not everyone is online!! &lt;&lt; </strong>

People often like to meet the person they are thinking of renting to or helping, to size you up. Put up cards in local shops and use word of mouth as well as social media and room renting sites. Write actual letters to put through doors, gather some character references and previous landlord's references in both email and paper format for accommodation, do the same for your offer as well, and carry them on you ready to hand out when you are approaching people who want to know more before considering. Be careful with cold, damp, mould, fire though, of course, don't take somewhere that is unsafe.

https://www.mondaytofriday.com/

Also look here, it's for people who want to rent a room out to professional people during the working week for up to 5 nights, but have their home to themselves at the weekend.

Also - what type of dream job is it? If you could get it in a small town (where to be honest people will see/know about someone living in their car) then, i'm pretty sure you could get this dream job somewhere where you could have a safe/ warm roof over your head. It also concerns me that you are living in a car which doesnt even work :(

If a soon to be employee came to me and said they were living in a car I'm not sure I'd either be able to help or would refrain from judging them to be honest. It sounds chaotic and an odd thought process and would make me wonder what they were going to be like as an employee.

Any campsites or caravan sites in the area? You could at least book a few weeks while you get yourself sorted out. Someone will take you on as a lodger. They won't ask if you've got any CCJs.

Would you, I see your point but I’d be horrified to be honest, I would wonder what had happened to them where this was there only option and be concerned about the fact I’d employed a homeless person and what this meant for the business, and also , if I’m honest, about their mental health, or ability to manage life that it had come to this.

If a soon to be employee came to me and said they were living in a car I'm not sure I'd either be able to help or would refrain from judging them to be honest.

I'm not sure anyone suggested that the OP actually tells the employer they were considering or doing this, did they? Especially before formally accepting the job. Accept the job first OP if you're going to.

But to address the point made above, given how many young people (and people in general) are having so much trouble finding and keeping places to rent, and having enough money coming in, I don't think it's helpful for employers to make that a barrier to employment when not being able to get employment because of your living or financial circumstances is what leads them or keeps them in those circumstances in the first place! It's not necessarily anything to do with being chaotic, although it can be. It is a pretty typical attitude from an employer though.

If you turn up clean, on time, and capable of carrying out your job properly, that is what should count.

Most employers would. And more to the point they wouldn’t be able to help. I don’t know what the people shouting at the OP to tell her employers think the employees will be able to do.

Where are you approx, op? People might know of local solutions if you can say which county, for example.

Exactly. Most employers don't just have a random pot of money available to spend on housing a new employee, nor do they have access to special resources to get OP accommodation.

I'd also echo PP who are saying that "unemployed and living in a car" is a huge red flag for most employers, unfortunately.

Chaos.

What’s the job/field.

The point about specifying it's for a year or maybe even just 6 or 9 months is a good idea - you may find someone with a room who doesn't want to commit longer term yet but has a child going to uni this September, or is just divorced or widowed, and the offer of some cash from someone responsible would be of help. Especially if you go to your family when not working. Thinking about it, I have a friend who found their long term rental room by word of mouth and the landlord is a divorcee who couldn't really afford the mortgage for the home they wanted to buy without taking on a lodger. I have a family member who rented out a room in their house (but not the whole house) while they were themselves away studying most of the time but wanted to come back for some weekends and study weeks and Christmas holidays and not rent out the full home - they got a neighbour to check on the house/lodger when away, to begin with. Both of those agreements were based on academic years in the first instance, the first one turned into a longer term thing, the other was terminated when they moved back full time, as agreed.

You could camp for a bit. At least you can sleep properly and shower.

We are not shouting at the OP to talk to the employer. It could be good advice. How to approach this and whether to do it before or after accepting the job offer it is very dependent on specifics we don't have.

I know people who work in an industry where the contracts are often short and away from home for days through to months, and don't always come with accommodation provided. Talking to people (as well as online connections) within that industry is how they manage to find places to stay and how the whole thing works!! Some people here don't understand how some industries are, especially for younger people trying to get on in them, and so while this type of problem may seem normal to you, it could be in what the OP wants to do.

There are some other issues described that are making the OP sound a bit chaotic but be honest, did everyone posting here have no problems at all with money or housing or trying to get their foot in the door or all 3? The housing crisis is much more acute than it used to be, and help with finding and paying for housing much less generous.

You must be responsible about your car though OP and do everything you can not to appear chaotic in the workplace and in general moving forward.

Op, I'm so sorry you are in this situation. I echo people saying you should stay at a campsite. They have showers and if anyone finds out you can just claim you're living a nomadic lifestyle instead of being homeless...

There is also workaway website, where you can find people willing to provide free accommodation in exchange for a few hours of work a day. Take a look if there is anything in your area.

At the risk of sounding like a snob, I'm not sure I would want someone who is homeless staying in my house...

Agree with @DontBiteTheCat about going through the right process with this tenancy etc.

You seem to be ignoring the one rule that fits all in these situations which is presenting yourself as homeless to social services/council so you can be housed one way or another.

That's confusing.

Occam's razor says you either want to try living in your car to give it a go and just was a bit of cheerleading for that
OR there's more that you're not saying which impacts your reason for not going for help from the services there to provide it.

WWYD wasn't really a relevant question as it does seem that none of the suggestions are of interest.

You have secured you dream job - brilliant and genuine congratulations
You can present as homeless and be housed but you won't. Why?