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

Agree a lot of the details don’t add up in this tale.

Thanks for the advice and link. No drowning my sorrows in the car at night!

Is the car registered to an address you'll have access to? So if someone reported it as abandoned you'd be able to respond explaining the situation before it gets towed away. This can happen even if it has an MOT and tax.

You can't sleep in your car anyway as you say yourself it's not roadworthy

It may have an MOT but if you can't actually drive it, it's not road-legal, is it?

I think most of us are concerned about the legality of what you are planning and whether you are going to walk into further fines/court summons. We are also concerned about the practicalities and long term effects on your health.

if I were your employer I would rather you turned up to work well rested as you would then perform better. If you withheld that information I think they’d be more risk to the job than explaining the situation and giving them the opportunity to help.

Thank you some posters here seem to think this is a crazy lifestyle choice. I'm hoping it will be for the summer at most maybe I'll be able to get a 'winter let' once holiday season is over. Maybe I am overthinking the CCJ. It felt the final nail in the coffin after a run of bad luck.

It might be people have already suggested this, but renting one room out in a family is popular around our university town, even with all the Air B and B's, many people want one regular lodger and not a series of different people- places to try are Facebook, Gumtree, and Monday to Friday (weeks only) and also Spare Room. Many students are also sub-letting their rooms this summer until the Sept term starts again in third week of Sept which would give you two months- these are mostly sublet on student forums, and there's 100's of them there is not a shortage of this due to students being made to pay the whole year but then returning home even internationally at this time of year.

I have looked for someone recently who is homeless and there's a lot of options, if you know where to look due to high churn for students and the lodger market (not tenants/rentals, which are much more competitive).

you can't just sleep in a randomly parked up unroadworthy car for weeks on end

Well not completely randomly but technically, if you are off road, have the permission of the owner of the land where you have parked it, aren't breaking any local by-laws, aren't under the influence of any alcohol or drugs illicit or prescribed that would mean you couldn't legally be in charge of a vehicle, have a valid driving licence, have informed the DVLA of a valid address for you as the licence holder and vehicle owner, have dealt with the SORN and any insurance issues, it seems you can.

It's seems that it is possible you can even do so parked legally on some residential side streets with valid tax, insurance and MOT certificate in a car that won't or shouldn't be driven anywhere but isn't unsafe while not moving.

You can also stop insuring your vehicle if you want to if it's declared SORN and you're not driving it at all, or change it to a cheaper 'third party fire and theft' insurance if you prefer.

See also
www.admiral.com/magazine/guides/motor/sorn-a-guide-to-insuring-your-car-if-its-off-the-road

Sorry haven't RTFT, so apologise if this has already been mentioned.

Contact your county court re the CCJ. Explain the reasons you have not received the paperwork, and request a form to have the judgment "set aside". In a majority of cases, the third party won't pursue the matter a second time, but in any case it removes the CCJ from your record, as you were unable to submit a defence to a case you knew nothing about.

Craigslist??

How can you have a CCJ and be talking about things in a very UK way but then mention Craigslist? You're getting all this helpful UK based advice but you're clearly not in the UK. Why not say where you are?

Unreasonable. You 100% cannot live in your car.

I don’t think its even ‘allowed’ in the UK is it? I know people in the US do it.

You need an address if you’re going to work and a roof over your head to stay healthy. Look in the local paper for lodging rooms to rent and place an ad yourself in the paper and local shops and leisure centre.

The local housing authority in my very touristy town has a list of people looking to take in a single lodger that isn’t advertised anywhere so go and ask there as well. Also a lot of large flatshares with ‘big’ landlords. Being employed is a condition for most of these options so don’t let this job slip through your fingers.

If it is taxed, MOTd, and insured then it is fine to be parked on the road.

My car blew it's injection system a month after passing an MOT needing nothing except a bulb replacing.

It had to sit outside my flat for four months while I saved up the £1000 to get it fixed. No issues at all.

OK which details don't add up ? Why on earth would I start a thread about becoming homeless. It turns out a few of you reported me to mumsnet just for having the temerity to start the thread asking for advice . There are some people who won't believe it as their lives are so far removed from a struggle to survive. I am a young degree educated woman with no substance or mental health issues and I am in this situation after a run of bad luck at a time when it is very hard to find a place to live. I never could have imagined I would ever be in this situation but here I am . Maybe why some posters are reacting angrily is because they don't want to believe that this is the state of our country now. There are many people in a worse situation than me - with disabilities, addiction, unemployment and not even a car to sleep in! I am trying to make the best of a bad situation without falling into despair. Please - those posters trying to deny this is real - don't invalidate my experience to make yourself feel better

It was me. I know exactly what the employers will be able to do because I work in HR and I have absolutely dealt with this situation before in different industries/with different employers !

The OP came here to ask for suggestions - people are drawing on their knowledge and experience to try and help, and it’s important to put out there that there are many alternatives to OP living in her car.

To be fair, there is a UK version of Craigslist covering some areas.

@ForTidyFinch

Alright, I can see why you’re upset and angry, but can you just answer why you’re talking about Craigslist if you’re in the UK?

Also living in your car seems like a very ‘American’ thing to do for a lot of us so some pp might be frustrated that they’re trying to help you and you’re actually in the USA.

It's seems that it is possible you can even do so parked legally on some residential side streets with valid tax, insurance and MOT certificate in a car that won't or shouldn't be driven anywhere but isn't unsafe while not moving.

The law says your car must be road legal though, and an MOT is no guarantee of that. What happens if the police tell her she needs to move on and she can't?

Right, so what can they do?

I would be very interested to know. I suspect it would be links to Shelters website and the local council.

Craigslist is in the UK. Google it.

You’re not doing yourself any favours with your snippy answers, OP.

I think what doesn’t add up is that no intelligent person would make themselves homeless for a job that doesn’t pay well, when they have the option of living with family or friends and looking for a different job. It’s very clear that living in a car is a terrible idea. This might be a dream job in theory but in practice it is not. If you can’t find somewhere (a building!) to live where you’ll be able to get to this job then you might just have to accept that realistically the job does not work for you at this point and need to look elsewhere.

She’s not being snippy, she’s upset. Either say something helpful or back off. Insulting people already stressed and upset isn’t a good look.

But in that scenario, your car was legally parked outside your own property, and more importantly, you weren't living in it.

Many areas have by-laws that mean you're not allowed to camp or live out of your vehicle long-term, or even temporarily - which means the police can (and do) move you on. If OP can't actually drive her car, what's she supposed to do in that scenario?

OP won't say her location (understandably) but it would be worth checking local council by-laws. Where I am (near a National Park) you would be asked to "move on" as you're not supposed to sleep in your vehicle overnight unless in a designated camping area, and even then there are limits on how long you can stay.

Don’t be pathetic. This is a public forum, I can say what I want.

I don't want any favours from people who just come here to snipe and invalidate my experience. One person jumps on one detail of my story to try to undermine it then others will jump on the same thing without even thinking. Just as you have. You could have googled Craigslist it would have taken seconds. Instead you decided to paint me as a liar based on the query of another poster. Now I am spending time replying to all these attacks being made in bad faith. Then I will be accused of not replying to practical suggestions. I won't be painted as a liar so have spent most of my time replying to those who are trying to undermine my story. It is a waste of everyone's time. Some people just love conflict online and will do anything to try and rile the OP. My problems are far worse than any nasty comments that you can throw at me so take your 'snippy'elsewhere