AIBU? Council repairs leaving my 86-year-old mum with nowhere suitable to live

[WhiteWinePls]

I am my mum’s full-time carer. She is 86 and has lived in her council home for all of her life. She has agoraphobia. That home has now fallen into such a dangerous state that it is uninhabitable while major repairs are carried out — likely for around 6 months.

The council’s “solution” has been to offer temporary accommodation that is completely unsuitable for her, given her needs. My mum, who has paid rent faithfully for decades, is being left with nowhere safe to go. At her age, with her health, this upheaval feels cruel and frightening. They’ve adopted a ‘like it or lump it’ position with no negotiation.

I have managed to find a flat that would keep her safe and stable until she can return home. I can also stay with her to provide the full-time care she needs. The problem is that the landlord is asking for 6 months' rent up front plus a deposit, and I do not have that kind of money as I am a full-time carer.

AIBU to ask if anyone has advice on where to turn — such as charities that could help or schemes like Discretionary Housing Payments — I would be so grateful. Also has anyone ever tried setting up a fundraiser in this situation, and do you think this would be appropriate here?

Grateful for any advice. Thank you.

Tell me you haven't tried to navigate LA Housing, ASC and hospital for elderly people recently without telling me....

It's brutal, labyrinthine, needlessly bureaucratic and can make people feel suicidal. Ask me how I know.

@MistressoftheDarkSide you get it. Sorry if you have been in the same situation.

I have viewed the photos now
The Council should be investigating the rat/pest issues

What is it that's unsuitable about the accommodation offered? Is there a way it could be adapted to be more suitable? Sounds like a really tough situation.

As your Mum is in hospital access the social workers etc that are available when she is ready for discharge they have a duty of care to make sure where she is discharged to is safe. If the temporary property is not suitable they will liaise with the council around this. However it must be a need for not being suitable and not a want.

I am not trying to be unsympathetic - but. If the house needs major repairs as you say, she cannot remain in the property when those are being carried out. We are coming into autumn - the Council have to rehouse if the house will potentially have no heating, hot water, electricity...

I am sorry your mother is unwell but I really can't see that the Council are doing anything wrong here. Would residential care be an option?

I am wondering whether only elderly mum is the actual tenant and so accommodation offer is for her only and not OP.
Agree with those advising they need to accept the offer as may lose tenancy if go into private rented.

Not due to her housing issue but due to her being suicidal.

She's already lost her health.
She's losing her home too.
And almost all her possessions, except those she can fit in a small room.
She's lost her daughter's constant company, possibly for the first time ever, if OP never moved out.
She'll know she's facing a care home, which may give her concerns or fears.
And with a care home comes the loss of any residual hope (however futile in reality) that she'll ever return to anything resembling normal life.

I think that's enough to make anyone suicidal, don't you?

@PinkCampervan thank you for understanding ❤️

I've been wondering this too.

OP be aware that this may complicate matters. If you leave without being evicted by bailiffs you could be deemed voluntarily homeless. If you keep paying rent and don't leave they may never do the repairs. You might be better off securing that private rental you found, if you can. Depends on your attitude to risk and how much you want a council flat (and how much you're likely to get one). Losing that private rental then finding out several weeks or months later that you're ineligible for temporary housing might be a disaster, especially if you don't have a job or even a car.

Why is the other accommodation unsuitable? Genuinely, answering this may get you more targeted help, dodging it repeatedly makes you look dubious.

The hospital will not keep someone in for months whilst they are getting house repairs. They will discharge to temp accommodation or even to street homelessness if treatment is completed and suitable housing options are refused. I have known people in their 80s get discharged to hotels and B&Bs.

You haven't though! You said you would quote in future, but at least twice more you have just quoted the persons name yet again and not the info/question they asked!

Bottom left of each post has a 'quote' button. Press that before replying to people please- then we all have half a clue as to what question you are answering.

Why aren’t you answering anyone that are all asking the same question? Why was the temporary accommodation unsuitable?

A lot of people on this thread should consider themselves lucky that they’ve never needed a council/housing association house. I know loads of people in similar situations and most councils are extremely slow and disinterested in any repair work, a private landlord would be prosecuted if they did the same.

I agree. Moving back into the private rented sector from LA housing means you go to the bottom of the list for rehousing into social housing. And because there's such a lot of pressure on social housing, councils can't afford to have a pool of empty properties to decant people into while they do major repairs. Lots of councils have to lease private sector properties to house homeless families who would otherwise be in B&Bs.

It's an utter disgrace that the council allowed the property to get into such a state that repairs can't be done while tenants are in situ imo.

Why is the accommodation they’ve offered her unsuitable

@WhiteWinePls as above, why is temp unsuitable? Is it because it's over 65 sheltered housing so only 1 bed and no space for guests?
Has she really been reporting repairs for 20 years and they've done nothing?

How on earth did the council pass the property for gas safety with a broken gas pipe ffs?

Start the complaints procedure and take it all the way to the Ombudsman. This sounds absolutely disgraceful.

If she is in hospital now then the hospital discharge planning team will help her to achieve a safe discharge. They can’t help with renting a private flat I’m afraid but at 86 with mobility problems they would likely arrange a temporary care home placement. This is by far the easiest thing to do and happens quite a lot when old frail people don’t have a suitable place for discharge. Have you spoken to the hospital discharge planning?

Councils get prosecuted too! Well, they certainly used to. I used to work for a solicitor who took a lot of disrepair cases against a London council.

But how has the house become uninhabitable? Whose responsibility is it to maintain council houses?

Sorry @PinkCampervan YOU’RE wrong here according to Shelter. Tenants are responsible for damage caused by their or their visitors’ own neglect. Landlords may be responsible for fixing the damage, but tenants can be billed for it.

england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/repairs/landlord_and_tenant_responsibilities_for_repairs

I just think the house is a red herring. She’s 86, bedbound, frequently hospitalised and living in squalor. She needs to go into a care home surely and be looked after properly. On the pictures posted on the previous thread there was horrible disrepair certainly but also it looked insanitary. Some of it was a cleanliness issue which is the tenants responsibility.

You really do need to answer why the accommodation offered is unsuitable.

if your mother leaves her council house for private rented she may be deemed to have given up her tenancy.

You should seek advice from shelter as well.