...to be furious with my landlord and very worrued.....

[rockmum80]

.....i have lived in my house for nearly 4 years and been reasonably happy here apart from my landlord being a bit rubbish where upkeep of the house is concerned, ie when things go wrong (and often do) he can't be arsed to fix them, the house is damp, my garage and shed is full of his junk, and we have not had a gas safety certificate done for 3 years! and thats just a few of the things that are wrong with it.

anyway, out of the blue last week i got a letter saying he will be increasing the rent as from december 1st. he wanted to increase it by around 20% - this would effectively cost me an extra weeks rent a month. i am a single mum of 2 on housing benefit and when i spoke to them they refused to pay the extra so there was no way i could find it out of my own pocket as i can barely afford to live as it is.

so i wrote back to him straight away perfectly politely and said i did not think the increase was fair especially in light of all the things that need doing to the property. and explained that the housing benefit would not pay out what he was asking, but i did say that if i absolutely had to, i would somehow find the money, and pay more out of my own pocket if these things were done.

and today, i get a letter back from him saying he is ending my tenancy as from the 31st of january!!!!!! giving no reasons or anything!! but i am pretty sure it is just because i am giving him a hard time over the rent increase and he was expecting me to be a walkover.

OMG i am furious!!! not to mention worried as hell. has anyone ever had to deal with anything like this before?? do i have any rights?? and how the hell am i going to find a new place within 2 months?? i am not working at the moment as my youngest is only 6 months old, i dont know how this will all work. i am so worried.

and please no one slate me for being on housing benefit / single mum either; this is not a situation i want to be in (i was married, exh walked out on us, long story) and i do want to start working again once my youngest is a bit older.

sorry this is complicated and long. would really appreciate some advice i am new to mumsnet as well, so apologies if this is not in the right bit.

Rockmum this happened to me last year. The landlord hoiked the rent up by £400 per month so obviously I didn't sign the new contract and had to find somewhere else to live.

It ended up with no where being affordable, so I went on the housing list but had to stay in my house past the end of the tenancy and get evicted otherwise the council would class me as being voluntarily homeless so wouldn't help rehouse me.

So I had to go through the awful trauma of being evicted, then being put in temporary awful housing, where I stYED FOR FOUR MONTHS UNTL SOMETHING CAME AVAILABLE AND i WAS REHOUSED BY A HOUSING SOCIETY.

It was long and drawn out and stressful but well worth it in thr end as I can now afford to pay my own rent without housing benefit, while working and being a single mum, and I know I will never be evicted out of the blue and the rent will always be affordable.

When I was housed in temporary accomodation it was just an old flat, not a b&b or hostel or anything.

It was very old and dank and damp and cold, had a prepayment meter for gas that was so expensive we never put the heating on, and it was miles form DS's school and my work, so it was very horrible and stressful but now that it is over I hardly remember it, so it was worth it in the long run.

Go to the council tomorrow to get the ball rolling.

We were evicted for pretty much the same reasons when I was eight months pregnant with DS3. It was really stressful, as the Council said we had to stay until the landlord actually got the court order to evict us, leaving early would have meant making ourselves homeless and thus they wouldnt have accepted any responsibility for helping us! However, the Court were really understanding of our position, didn't award any costs to him, and made him pay the fees (about £200), which they could have asked us to pay. Also, because the actual rent agreement had expired we didnt have to pay any rent in the two months it took him to get us taken to court. We then spent nine months in a temp flat, on the other side of town from everything we knew, but then were lucky to get a brand new Housing Assoc house. I'm not sure we would receive similar if this happened now, we would probably be helped by the Council into another private rented house, but they would know the landlord would accept LHA, the land lord would have to be accredited, and they would mediate with any problems once we were in. They would even help with deposit and first month rent if we were on certain benefits.I would really recommend you make the Council your first enquiry point, and check out your options with them. Good Luck!

Some councils (like mine) now run a bidding system too - all available properties are published fortnightly and you bid with your points (those homeless with kids mostly have the highest)

This system worked well for us - we won a house almost immediately, before our official notice was up and without needing temporary accomodation. We did bid on an area we knew, but knew not many liked which helped, but we were lucky that it was mostly a positive experience.

I love my council house. I feel secure, I feel happy, I can decorate etc as I wish, but have a landlord on hand to fix things - all at a cheap rent. It means I can work part time and still afford the rent too.

Ok if you normally work then the council will probably suggest you go back into private rented if you agree. You don't have to, you can apply for council housing, but that would be a long and tricky process (although better in the long run in some ways). When I was on mat leave we claimed HB and found a letting agent who were happy to let to us with a guarantor, as I was going back so it wasn't hopeless.
The housing dept met with us and they could have helped us with the deposit guarantee scheme if we didn't have the deposit, but that limits where you can rent.

You can apply for a crisis loan (0%apr) to pay the first month's rent and moving costs but be very careful if you apply to do it right, as they turn it down if you apply slightly wrong and you can't reapply for the same thing. !st month rent not deposit and moving costs only with two written quotes from companies.

Our letting agent reduced the rent and the deposit, and it's a lovely flat, landlords are a bit desperate. Yours is a twat for doing this, he's likely to end up with an emply flat for a while, preferable to a reliable tenant how?

Also if you haven't found anywhere in time you can stay put, it takes about 4 months to get a possession order from court and you can continue to pay him rent in the meantime, then just bugger off when you find somewhere.

You'll do it, it's awfully stressful I know but you can!

just wanted to say thank you again for all the great advice, went to the council today but ended up having to leave before i saw anyone as i didnt get there till 1, and was stil waiting at half 2 and had to pick my oldest up from school at 3.

so am going back first thing tomorrow morning as soon as they open and if i have to wait all bloody day i will do!!!

it was a joke, there was only about 3 advisors and about 20 people waiting.

didnt realise how busy it would be. -naive emoticon-

rockmum i agree difinitely go to the council, we were in a hostle for 2 months it was shit but we got through it and now we have a lovely 2 bed house DP has finally gone back to work after loosing his job and we can afford the rent of a council house where as before we had noting left at the end of the month.
Good luck!

How did you get on? was it positive?