to expect the council to house us even though DH is sshh ..... working!!

[EverSoSlightlyStressed]

Landlord has a court order for possession which runs out tomorrow. Council have basically said we will have to wait for the court bailiffs to physically kick us out and then go to them with our stuff in binbags before they will provide us with anything even emergency housing which is quite a stressful thought . It could be that we have no more than 7 days until we get kicked out depending on how long it takes for the LL to arrange the bailiffs to come. Obviously I have no problem with the LL wanting us out and feel terrible that he has been forced to take us to court but it is the only way the council will help us.

BTW we are not feckless or scroungers! We have 4 DCs - youngest 2mnths old. DH works around 48 hours a week and has a relatively good wage. We are not entitled to tax credits (child benefit only) and have struggled with the massive amount we have to pay in private rent but scraped by without too much hassle. LL decided to sell house last year, we knew we would have problems renting again as we are both had to go bankrupt (1 year ago) since we moved into this house so our credit is shot and no chance of ever having a mortgage again . Current letting agents said they would not be able to rent to us again because of this as we have no one to be guarantor even though they have had no problems with us and nor will any other agent. There are no properties being advertised by individuals that would not need a credit check round here (except for shared house rooms) and anyway all 3 bed properties are like gold dust so we are in deep shit!!

The council keep telling us that as DH works we should find our own property. We keep telling them that we can't for reasons detailed above. It seems that if he was not working and we were on benefits, they would bend over backwards to help but as he is a taxpayer, they will not do anything. Is it me or is this a bit arse about face??

IMHO, many people are going to be "wasting" a whole lot of money over the next decade or more, paying off stupidly huge mortgages on properties which are no longer "worth" what's owing on them. And tht's just those who can afford to actually pay their mortgages.

I hate that attitude. I would far rather rent, tbh, but I would like a long lease, and to be able to decorate etc. Rather than feeling like visitors half the time.

In Germany, renting is really easy - long leases, pets, it's considered your home while you are there paying rent - it doesn't feel quite that way here. The almost universal 6 month/ 1 year contracts don't help with the temporary feeling.

£1200 would be more than my monthly income, the thought of paying that amount of money on rent seems like a waste - but then, sat in my lovely housing association house, I guess that the rent I do pay is a huge bargain compared to the private lets in the area which are £200 a month more.

I also cannot imagine living in an area where £1200 would seem reasonable rent for a property!

Rent isn't always waste soemtimes its by far the best option

Hd we not sold the last house and cleared all our debts when dh got sick we'd be bankrupt, renting is better IMVHO than leaving people we owed money to out of pocket.

The house was also too small and we needed to move anyway.

Once you are in rented its hard to pay rent and save for a deposit so one eprsons waste becomes a necessity.

I'd rather own aginn of course, but only with the clear conscience I have which would have been impossible

Sarah - you cant imagine living in lots of parts of London in a house then sadly...

I'm the same as bigweehag - dont mind the renting - we are renting a lovely house which would need a lottery win to buy but wish I could decorate and have a long lease...

That's us too Omni

Were I to describe my dream house it would be this with an extra room.

Were we to buy (assuming Dh pre redundancy income) we'd maybe have a really run down house miles from where we need to be with far less space than we actually need

No brainer

Plan long term is for us to buy a 2 bed, rent it out then move in when we retire. We can afford that if we both work, whilst anything bigger here is regarded as v v v desirable and out of our league

Well have now been offered a newly refurbished 3 bedroom house with garden and parking as temporary accommodation from the council. Will move in next Thursday. It will be rented through a property management agency the council uses so we will have to pay full rent (£900) but we will be still be classed as being in 'emergency accommodation' so will also be upped to Band 2 on the housing list and will be able to bid on council properties immediately. Most properties seem to go to Band 2 applicants and they do have 3/4 bed houses here so we should be sorted paying less than £400 a month for a similar sized house within a few months which we won't get kicked out of - bliss! This is a small town with only one tower block of flats in the whole area. The council area which are mostly terraced houses are not that bad at all and will do for us for few years until our luck changes for the better hopefully.

To those of you judging me and saying how could you let you kids live in a hostel - it would never have come to that. Our council does not put families with DCs into B&B's or hostels and I knew that so they were never at risk thank you very much!! We have done the best thing for the long term security of a roof over our heads albeit extremely stressful but the DCs are not aware of anything.