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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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

332 replies

EverSoSlightlyStressed · 22/03/2010 11:18

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??

OP posts:
ShadeofViolet · 22/03/2010 14:28

QS - My DH has two properties that he rents out to students and we had a similar experience in one house (except the benefit fraud). It took four months of hard graft to get the house livable again and it was a nightmare - 8 months without rent but with a mortgage to pay. Before that I think he wanted to expand his 'empire' but I think that its left such a bad taste in his mouth that he has lost the energy.

AnyFucker · 22/03/2010 14:28

hey, I am brown

will I do ?

I will add you to my little merry band of happy, nice people frolicking with fluffy lambs

StewieGriffinsMom · 22/03/2010 14:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

LadyBiscuit · 22/03/2010 14:30

Sorry SGM - should have sent out an All Points Bulletin first thing this morning

Morloth · 22/03/2010 14:31

That really sucks QS, we have been sooooo lucky with our tenant. She moved in 5 years ago and the house looks better than when I was in charge.

Great tenants are like gold dust, if/when you do find one hold onto them with a vice like grip - much the same as good landlords!

We like ours so much we are going to rent somewhere else in the same suburb before we buy a new house in order not to lose her.

tethersend · 22/03/2010 14:32

Someone once said to me that we are all controlled by aliens who have implanted microchips in our brains.

Unbelievably, I chose not to state it as fact on a website.

I'll know better next time.

JackBauer · 22/03/2010 14:32

You know mp wil be misquoted on The Wright Stuff tomorrow don't you?

(even though she is quite right)

[Cassandra]

Morloth · 22/03/2010 14:32

Well I am not brown but I am foreign so I think that means I trump you AnyFucker.

Tiredmumno1 · 22/03/2010 14:32

Well the foreign friends that i do have are as nice as the next person. I didnt say it personally affected me where a person is from, far from it actually

tethersend · 22/03/2010 14:33

What about gingers?

Do we get further up the list?

tethersend · 22/03/2010 14:34

"Well the foreign friends that i do have are as nice as the next person"

Tiredmumno1 · 22/03/2010 14:34

So tether your gonna jump in at the end of a convo and try firing the argument up again. Thats clever

JaneS · 22/03/2010 14:34

Just to be serious, Tiredmummo1, you might not know just how difficult it can be to be a resident alien in this country, let alone an asylum seeker. There are lots and lots of measures in place to make sure that these people don't get preferential treatment over British citizens (as there should be). But because these measures are there, claims that 'foreigners' (ie. resident aliens?) are getting all the housing sound quite suspect to me. It looks like racism to many people when you say that, because we know that the system is designed precisely so the opposite will happen. So when I read you saying things like this, I assume that you're either repeated incorrect info, or that you have a slightly shaky grasp of what defines somebody as a foreigner.

mumofaboy · 22/03/2010 14:35

OP, the council will house you even if you are working.

However, they won't do so until you are 'unintentionally homeless', i.e. once the bailiffs have been round and you are offically on the streets (this is pretty standard and for those having a go at the OP, if she wants council housing this is the only way so she was right to let things go through the courts). And you'll have to go to the back of the queue, so it'll be B&B for a while, then temporary accommodation for up to (maybe over) a year.

YANBU to expect to be housed. YABU to expect it straight away.

ShadeofViolet · 22/03/2010 14:35

Oh I hope so Thethers - I am ginger and DH's Dad was a foreigner, making DH a half foreigner!

Scardypants · 22/03/2010 14:35

Tether

Morloth · 22/03/2010 14:36

I am strawberry blonde - so does that count as foreign and ginger?

Morloth · 22/03/2010 14:37

We are going to need a chart or something.

tethersend · 22/03/2010 14:37

Ha! Trump you, Violet- I am ginger and DP is French, so we win council housing! Yay!

Sorry tiredmum- Permission to join a thread on a public forum, please

LadyBiscuit · 22/03/2010 14:38

I am foreign but not brown. But I am a single parent. Surely I deserve a few extra points for that?

AnyFucker · 22/03/2010 14:39

foreign trumps brown ?

I don't think so, missy Morloth

I'll fight you for it, Jeremy-Kyle style

I think tiredmum might appreciate that

onagar · 22/03/2010 14:39

It's no good I have to say it. Tiredmumno1 may well be racist, but IF council rules did give priority to recent immigrants then disapproving of those rules would not necessarily be racist.

I have no idea what the council rules ARE now. I would assume they would give priority to everyone who is actually homeless, jobless, penniless and without any friends to stay with. That would include 100% of immigrants I would think (the kind who are fleeing stuff not those moving for other reasons). So it would probably would out that way (but not BECAUSE they were immigrants as such)

As for the OP I've been homeless myself and if I'd had their sizeable income it would have been a damn sight easier. I've slept in the street (briefly) and in filthy B&Bs. Where I lived they mainly existed to house homeless. They overcharged for the privilege knowing it didn't matter how bad they were because all their customers were desperate.

Most of the places I use to live were like Expat describes. Drug dealers/users stealing cars, breaking into flats (including mine) and partying all night.

So while I realise it can be harder than it looks if LLs are expecting references/credit checks they don't seem to be going about it the right way and expecting too much from others and not enough from themselves. It's a tough world out there.

Morloth · 22/03/2010 14:39

Folds, I can't beat single parent.

AnyFucker · 22/03/2010 14:41

I am a brown, foreign, single parent with ginger pubes...

do I win ?

Tiredmumno1 · 22/03/2010 14:42

Grow up