Terrified of losing children 😞

[charM89]

Okay here's my story any advice please...
I'm private renting, our landlord is evicting us for 2 reasons...
he's selling (no argument ofcourse I understand he needs/wants to sell)
ground 13- we have deteriorated the condition of the property (this one I'm arguing here's why)
We have lived in the property for 10 years, we have had many structual repairs that needed doing, I approached the landlord who told us that due to us not ventilating property it's caused the damp and mould.
I went and bought dehumidifiers, opened windows etc... cleaned all the mould off however the mould would always return!
I called environmental health round an improvement notice was served to the landlord, he was advised of every repair that himself as a landlord needed to fix!
However this was not followed up as the envirmental health officer at the time passed away.
However the landlord was still aware of the problems and chose to not do them!
I contacted environmental health again recently as the damp,mould and other issues were still not resolving no matter how much we cleaned the mould or using a dehumidifier.
A new improvement notice was served to the landlord.
He has now issued us with a section 8 notice using grounds 1a and 13 :(
Again I'm not arguing that he needs to sell, but ground 13 I find extremely unfair as most of the condtion of this property is down to him!
He is now also increasing our rent :(
Ofcourse there are days we forget to open windows and we don't always keep the home to a high level of cleaning, I have depression and anxiety (have done since my son passed) my partner is autistic our 4 year old is autistic and I have a typical teenager!
If we're found to be intentionally homeless due to ground 13 the council won't help us and we are passed to social services which could mean we lose our children :(

Hi, I work for the housing dept for my LA. We have a duty to report to Children’s Services if we place a family into TA. This does not mean that your children are going to be removed at all. In my experience 99.9% of the time there is no further action. I know it seems scary but it is standard procedure and guidance she should not put you off accessing their assistance if they accept duty.

i would also encourage you to contact Shelter for their help in navigating this

We maybe deemed as intentionally homeless :(

Which I don't understand as the landlord wants to sell anyway however he has used 2 grounds on the notice and one of the grounds could be us evicted and intentionally homeless

:(

While ground 13 can mean you are classed as intentionally homeless that is not always the case, it is an assessment done by the council and given the involvement of environmental health & improvement notices you can show you tried to rectify issues.

It's making me so unwell with worry my children are my world and the fact they could be taken away from me due to this is horrible :(

You have already been told on previous threads that they won't put your children in foster care. What more do you want from Mumsnet? You need legal advice!

Are you actively looking for places to rent OP?

Your children will not be taken away from you because of this issue. IF social care become involved it is solely the issue around housing (from your information), social care may not be able to support with this and would then close their involvement, or they may be able to support you with the housing element and could be useful in advocating on your behalf.

Everyday there's just nothing in our price range or that will accept a family of 4.

If we're found intentionally homeless my parents have said we can stay with them, however they only have a 2 bedroom so would be 4 adults and 2 children social services may not allow this :(

The council EH department will probably di a revisit to check he's done the work and if he hasn't they will slap a heavy fine on him.

Just wait and see what happens.

...and smile when nobody wants to pay full market value because of his penny pinching on routine repairs and maintenance.

I'm sorry. How stressful and unfair.

I'd recommend going back through messages and emails and making a list of when you contacted the landlord (and the authorities) about the mould and making screenshots.

Also make a note of the other measures you've taken to deal with it eg major cleans, cleaning habits, purchase of dehumidifiers and when they're switched on, how often windows are open and for how long etc.

Then, with all the information at your fingertips, ask Shelter for advice.

After that, contact the council. And if they're difficult, ask your MP to step in.

Shelter are excellent and give sound and helpful advice. And I'd mention that although it's hard for councils to find accommodation, foster carers are far harder to find.

I'd also be panicking in this situation, because even though losing the children is such a low probability it's almost zero, it's the stuff of which nightmares are made. But try to disengage the heart just for a moment and pretend this is happening to a stranger rather than to you - your family can get through this.

That's a bedroom for your parents, children sharing, and you in the sitting room on a sofa bed, at a guess.

It's exactly the sort of situation which the council don't like, but end up having to leave people in anyway, because of the shortage of council houses.

I have never heard of children being removed from their parents care because of overcrowding, let alone that relatively common level of overcrowding.

Social won't take your children for being overcrowded if you move into your parents; there are SO many families that are overcrowded it's normal. Speak to the council and shelter on Monday if anything social should help you find suitable housing ask for a disability worker it's very different to child in need.

It's so hard :( we had squirrels in the attic I told the landlord and he told us to buy rat killer and do it ourselves I refused as I didn't want my 4 year old around it! We paid for a professional out of our own pocket, the squirrels were getting in from a gap in the roof that he didn't repair!

I never reported every disrepair to him cause I knew he would brush it and blame it on us for lack of opening windows etc... so I went to environmental health instead I don't see how I've done anything wrong there!

You've done fuck all wrong. Environmental health will come back out and slap him with a huge fine. You can fight it in court also.

See I don't know what will happen yet, but I have extreme anxiety and I have to have a plan for the worst case scenario you know?

My parents are in a 2 bedroom but ofcourse they would never see my children on the street so they've offered to put us up until we can sort permanent housing.

If social say no to this then I really do have nowhere else to go with the children :(

Why do you think social services will be involved and veto you moving in with your parents? Have you already got involvement with them?

Surely you dobt want to stay there?
No one is going to take away your dc if you go stay in one room at your parents.
Being "overcrowded"while staying with family temporarily while looking for new rental is not illegal
Just move there put belongings in storage or sell them if not neededand see if council will give you list of landlords accepting uc or whatever

Ss do not want to pay fostercarers unless your dc are actually being neglected. Room sharing is not neglect

You haven't done anything wrong. The LL can cite any grounds he likes for eviction but you have evidence that the faults lie on his side. You have the EH report.

This.

There are a crazy amount of even 5 and 6 person families where we are currently in 2 bedroom council flats/houses. Yes it is overcrowded but there is nowhere to move people to and there isn’t anywhere near enough funding to remove all of these children.

It's not up to social services how many bedrooms you use. Who told you it was?

With kindness, this is the third thread I've seen where you're asking the same questions, and getting the same responses. What are you hoping for exactly?

We had my sister, her partner and 4 kids living with us temporarily (me, husband, child and granny) in a 3 bedroom house. She was in the middle of a custody battle with her eldest father and had CAFCASS involvement and social services (he made a number of malicious reports) and despite the huge number in our house, they weren't bothered.

I know this isn't the purpose of your thread, but please ask your local council's housing team for advice on the notices served on you by your Landlord and whether your Landlord has breached the Renters Rights Act. They may also be able to give you support re preventing you losing the property.

focus on tasks you can complete, the things you can actually do in order to mitigate the risk of the thing you are most anxious about. There’s loads of great advice in this thread, write a list and tick things off. The timeline and evidence/records of communication is a great idea, Google notebook or ChatGPT could be really helpful in getting this in order. It might be helpful to think of your anxious panic state as fuel to your fire, to do everything you can in this battle against this landlord. Good luck

I had a rental property for a decade. I lived in it for many years before I rented it out. Within 6 months of the first tenant - mould everywhere. There was ZERO mould when I lived there. The only thing that changed was a different person moving in it. With filthy hygiene standards. Every time tenancy changed over it cost me thousands in remedy. I paid for a heritage house surveyor who confirmed the mould was condensation and due to tenants not ventilating and heating the house properly. In between tenancies the house had zero mould. Every single new tenancy I would explain how long the windows needed to be open, how high the heating needed to be on, not to cover the chimney breast vents and on and on and on. 8 tenants over the decade ruined the very fabric of my house. They all repeatedly complained. They were all filthy dirty and their idea of opening windows was a two minute quick open once a month. I sold in the end because I couldn’t deal with the drama from them. The house was empty for about ten months before it sold. Zero mould.