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 :(

And the survey report when the house sold showed zero mould. I didn’t need to specially treat it. I just wiped all the mould off, repainted and it never came back. Because the filthy tenants were no longer ruining it.

I get that... however we have an enviromental health report which clearly states the damp and mould was from a disrepair in the attic and in the roof not from something we have done.

Also the damp and mould we have is on the ceiling which is coming from the roof tiles that are leaking

Also all around the small bay windows that are single glazed so very hard to ventilate

OP are you getting help with your anxiety?

I am yes, I've had it ever since my son passed it's horrible :(

My mind never let's me rest, I'm just trying to makesure I have a plan for the worst case scenario and that my children remain with me

Consult Shelter

Social say no?? What makes you think they have any position in your living arrangements!?

The fact the landlord is pushing the blame onto us :( I done what was best for my children by calling environmental health I'm not a penny behind with rent! He's now increased the rent, he claims he wants to sell and wants us out yet he has issued us 2 section 21 notices in the past both have been invalid!

But this is impossible scenario it will never happen. Worse case is that you move in with your parents and drive each other nuts.

Stop trying to make a plan for the worst case scenario which isnt going to happen. Right now youre just feeding into your own anxiety.
Ss dont just go round taking children because of slight overcrowding, why would they? Where would they put them?
Focus on what you can do. If youre made homeless, you will either be house by council or your parents until you find a bigger place.

But they won’t take your children regardless of a temporary overcrowding situation x

Many families willingly live in overcrowded conditions in multi generational households

it’s not social care / safeguarding issue

Thankyou all I needed to read these comments as Google is making me ill!

I wish I could help my anxiety honestly it's truly a horrible thing truly thankyou to you all ♥️

Where on Google does it say that you will lose your kids ?

( we have nowhere to put the kids who need to be removed for safeguarding reasons let alone those who are safe and loved )

Exactly. How will they even know you've moved in with your parents? They don't track every family's whereabouts...unless they are already involved for some reason and that's the cause of anxiety?

You do have my sympathy, though - the housing market is dire right now.

You've notified the council twice that the house needs repairs. He's not allowed to do a revenge eviction. You can prove you've been trying to get the house repaired so him saying you've caused damage won't wash with the council. Don't worry. You can prove you've been asking for repairs, he can't prove that you hadn't tried to get repairs done, maybe speak to citizens advice or the council for advice x

i was in a similar situation - I sold up too as it was impossible to manage and the new rental rights meant that the tenant could sue me for the mould!

It's because I'll be intentionally homeless so social services will already know about my living situation as the council tells them

Intentionally homeless only comes into play if you are later bidding on social
housing? It means you are not eligible/you lose your banding that’s all ?

We had similar when we got evicted (in the days of no blame eviction). The house was in awful state and we got EH involved who basically gave LL a massive list of things he had to repair. Instead he evicted us and sold the house.
Don't tell the council your parents are willing to have you stay. They won't care about overcrowding but they'll just see it as you have somewhere to live so they don't need to worry about you.
I'm not sure why you think you're intentionally making yourself homeless. He's selling the property regardless and you have proof that you didn't cause the issues. That's what you need to focus on. The fact it isn't your fault and the council can't just leave you on the streets.
Have you actually spoken to the council yet? Filled in the paperwork so you can start bidding? If not get the ball rolling on Monday.
But please stop worrying about loosing your children. I think quite a lot of families are made homeless (put in temporary accommodation) and they don't loose their children. Your children are safe and loved so why would SS take them away?

In the highly unlikely event of this happening then you simply tell social services that your children sleep at your parents house and you sleep elsewhere. But they won’t object.

The worst case scenario is moving in with your parents or TA. The care system is creaking at the seams and unless theres something you're not telling us there's no other good reason to add your children to it.

Same! It was the most frustrating scenario. The worst thing was being made to pay lots of money out for something I repeatedly begged the tenants not to do, and to be continually blamed by the people who were causing the mould and wrecking MY property. It was like the twilight zone. The amount of times I had to say ‘It’s a Victorian terrace. It’s designed to breathe. This means a continual flow of air. This is why the victorans had open
fires and open windows.’

It got so bad, and I was so tired of being blamed that I decided for one tenant I’d drive past the property every day for a week to see if any windows were open. Not only were they never open, they were always blinds down, curtains drawn during bright sunlit days. And the filth inside during each inspection was insane. Evan the relatively cleaner tenants couldn’t understand the need to ventilate. I just gave up. They were bringing the building to its knees. The house was bone dry once they left.

But unless you're asking them to house you they won't actually do anything about it! You'll have made arrangements to house your children and that's the end of the story as far as they are concerned!

When we were tenants in a Victorian semi, we had the windows open every day and kept the house really well ventilated (we're big on ventilation!). Our landlord still said we were the cause of the damp and mould. We didn't even dry washing indoors (aired it, yes, with the window open), drying outside or using the dryer.

The issues were structural, but they were intent on blaming us, purely because we were tenants and they decided that meant we didn't know about ventilation. Ironically, when the house was empty for almost 2 years after we left, we never once saw a window open, not even on vent!