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 :(

It’s not needed once tenants are out as no one is breathing moisture in it when empty

This! Exactly no matter what we do the damp and mould returns! The landlord is just set on blaming us xx

The house was dripping wet in some rooms because of its issues. It definitely needed ventilating.

Trust me when I say that unless there’s a registered sex offender in the house etc SS aren’t going to do anything. At all. They simply don’t have the resources.

I’ve been through this when my children were very young.DM if you like

OP, you have lived there for 10 years, have raised complaints with EH and complained about many structural issues that have been repaired. Is there a reason why you have not actually looked for somewhere else to rent in the past 10 years? Surely that’s what you should be doing now? You need to be proactive and take control of the situation by finding somewhere else asap instead of waiting for the inevitable to happen.

Because...
1- my rent is paid on time every month, the landlord has a duty to fix disrepairs
2- the landlord has not fixed the disrepairs that he has been advised to!
3- finding a private property is not easy, without a guarantor
4-why become a landlord, increase the rent when you're not willing to do repairs?
5- the landlord has been saying for years he wants to sell, however he has given me 2 invalid section 21s! He never issued the safety certificates! If he wanted to sell that bad, I'm sorry he would have made sure he had everything in place and then we would have been out of here by now.

What exactly are the repairs and structural issues?

sidebar: there is no such thing as rising damp in old properties. This was invented by companies who want to charge you thousands of pounds to drill holes into the walls of old house and fill them with inappropriate materials that don’t solve a condensation problem because rising damp scientifically can’t exist. It’s a huge racket and scandal.

Also made worse by the offer of free insulation in attics up and down the country over stuffing old houses so they can’t breathe and water them drips down internal walls. The quick fix is remove the stupid one metre deep insulation in the attic and the house will dry up again.

Do you have social work involved already? If not there’s no reason for them to know that you’re living with your parents and over crowded.

No, it's cause intentionally homeless the council automatically call social

Right but I and others have said many times that doesn't mean they will do anything if you aren't actually on the street with your children!

But you won't be homeless if you're living with your parents.

What is it you want from this thread? People are offering advice, trying to calm you down and your just repeating yourself constantly? What is it you want people to say?

Maybe go to the GP and get some medicine for your anxiety

I don't think people are understanding what i mean :/

Arm we live in our home, landlord is evicting us. We could be seen as intentionally homeless, if we are the coucil won't help us and social services are called.

If social services literally have no space to accommodate me and my children then they would only take my children :(

If this happened I was asking if social services would then allow us to stay with my parents or would they not agree to it as we would then be making ourselves intentionally overcrowded

Who has told you ss would take your children? Do you have that in writing?
Where would they place them?

Because if social services had no space to accommodate the family then they would only take my children :(

Social services aren't involved in housing you. The council has that responsibility.

And if the council won't house you, you have to house yourself.

It’ll be in her contract that she has to report issues in a timely manner. This sounds like she hasn’t looked after the property either.

The best thing to do is find somewhere to live, luckily her parents will tide them over.

I have already answered this several times. I understand perfectly what you mean, and you are just wrong.
Even if social services are informed that you are evicted, they will do precisely nothing unless they are told by you or by housing that you are presenting as homeless with your children. If you do that, they will advise you to go and stay with family. They won't give two shiny shits how overcrowded you will be. If you had literally nowhere to go, they would accommodate you with your children under section 17 funds in some b and b somewhere temporarily. Nobody is taking your children into care.

The landlord already knew about the disrepairs in the first improvement notice however he chose to not do it!

It says if they literally have no space to accommodate the family they under section 20 they can just take my children

Kindly, you have miss understood a few key points here:

1. "Homeless" literally means not having a home. It means social services have to house you because you will be on the streets it they do not. If the landlords evicts you and you move in with your parents - you will NOT be homeless. You will have a home with your parents.
2. You are mis-understanding the context of "intentionally homeless" The whole point of the concept of people being "intentionally homeless", is to stop people deciding to end a contract on a privately rented property for no good reason, and then have no-where to live so say they need an immediate council house! You are going to have somewhere to live, with your parents, and are not going to be clamouring for an immediate council house. The council won't care!
3. Because of 2, the council will not count you as homeless at all. They won't contact social services, because they will literally have no interest in your living situation because they are not having to provide it!
4. The whole thing about "overcrowding" is to stop the council forcing people into houses that are way too small to accommodate them. If you choose yourself to set up a crowded living situation, the council literally won't care!

You don't want the council to help, so they won't have anything to do with it!