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 says here social services wouldn't allow us to move back in with parents if overcrowded

Yes they will find accommodation for your family unit. But as people have told you will not be intentionally home less

surely you just move out and into your parents home asap while looking for a new rental , then you will not be registering as homeless and no social services will be involved.
could you start doing other positive steps towards helping secure a new home , looking at different areas, look at more hours at work, a new job?

Dangerously overcrowded is a lot - I doubt you will reach that threshold - as I said earlier we were 4 in a room including a newborn on duvets on the floor with our clothes in begs round the edges of the room.
You are still catastrophising. Call the LA tomorrow and write down what they say to so you don’t misremember and panic further. Then ask them to email you. Phone SS if you need to discuss what the early years worker said - again write it down and ask them to email you.

What are you hoping to happen? Social housing? Help with private rental? What do you want to happen specifically?

Any home that keeps me with my children that's all I'd like, even small we will make it a home

Social Care will not have a view /have you on their radar in any shape or form unless you are pitched up in a tent on the side of a road and the kids become vulnerable/stop attending school /aren’t having basic needs met.

The (natural) expectation will be you secure a private rental /stay with friends or family /wing / it until you get sorted just like anyone else would.
Social Care don’t ‘house’ people - they can be part of planning regarding accommodation when someone is fleeing domestic violence /exploitation and needs to be relocated etc but ultimately in your situation you need to sort your own living. situation out and unless your children are being put at risk by you and your partner it’s not a statutory agency concern

where on earth are you getting your information?

Rent a small flat within the budget you can afford no ?
make it a home ?

That can be hard if a LL asks for a guarantor which is where the LA can come in with LLs they have on their books who may have houses available for this kind of situation and aren’t advertised on the open market. That’s why OP needs to gather herself together and speak to the LA - which can be easier said than done where you are like a deer in the headlights

Yes definitely can speak to housing about their tenancy deposit schemes and discretionary loans if the work with local landlords. In my experience they will
probably direct you to letting agents who offer the deposit scheme where it’s baked into the tenancy and the rent from the off spread over the first 6 months
The issue of finding a guarantor is no different to anyone else renting a private property if your household income doesn’t reach the threshold (in their view ) to cover the rent.
So in this case I would look to rent something small and affordable even if it’s not ideal or take up the exceptionally kind offer of staying with parents in order to save a bigger deposit and put aside rent shortfall money if monthly income is tight.

There is very little social housing stock and it is based on priority /even those with the highest need may wait years

I think the idea of ‘being housed’ or having any sort of statutory intervention once your tenancy in a rental ends -for whatever reason is an unrealistic one.

OP parents appear happy to help
maybe they could be guarantors - but one would hope a working family who have always paid rent on time and a regular income won’t need one ?

The most SS (if for some reason you were referred in ) would do here is write a letter to say you are overcrowded and could the LA consider this when giving you a higher banding to bid on social housing .
They would then close your case and leave you to get on with it unless any safeguarding issues arise.

End of

When intentionally homeless with children social services automatically become involved and apparently can place the whole family in emergency accommodation

No she is correct, when made intentionally homeless or having no recourse to public funds, social services are required to provide accommodation for children (and their parent/carer) via section 17 funds to prevent children sleeping rough.

You need to stop thinking of social services 'allowing' anything. It's not up to them whether you are 'allowed' to live with your parents or not. If you move in with your parents social services will literally not give you a second thought. No case will be opened. They will do absolutely nothing with the information that you have been evicted other than record it on a system somewhere.

Firstly this is AI which is absolutely not reliable for information, and secondly what you are proposing is not 'dangerously overcrowded'!
If 10 people were living in a one bedroom flat and children were sleeping on the floor and in the bath because of lack of beds and space, then social services would get involved because it would be neglect - is that what you're suggesting would be the case at your parents home?

AGAIN,you are NOT intentionally homeless

Contact environmental health and have them fine the landlord for not doing the works it sounds counter productive BUT its the best way to prove to a judge you haven't destroyed the home

AND im not sure if this will help but my friend did destroy her home refused the landlords entry for essential repairs allowed a rodent infestation to get WAY out of control (they ate the plaster and she still wouldn't allow entry) the judge wouldn't allow a section 13 she is still in the property the landlord has been ordered to clean it she has been ordered to allow it they have been trying to get her out for 3 or four years she still pays her rent they take her to court annually the judge throws it out they start again

Yes I hadn't realised that op meant if she was intentionally homeless.. but op will not be intentionally homeless. She has good evidence. Ie repairs not being done. 2 orders to the landlord from environmental health and he dtill didn't do anything. To me it looks like its leaning towards revenge eviction

I fully agree!

But if you don’t have social work involved it’s nothing to do with them, lots of people are over crowded and social work don’t take their kids away. Not sure what answers you are looking for you’ve had your questions answered many times.

Housing would place you in emergency accommodation not social work.

She's confirmed that the council have told her this too. So I'm really not sure what's going on with this repetitive cycle.

What I mean by allow is...

After the relief period has ended, social services will already be aware of my situation.

If I then say to then, we can stay with my parents but it would be overcrowded. Social services aren't going to allow us to intentionally make ourselves overcrowded and I can't not tell them as they will already be aware of out situation.

The council calls them so they would know already

How overcrowded would you be at your parents? Where would you all sleep?

Its a 2 bed

Me, my partner and my 4 year old in one bedroom.
My 17 year old would go in with her nan in the second bedroom
My dad would sleep on the sofa

What worries me is because social services will already be involved, they may not find living with my parents suitable due to overcrowding

Are you already under social services. During both my eviction thete was no mention of social services what so ever. Still comes back to you have NOT made yourself homeless.

I don't think your going to be satisfied until you have actually been through the situation.