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Find financial and money saving discussions including debt and pension chat on our Money forum.

Money matters

So how do you go about getting council housing??

19 replies

Quadrofiendia · 23/10/2006 17:45

Thinking my dp and mine relationship has run its course and am questioning what to do next. Think it will be impossible to keep the house so I think we will need to find council accomodation. Can anyone give me any practical advice on how i go about this, as i really don't know where to start. TIA

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Frizombie · 23/10/2006 17:46

Ring the housing department of your local council and they will advise you best. I think if your delcared homeless you will probably have to go into B&B accomodation somewhere 1st, then you get offered emergency housing as soon as somewhere comes up, followed by eventually somewhere you might want to live.

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Quadrofiendia · 23/10/2006 17:49

Do I have to go down the declared homelss route to get somewhere fairly quickly, i have four children and don't think I could manage at all in a B&B. If I stay here and wait for soemthing to come up is it likely to take forever

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Quadrofiendia · 23/10/2006 17:51

Thanks btw Friz

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Scoobydooooo · 23/10/2006 17:53

I will come back & answer for you in a bit when i get 10 mins, i am in this situation now & have been for a few months, we are homeless & it's awful.

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nutcracker · 23/10/2006 17:54

The problem is, that if you stay where you are, they will see you as being adequatly housed.
You would get points for breakdown of relationship but tbh you'd be waiting ages then.

What council do you come under ??

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Molesworth · 23/10/2006 17:56

If you are declared homeless you wouldn't necessarily go into B&B. This happened to me and I was housed in temporary accommodation in the form of a 2 bed flat with my 2 children. Whether you have to go down that route really depends on where you live and how long the lists are for public housing

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Quadrofiendia · 23/10/2006 18:28

Thankyou people, I live in northampton. I see your point about adequate housing, what about if i move in with parents?

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nutcracker · 23/10/2006 18:34

Moving in with your parents may work, it depends on how overcrowded you would then be.

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Quadrofiendia · 23/10/2006 18:35

I am so worried about the impact of my kids being moved from pillar to post, I wish we could stay here but there is no way we could afford the mortgage

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thefreakyflumpsmum · 23/10/2006 18:50

Don't want to sound like the voice of doom,but please don't move in with your parents unless totally necessary.Myself,and 2 dc have been living with my parents and brother in a 3 bedroomed house for the past 2 years,since my childrens fatherthrew us out,I was so devastated I couldnt have dealt with going into temporary accomadtion.Im on all the council and housing associations in my county and still ahvent been offered a sausage.Myself and my 2 children(6+2) share one room,we have about a metre of floor space in the room.
Over the past couple of months my fathers been diagnosed with cancer,my dd has started puberty early and is under treatment at the local hospital and I have been diagnosed with derpression.Despite all this it has made alot of difference to my priority for housing.
My family have been great for letting us stay here,but we do rather take over the house,lol, and Im desperate for a place of our own.
If I knew 2 years ago what I know now I would go into emergency housing,my council(and many others) now try not to put single parents with children into b+b's,with more than one child you would probably be given a temporary flat or in some cases they rent you somewhere with a private landlord till a suitable property is available.
Hope I didnt depress you too much lol and I wish you luck

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thefreakyflumpsmum · 23/10/2006 18:51

sorry should have previewed post lol
I meant it hasnt made alot of difference to my priority for housing

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Quadrofiendia · 23/10/2006 19:00

freakyflumpsmum, I'm really sorry to hear what you have been through . Your advice is much appreciated, its so hard to know what to do for the best. I'm going to call the housing department and find out some more tomorrow, i don't know if they'll tell me about waiting times etc but its worth a try.

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Scoobydooooo · 23/10/2006 20:05

My thread from the beginning of my battle is here

We were in private rented accomodation our contract ended & the landlord wanted to move back into his property so he evicted us with a section 21 notice, we then had an interview for homelessness you can have one of these 28 days before your eviction date & then when the time was up for us to leave we were offered a 3 bedroom private rented flat we had to turn this down due to many safety issues with our son & decided we would move in with my mother (where we are now)

If you would be badly over crowded in your parents house then it is a very good option all you have to do is move in there before you fill in the council forms because if you do it before they will tell you to stay where you are. Once in your parents house after about 1 month ask your parents to write you an eviction letter saying that you will have to leave there property due to stress & no space & arguments etc etc, after this time i think you will have 28 days & then the council has to house you it may be temporary housing it all depends on the waiting list & what is avaliable at the time you are due to move.

It is a very stressful situation & you will most definatly struggle at times BUT just try & focus on the ending result where you & your children will be housed.

We have now been living at my mums for nearly a month & yes it is unbearable at times i expect to be here till about christmas but we are just trying to think of the ending result for us, we are also saving alot of money to buy all brand new things for are new house

If you really feel you need to do it & now is the time then definatly move in with your parents because it is easier to be housed. If you are already in a house it's alot harder because they say you have a home & they will just sit & wait, when living with parents & overcrowded you are officially homeless once they evict you & the council HAVE to house you.

Goodluck & read through my thread it is my whole rollercoaster ride of the last few months.

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pesha · 23/10/2006 20:09

I think it does all depend on your local area as to where they'll put you. I moved into a privately rented property on housung benefit a few years ago but the council didnt pay rent for 3 months cos they cocked up so landlord gave me notice to leave. my dd was 2.4 and i was 4 months pg but they had no temp accom available so i was moved into a b&b and spent 4 months there before they offered me the 3 bed house i have now (moved in 3 wks before ds was born) and the only reason i got it so soon was because id spent 3 days in hospital due to AND. It was absolute hell BUT looking at the big picture it was only 4 months and i now have a 3 bed house the dcs have their own rooms we can decorate how we want and its pretty much ours. Much better than the rented dumps id been living in since splitting up with dd's dad.

But i would have thought having 4 dcs theres no way they could put you in b&b, i cant imagine there being one big enough.

On a practical note most council houses are now housing assosciation owned although i think if you ring the council and they're not the right people they'll be able to tell you who is.

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Scoobydooooo · 23/10/2006 20:14

There is also a new rule set by the goverment now that if people have children they can only use B&B's for absolute emergency & if they have to then you can only be in them for 6 weeks maximum.

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pesha · 23/10/2006 22:39

Really scoobydooo? when did that come into force?

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Scoobydooooo · 24/10/2006 06:38

I found alot of information out from Shelter online as they know the law & how everything is ment to work.

Here is what it says -

What is emergency accommodation like?
Councils often use hostels and bed and breakfast hotels for emergency accommodation. They may be run by:

the council
a private landlord
a housing association
a voluntary organisation
In some areas, such as London and other large cities, there is a shortage of emergency accommodation. In these areas, councils may use bed and breakfast hotels outside their own area.

From 1 April 2004, if you (or anyone in your household) have dependant children or are pregnant, you should only be placed in bed and breakfast in an emergency, and should not have to stay there for any longer than 6 weeks.

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7up · 24/10/2006 08:07

hope you find somewhere for your and your kids, it really annoys me that council housing seems to be given to certain other groups of people ,wont mention who as id start a debate on here!

ive been on the list for 10years in a 2bed with 2kids and basically ive been told il neverbe offered anywhere unless imake myself homeless

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N1SEXYTING · 29/10/2006 16:07

I'm also in a similar situation due to overcrowding at my mum's place and the fact that I couldn't possible afford to rent privately. I went down to my council and told that my mum asked me to leave. I was offered a B&B which was a house converted into several bedsits.

My room itself was okay and manageable but the rest of the tenants were obvioulsy crack-heads. ppl were always hanging around the house and were coming in at all ridiculuos hours of the night. so called the housing and complained and was moved to another B&B but this time a self-contained 1 bedroom flat just outside my borough.

The council tried to get my mum to come to mediation with me to 'fix' our problems, also wanted to visit my mum's place and the case-worker was really horrd tried to 'advise' me to sign up for some private letting scheme which is a yearly contract and basically means you're off the council lists, I REFUSED!

So i'm in my decent 1 bed flat which is and just waiting to hear from them on where they're going to place me.

The only issues i have is that I don't know WHEN OR WHERE in my borough they're going to place me but as where i am is still manageable for when the baby comes and at the end of it i knw i'm going to be given a 2bed place I'm just taking it all as it comes.

if you do move in with your parents and go down the route i do they are going to have to be very strong and ALWAYS state that you can't stay with them as its too stressful, over-crowded and everything else, as if they even once says its okay for you to stay that means you're making yourself intentionally homeless.

Good luck with it