How the hell can they say my house is 'too big for our needs' when its bloody TEEEEENY.

[stripeymama]

My rent went up at the end of March, for the first time in the two years we have rented our house. Only by £50/month, but the Rent Officer has decided (without ever seeing the house) that it cannot be paid in full by Housing Benefit anymore.

Its a two-up-two-down terrace. A small one at that. The front room is straight off the street and is a glorified corridor, which is pretty much filled by the coats, shoes, and recycling boxes. The back room is small too, just room for a table and a two seater sofa.

The kitchen only fits one person at a time in. The 'bathroom' is the size of a public toilet and has no bath!

So I rang the Rent Officer people and asked why not, as its still very very cheap for a two bedroom house in this area (cos its small and falling down shall we say 'dated'). But apparently its too big for us (dd and I) as it has two reception rooms. It seems we are entitled to two bedrooms but not two reception rooms. But round here, the only two bed accommodation is terraces like mine - you just don't get anything smaller apart from one bed flats.

So there we are. Either I must make the shortfall up myself (which I cant afford to do), fall behind with the rent (which I don't want to do), or move out a month after signing a year's tenancy and lose my £600 deposit (which will mean I have no money with which to secure another tenancy).

I have spent half the day weeping. I have no idea what we will do.

Is there not a formal process of appeal, going above her?

do you not have a right of appeal?

Yes, I am appealing.

But my stepdad works for the council and has told me that appeals against Rent Officer decisions are pretty much never successful, as it would set a precedent for other people renting in the same area.

And the decision is based on the Govt regulations about the size of property we need (two bedrooms, one reception room) despite the fact that that size property does not exist in this area.

Then it's letter to mp & copy to newspaper time. Tell how you are your daughter will be made homeless because you will be unable to pay the difference and arrears will build up and you will inevitably be evicted, how scared you are that you are going to lose your home and your child will not have a roof over their head etc etc

Talk to the landlord and have the front reception re-described as an entrance hall? After all, that's the function it currently serves. Presumably you are entitled to an entrance hall?

Oh I doubt it.

The thinking appears to be, If you can get a bed in it, its a bedroom - And You Don't Deserve It.

And in theory, yes I could get a bed in the front room. If i didn't mind only using the back door as it'd block the front.

So, in theory, if the front and back room were knocked through (which you get in a lot of 2 up 2 down terraces) it would count as 1 reception room and be OK?

Madness.

(Not suggesting you take a sledge-hammer to the place of course )

Er, I did ask the Rent Officer people that actually

But no. Because then they would pay even less rent as it would (on paper) be a smaller property.

It is a little Alice-In-Wonderland, their sort of logic.

what's the price difference between & one reception room/2 bed & your house? Bet the one reception places are newer so more expensive.

Could you use floorspace & layout in your appeal - in that the front room is off the street so no hallway.

they live in their own little world don't they?

My afternoon's research in the paper has found a grand total of twoproperties of the size they say we need.

One of them says No Children (is wanky new build)

Both of them are higher rent than my house.

But I can't send my own evidence to the Rent Officer. Oh no. S/he has access to all the local property information on the internet, I am told, and will use it to look again at the decision.

Get yourself an advocate from somewhere, CAB would be able to advise what local services might be able to help, or even help themselves. You need soemone to get bolshy with them and to help you through appeal, there are probably certain boxes that you need to tick to get them to go against their new policy - which I do not really understand how they can just introduce out of the blue, good luck

It's just complete rubbish. What a stress for you & dd.

After appealing to the mythical and god-like Rent Officer there is nowhere else to go.

Fact is that the Govt says we need a house of X size, and that where I live that should cost no more than X amount. Its my problem that I live in a house deemed too big, with rent that is £50 over X amount.

Bollocks to the fact that their idea of Fair Rent is unrelated to what landlords think the can charge, and that property is in short supply and you have to take what you can get.

You can apply for discretionary housing benefit. They will not, ever, tell you about this however.

You apply for it by writing a letter and enclosing as much evidence as you think you need to make your case. You send it to the HB department - not the rent officer. The Rent Officer decides the fair rent - the HB dept. actually pay you. You need the HB dept to decide to pay you more than the alleged fair rent.

The system is a bloody mess. But this usually gets round it. Don't be afraid to tug on heart strings by the way - these letters go to real people unlike your form which goes into a formula.

Hope this helps!

I still think you need to get someone to help you appeal; policy can be bent & I think you need someone to help you do this so that you can atleast see the period out so that you don't lose your deposit. What about contacting these people

Yes I'm going to apply for discretionary housing payments - but in this area they are payable for a maximum of 13 weeks.

This is wank, pure and simple.

Have swallowed pride and appealed to ex's parents for the money to make up the shortfall for the next 12 months (they are 'going to let me know'), after which time I shall move into a shoebox and spend my rent money on gin

Message withdrawn

Message withdrawn

Have managed to come up with a plan - closed my Housing Benefit claim, and reapplying in 7 days under LHA guidelines! This not only pays my rent in full but gives me the £25 a month extra.

It does mean finding one weeks rent myself but that still works out less than making up the shortfall for a year.

i couldn't get housing benefit as we had a box room which had our clothes in. they had to be in there as the bedroom was not big enough for a bed and a wardrobe, just a bed

good idea stripy - hope things will be ok.