Wish me luck - going to see council in the hope they will help stop us being homeless in a couple of months due to my incompetent negligent tightfisted landlady

[AnarchyAunt]

Though I don't hold out much hope [sigh]

We (DD and I) have had a private rented house for nearly three years. The state of the house is appalling - no heating (yes, none, we have been approved for a WarmFront grant to get it fitted for free but landlady refuses to sign forms), no boiler, no double glazing (ice on inside of windows this morning), kitchen units collapsing, potentially lethal electrical repairs carried out by the landlady herself... list goes on.

Reported her to local council in October, who sent the environmental health round to inspect. House has been categorised as having two Category One hazards and sixteen Category Two and an Improvement Notice was served on landlady two months ago giving her 28 days to deal with it.

She has ignored it.

My tenancy is up in March and she's not going to renew it, is she? So we will be out.

But we have no money - we need the deposit back before I can rent anywhere else, and I suspect it will not be forthcoming. I will pursue it obviously but that doesn't help in the meantime! We can apply for a Social Fund loan but are only entitled to about £700 - we need cooker, fridge, washing machine, beds, removal expenses, £150ish for credit checks with new letting agent, and a deposit/rent in advance... I still haven't finished paying back the money I borrowed to get this house as I had to pay three months rent in advance to get the agent to accept Housing Benefit. I borrowed it off my parents but they are not in a position to lend money anymore.

I have had advice from Shelter who have given me a letter to give to the council, saying we are effectively homeless already as our home is unfit. With any luck they will help and accept us as in need of a council property, but when I asked them on the phone before Christmas they said they wouldn't as we have a legal right to be in our home.

Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhhh

Wishing you HUGE amounts of luck! I really hope you get a good response.

good luck.

private renting sucks. decent landlords seem so few and far between.

Hope it works out for you - please keep us informed.
Sounds like you have been in a nightmarish place and anything that the council offer will be better.

Gosh that sounds terrible...have you spoken to the landlady directly?

can I also ask why you moved into that place with no heating and no boiler???

Our council are dickheads.

In order to be considered threatened homeless here you have to have been served with a Notice to Quit, even if your tenancy is expiring!

And in order to be considered homeless, your landlord has to actually boot you out using the courts.

Hope you have way more luck!

Dropdeadfred - I was desperate as my exMIL wanted me out of the house me and ex rented off her as soon as he left. It was the first place in three months looking that we could afford and that would take us. And I thought it would be a simple matter to get the WarmFront grant through.

Never ever imagined she would refuse to have £3k worth of improvements fitted for free

expat that's like here, there is no way that the courts are not going to order exH to hand back the keys to the bank when it goes to court, but the council won't consider me homeless until the court has made that order.

So I'm (apparently) expected to sit and twiddle my thumbs until it goes to court, then tell them, which will give them a maximum of 6 weeks to house me........of course the chances of somewhere suitable becoming available in that time is pretty slim, so I'd probably end up in B&B or similar.......which would leave me with a rather large headache of what to do with the contents of a large(ish) 3 bedroom house in the meantime.

Bloody stupid.

anarchy - I hope they can help you out.

The insistence you wait til you are actually evicted by court order is ridiculous.

You'd never get a reference and would probably never be able to rent privately again - its so bloody short sighted IMO.

Good luck to everyone else at the mercy of landlords!

i honestly don't think you'll get a reference anyway. are you still paying rent, or is HB paid direct to landlord?

yes, and in our case, our landlord is a friend.

he'd have to pay money to go to court.

so we're stuck privately renting again.

i'm so fucking sick of this.

Council were useless.

Have forms, will weep over them fill them in later.

PersephoneSnape - no reference is one thing. One saying you have witheld rent and refused to leave until court action was taken... if the council will not house us I cannot risk being blacklisted by local agents.

exactly, AA! that's their clever ploy to keep people in private rentals.

You really are stuck aren't you. It just goes round in a circle.

Can't stop paying rent - bad reference, threat of being found 'intentionally homeless'.

Can't up and leave as soon as I find anywhere else as the current landlord has my deposit money - its not a matter of writing it off and being annoyed about it, I need that back before I can secure anywhere else.

Can't stay on after tenancy ends - again, bad reference, court costs may be imposed on me, and with no valid tenancy agreement the HB will not be paid so back to the beginning again.

Fact is, we have nowhere to go when our tenany runs out, and no money to secure anywhere, move into it, and furnish it. Maybe we should go back to squatting?

Meanwhile, ex sits on his arse smoking weed in the house we used to share, which is owned by his mother who doesn't ask him for rent