Houseing problem, Eviction notice....

[HousingProblem]

I have been to the council today because our landlord wants to move back into our rented property & we have no where to go, i had to take an eviction notice in to them, so my landlord sent me a letter just stateing that the property will no longer be avakliable after such & such date etc etc.

Anyway the lady at the council said this was not an "offical" eviction & i would not be classed as homeless until i had this.

My question is does anyone know what an "offical" eviction letter is ment to be is the section 21? or am i totally wrong?

I think it is a called a 'notice to quit'. If you are in any doubt as to your position get on to Shelter. My sister is a housing officer and she says they are briilliant and will tell you exactly what you need to know and how to handle the council as well. They have got a big website and a phone helpline.

I am in the same position as you, I have got to leave my house and as yet do not have anywhere to go. It's very stressful.

Dont know why i changed my name so i may as well come out from hiding

I am v- stressed & its really getting me down, i dont understand any of this & its really just living in limbo land.

I offcially will have 8 weeks from the date the landlord gives me this "offical" eviction notice but he is as puzzled as me.

My contract to the house ends on the 1st sept & the lanlord wants to move back in (we get on well) but now the council say it will not be till the end of sept because of this eviction letter.

do you have the number or website for who i can phone for advice & help?

Website www.shelter.org.uk
Shelter free housing advice line 0808 800 4444

I have got to be out on 4 September, don't have a clue where I will end up. Council don't want me as they say I have no local connection. I am delaying out right panic but I know finding somewhere is going to be tough as I am on benefits at the momment and nobody will go near us for that reason alone, it makes me really mad because I am an excellent tennant.

thanks for that will try & give them a call.

I know what you mean i have till the 1st september, well thats when my contract runs out but until i give them this eviction notcie letter you have 2 months after that because 2 months is the legal rule.

Did you have to give an eviction letter? so what do you have to do now? have you gone to your local council? I went to one just outside our bourough first & then said i can be on there list but because of my circumstances you have to be on your boroughs council list because i will be homeless shortly.

I am struggling with this whole housing aspect, i also have PND so am very emotional & very fragile at the moment but i WILL still fight to the end

I am going to try & phone these people now will let you know what they say, where abouts in the country are you? we are in the south-east.

Your landlord is supposed to give you 2 months' notice. So, if your tenancy is due to expire on 1st September 2006, your landlord should have served you with a notice to quit by 30th June 2006 at the latest. He hasn't done this (and there is a specific form he has to use). So, if he is now giving you notice, the period will run from 2 months from that date, i.e. if he serves notice at the end of this month, you will have to quit by 30th September.

Once you have a formal notice to quit, you can make a homelessness application with the local authority.

Thanks freckle that is what the council have said to me just in a bit more complicated way. Where does he have to get the form from do you know?

Scoobydooo - hiya We are in the same situation as you (kind of) have been evicted from private rentred house and are currently 'homeless'. You have to have a section 21 notice in order for the coucil to start things moving. That gives you the official 2 months notice. Our was up on 14th June but the council advised us to hold out for them to take us to court which will buy us another 4 months. It's not easy getting re-housed though. We are waiting for either a council approved landlord private rental or to be deliberately overcrowded into a 2 bed flat

Hi zephyrcat it is an awful situation to be in, i HATE not having routine in my life so to not even know where i am going to be living has to be one of my worst situations.

I thought it was the section 21 notcie thingy, i spoke to my landlord earlier & he said he is going to drop it off tomorrow for me so i can give it to the council, then i have 2 months from that date which will brings us too probably the 17/18th september depends what he has dated the notcie i suppose.

after that i dont know what will happen because the council said they dont like to go down the whole court order route because its a waste of time & money.

They mentioned finding another private rented place but they are very hard to find as all landlords are very picky about who moves in there propertys & i can see why now

Just days i feel so down about it & others i just blank it out thats why we went away this weekend to visit my sis & that because of i new i had to go to the council today & i was soooo scared, its awful.

so you are in the satge of waiting for the court order? have the council not moved you into temp accomadation? are you still paying your rent?

Zephyrcat, I suggest you go and speak to your local CAB about your council telling to to wait until you are taken to court. Councils have been told that they are not to do that. Obviously it buys them more time, but it uses up valuable court time and costs a lot of money. Also the costs of the court case can be down to you, so the council is effectively advising you to do something which could land you in a lot of debt.

I never realised the freckle. that's a bit worrying. I rang the homeless unit this morning but the lady dealing with our case is away this week - typical! We are still paying rent although saying that we missed this month because barclaycard helped themselves to £500 from dp's account so we are right in the s*!! We had to go to the housing advosr first who tried to see if there were any approved landlord houses available but there weren't so she passed us over to the homeless unit. I had to go for an interview with them where they took down the details of the situation, copies of all our birth certificates, proof of child benefit and tax credits and said that they will either find us an apporved landlord house (where we wouldn't have to pay a deposit or anything but is still private renting) or they will put us into a 2 bed flat to deliberately overcrowd us. We would have to live in it for 9 months then we'd automatically get 200 extra points for our housing application.

I hate being in this situation. It's making me sick with worry - esp as dd starts school in september so I'm scared that after all her visits/uniform buying and her getting excited she's going to end up not going there or even worse with no-where to go when the schools go back

Oh blimey it sounds really bad, this is exactly where i am going to be in about 8 weeks time

I would phone them & also phone the advice line number that is on this thread to find out where you stand.

I was reading the CAB website which did say court is a waste of time & money because even if you go to court at the end of it all you will nto be able to stay in the house you are so the council HAVE to house you, it also said that being the tenant you will most probably have to foot the bill like freckle has said.

Thank god the lady at our council has said they dont like to take it as far as court because they realise its a waste of time & money but she did say that if we were living in london that is there rule & they are a lot stricter.

She also said to me that if they do not have a 3 bed place when we are due to move then we will have to go to b&b in slough which is about 40 mins from us, until they do find us a property. I am upset about this because my ds has just settled in at his pre-school after a major incident of running away in his last one i told her this but she said we will have to deal with it.

So i said ok i will sit in a b&b with 2 kids all day 40 mins away from any family or friends with PND for as long as you want me too

Blimey sleepless nights & that sick feeling will be coming my way again soon i am sure.

Zephyrcat - I would get on the phone to them again & say about all the court fees etc tell them you are in a lot of debt & you cant afford to be anymore, they must have temp accom till they can find something, how many kids do you have & what ages are they?

We've got 3 children - dd is 4.6, ds is 2.1 and dd2 is 14 weeks old. We had already been served notice when i went to the council - long story - we had to pay our rent 3 months upfront every 3 months. They served us notice in March because we paid 2 months upfront and the other month a week later. They told us that the notice would be cancelled as soon as we paid that extra month - which we did a week later. Then we were told that if we didn't have 3 months rent in June then the notice still stood and we'd have to leave by 14th june so really, the waiting to go to court has been a bit of a relief and bought us some valuable time.

Whereabouts are you scooby? I'm from Reading and DP from Maidenhead (I'm guessing if you know Slough you know those!)

your local council will put you on the housing register once you have a notice to quit...the landlord must give you 2 months notice.

BUT you wil not be considered homeless until he gets a court ordered eviction! its an absolutly ludicrous situation as it will mean your landlord taking you to court, you will end up getting court fee's and it will not be a very nice mark on your name.
but unfortunatly the council are unlikely to move to re house you until this happens.

Shelter are brilliant and may be able to do some negotiating n your behalf but when i was in a very similar position this was what i was told.

Scoobydoo, uum not sure how to put this without seeming rude but if you no which b&b in slough it would be you should go and check it out now while you still have options. I know slough and some of these places are just not suitable (drugs etc.) especially with children (if anyone mentions Yew Tree Lodge to you i would worry). Hope i havent offended anyone, im new to mumsnet so not quite up on ettiqiette but just wanted to offer some experience of the area.
Hope that your situation is resolved soon.

I really, truly feel for you.

We are in the position of being unable to afford our rented home as it is hugely expensive. We took it on when I was employed but now I am self employed and in first year of business so money is very, very tight. Our landlord has decided to sell so there is no option of staying here even if we had funds.

When we told the council all of this we were informed that we were making ourselves voluntarily homeless so they could not and would not help unless we made ourselves sitting tenants and waiting to be evicted by our (lovely) landlord.

We were at our wits end for several weeks over this as we have no way of getting another private tenancy as we have mega bad credit rating and no money for a deposit. We refuse to put our landlord in such an awkward position or to go through all the stress that comes with such argy bargy as screwing the landlord over...

Anyway, we made the crazy but almost 'no option' decision to leave the country and are now packing to leave for a new rented place in France as of a couple of week's time.

I can't offer you much advice but my life experiences have taught me that when there seems to be no way out or no options to take something always comes up.

I hope you get sorted soon as I totally understand how you feel living in limbo and under such great stress.

Will it be awfully difficult to find somewhere else in a couple of months or is the rental market relatively fluid where you are?

To be honest, I don't think the council housing schemes offer all that much in the way of solutions. HAve you tried for trust housing?

Those of you being placed in the position of having to force your landlords to apply for a court order (and thereby get into - or further into - debt yourselves as the court costs will be ordered against you) because your local authority is insisting on this, could I please ask you to report this to your local CAB. Government guidelines to councils are that they are not to do this and CAB will keep a record of how many councils are flouting these guidelines. When they have sufficient information, CAB can bring pressure to bear to get this practice stopped. But if no one tells them, they can't do anything.

Freckle I will certainly do this. I was horrified that this was the advice given and actually coiuldn't believe that this was possibly a real policy of the council's due to the debt issue. Not only are there the court fees but also the rent that goes unpaid as one waits for eviction (well in our case anyway as we couldn't afford the rent - hence reason for move).

Is there anything else that can be done?

i am also in the same situation. we have to leave by 14 august and as yet have nowhere to go to despite being number 1 on one housing associations waiting list and being classed as high priority by the council. i have a letter from my gp to say that due to my family's disabilities, hostel/temp accomodation would be very damaging - in fact, out of the question! but still nothing.

we dont have a deposit and have a credit rating that sets off alarms! and private landlords are practically throwing holy water at us, so what are you supposed to do? even if you do get private rented, how many are for 6 or 12 months only and you end up having to keep moving? is it really so unreasonable to want to have a home to raise your family in? or dont you deserve that if you cant afford to buy? it is awful how many of us are in similar situations. i wish we could raise awareness of this problem.

bloody margaret thatcher and her right to buy! now if you need social housing you are royally screwed!

Hello again everyone how our you all getting on?

zephyrcat - I do know reading & maidenhead i am about 40 mins from maidenhead, we are in surrey

Fattiemumma - My council have said they used to go down the legal route but they now find it a waste of money so they like to try & sort things out of court unless the tenant wants to go to court, she said to me no matter if you go to court or not at the end of the day we are going to HAVE to house you. But she did say to me if you were in london they would be making you go to court!

Littleducks - I know Slough & i know exactly what you are saying, dont want to offend anyone but its a pretty ruff place, dont worry i wont be going there, she is just saying this to scare me into getting another rented property, in my situation they can not put me in slough because my doctor & health visitor will not allow it as i am under there care at this time.

Its such a bumpy road to have to be on but you really need to stick it out as you will get what you want in the end.

I have now been served with my section 21 from my landlord which i pressume is what the council is asking for? blimey i am sooo scared.

Hiya scoobydoooo - now you have your section 21 you need to ring a housing advisor within the council. Their first aim is to try at all costs to not let you get to the homeless situation. If there is no housing available, they will pass your case to a homeless officer. You have to go in for an 'interview' where they take copies of your notice, all your birth certificates, proof of tax credits and child benefit etc. Basically it's just to show that you haven't made yourself deliberately homeless. Once you have done that they will sort something out for you although they may well advise you to hold out for a court order to evict you.

Hi zephyrcat i have already had an interview & they have copies of all of the documents, i went for my interview on monday but because the letter my lanlord had written was not the offical section 21 she said i had to get that & post it in to them, which i have done today, i suppose i will just have to wait & hear from them or give them a call to see what happens next.

Ahh ok - so you're at exactly the same stage as us then....waiting!! To be honest as scary as it is I'm actually praying that they just ring us with something. As my Mum said to me, although it's not ideal at least it will be more like 'our' home and we won't have to worry about ridiculously high rent and a**ehole landlords!! When it's put like that it's not so scary.
My biggest worry is moving dd from her school

Exactly what our parents keep saying to us, my sister went through this about 3 years ago & she said it was the best thing she ever done, she only suffered for about 2 months in a half way house & then was given a 2 bed house, they are now well off & can afford to do things in life, instead of struggling to pay the rent & having no life at all.

I keep trying to tell myself it WILL be worth it in the end

Its the waiting & not knowing where we are going that gets to me because i am such a routine person & i HATE the unknown, but its something we have to do in life to get somewhere, its just a stepping ladder i am sure we will be better in the future

Goodluck by the way, you must keep me updated on how your getting on & if you get an offer etc.

I also see where you are coming from on the school front, ds is not at school yet but he is v v settled in a pre-school which i am extremley happy with, i have already moved him twice, 1st time he did not like the nursery, 2nd time he escaped out of the pre-school so obviously i could not place him back there & it toke me a hell of alot to trust anyone with ds again after that incident because he could have got killed but i have put my full trust in his new pre-school they are fantastic & he loves it there, i am going to do my upmost hardest to stay around here.

are you moving away from the area then where your dd goes to school?