Council forcing to private rent when homeless!!!

[mollybbb]

Hi just looking for some advice and wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation. I went to my local council around to months ago with my 1 month old baby as I was living with my partner and his mum and we had a falling out and he asked me to leave, I went to the housing to say I was homeless and needed to be housed, they are offering me to private rent through the council instead of putting me in temporary accommodation and waiting for a council house. I have expressed that I would rather wait for a council house as I don't want to be in the same boat in a years time with my baby if the landlord decided to evict me and they expressed that I don't have a choice in the offer that they give me?
Just wondering if this has happened to anyone else or if anyone could give me some advice thank you.

please could you find evidence about the rest of what I said to?

perhaos Keir Starmer wasn’t involved in Jimmy Saville as well!

I was Labour until Tony Blair took us to an illegal war, and protested and was called an idiot by people who manipulated words and what was said and what wasn’t, and twenty years later people are saying he should be imprisoned for war crimes

I personally believe that council housing should be given to people who work, who keep the streets clean, who fill the shelves in the local supermarket, who drive buses etc and aren’t entitled to benefits.

if you are entitled to benefits, you are entitled to live in a penthouse with the rent paid as long as you don’t exceed the amount of bedrooms and a couple of other minor rules.

So are you going to admit you lied about what Keir Starmer said? You don't seem to have replied about that! Just started banging on about Jimmy Savile, who Thatcher was great friends with.

By the way, all Tory MPs voted in favour of that war.

you’re not reading what I said.

Who said I was a Tory - you.

i haven’t lied about anything - according to u I have - but I havent

The way you keep banging the Tory drum I’m clearly dealing with one. They are very good at twisting statements to make things fit their own agenda too.

**
Keir Starmer has said he will build council houses to only house immigrants whether legal or illegal“

Do people really fall for this BS? 🤣

The chances are that if you went into temporary accommodation you could be there for a very long time as in some areas there are simply no council houses to be had - it is likely that there will be a huge waiting list for any council properties that become available

In most areas u would be looking at a wait of 20 years plus so be grateful u have been offered something.

That’s standard in most areas these days. Where l live you might get a council house by the time your daughter is in secondary school or doing her GCSE’s or maybe not even then. There’s no housing

Why are people blaming the Tories/councils etc when the blame here is the boyfriend who kicked his own baby and mother of said baby out of their home?

What is wrong with our society that men allowed to do this with no consequence or social disapproval?

Perhaps the council are sick of being expected to magic up houses for women whose relationships have ended only to miraculously reconcile once the council house has been procured.

I work and have done since I was 14 (always had jobs while I was at school, sixth form and then uni).

I was served my second section 21 notice in two years in May of this year. I haven’t been able to secure another private rental. The council can only offer me a B&B 49 miles from home/work/school. I have already relocated our lives once two years ago when we were served notice. I have the ability to pay for either social or private housing…what I don’t have is a house to pay for. I understand fully there is a housing shortage and I understand that I may not be offered social housing. But the fact that I have worked/studied has no effect on my situation.

I would LOVE social housing and given the choice would wait for that because we need some security. However, at this moment I’m time if I was offered another private rental, I would bite their hand off and offer to pay double. So while I understand why OP wants to wait, I do also realise that it isn’t necessarily a realistic dream, even though it should be.

If you have no where to go and they're offering to find you private then I'm not sure you can say 'I'll wait' coubcil houses are few and far between - if you're choosing to wait you can't be that desperate

This is a grim take. Aside from the fact that you don’t actually know their situation. The system is not broken because people on low incomes rely on social housing and are often forced to lie to get it.

The system is broken because buying a house is impossible for most young families on low incomes, the private rental market is almost as inaccessible and the social housing system has been decimated by selling off stock and building no new houses, coupled with increased demand due to the first two points.

Yup. Was going 30-odd years ago when I was sorting out somewhere to live, too. All manner of 'what you want to do is...' advice from others who reckoned it was how they got their place.

OP, you have to accept whatever they offer you, private or social, as if you refuse (and no, don't move back in because then you aren't homeless at all), the legal argument is that you can't have needed it that much and they no longer have any duty towards you at all.

There's not a choice as such anyway. If op is offered private and she refuses it. Council will end their duty and won't help anyway.

If op has mlt been offered private then she can carry on waiting/butting for social housing.

I did this but a long time ago. It was fine. You get the housing benefit, add some extra from maintenance and benefits, pay it to your landlord. You're out if the bad situation. Done. Move on if necessary, don't expect a home for life from the council that was the eighties.

I went through 2 evictions via private rent. I was permanently housed just over 2 years ago on a sife time tenancy. In London. So it does still happen.

I was in a temporary accomodation with a child, homeless and fleeing DV. I was still forced into private renting (no right to refuse) from there.

Rather than taking one of the dingy, grotty Victorian conversion rentals offered via the council and their contracted landlords, I chose to pay a little extra and found us something decent. I had to. And yes, it was a struggle to pay the market-rate rent.

I think the point that you’ve missed is that privately renting isn’t accesible for a lot of families. Especially single parent families. Finding a landlord to choose a single parent (often in receipt of state help) over a two adult full time working household is nigh on imposible.

I keep having the council tell me how dire temporary accommodation will be to try and cajole me into renting privately…but I can’t find anyone to rent to me! So it doesn’t matter if the temporary accommodation is grotty, mouldy or on the moon, I have no other choices at the moment. I’m applying for private rentals like it’s a full time job and having no luck

Yes I’ve been through similar. Councils only have a small amount of empty housing and hundreds if not thousands on their waiting lists. It’s truly harsh out there. You will have to try hard to find your own rental property whilst in temporary accommodation. There’s no way around it, I’m really sorry to say.

Hopefully you have employment and a guarantor?

It's near impossible to private rent now if you need some help . Rents are so heigh the LHA do not cover it .

I was in temporary accommodation for years . And it is shit. But like you say sometimes there's not a choice and you just have to do the best you can. There's a reason why there's so many families are in temporary accommodation and it's because the housing situation is messed up.

I hope your OK and the temporary you have / get is not to bad

I didn't miss that point - I needed a guarantor to get a rented flat within the regular marketplace.

I just somewhat object to posts aimed at OP describing her circumstances as "lucky that the council is helping". The council was "helping" me into slum-landlord flats shitholes.
My temporary accomodation was better and cheaper actually.
I used whatever means I had available (the guarantor) to avoid one of those awful flats and I didn't appreciate at all being put in no-choice position.

Having no choice of a council house vs. having no choice of a private landlord's property, are two different things! Actually made me think: the cousin of which council employees cousin is the landlord (know what I mean? ). It's a nice guaranteed-rent scheme for shite housing if one has the right connections...

Ah ok, I’d hand over every last bit of cash I have for a private rental at the minute. I do work, I also get universal credit as a top up and can provide a guarantor but still can’t seem to get so much as viewing for 90% of the properties I apply for.

I don’t think I’m better than anyone else and I’m sure everyone feels like this, but I was married, have worked my whole adult life & am willing to pay - I just can’t seem to find anyone that is willing to choose me over their other 10/15 applicants each time 😔 I’ve done things “right” as much as possible and am still facing the very real possibility of homelessness in weeks

Hi, I was just wondering what happened with your situation when you say private rent do you mean rent guarantee scheme? I'm in a bit of a similar situation although I'm disabled and I can't find anywhere suitable. I wondered what happens and if when they say private renting, is that different from rent guarantee. Thanks

Yep and pretend the partner is still living at his mum’s so that she can get all the single parent benefits.

I just searched our local council housing site. They have NO available social housing.

If you are genuinely homeless you need to accept whatever accommodation you are offered. You can not pick and choose

When do you go back to work OP? You'll be expected to take over the private rent at that point and top up with UC as necessary.