Meanwhile in my Midlands city, all family temporary accommodation (as in, the two small blocks of flats the council/a charity owns) are rammed to the gills, and families are spending MONTHS being shoved from hotel to hotel, a different one every day or every few days, doesn’t matter if it’s too far from work or from school, doesn’t matter if you’re disabled.
Pre Covid it was taking around 8 weeks to rehouse families from temp flats, now it’s more like 6 months minimum - hence the hotel hopping.
In the flats are mostly single mothers, and for the first time ever - single mothers that work full time, some in NMW jobs and some in graduate jobs like Nursing (I’m in Tech).
Because:
- rents are being flung sky high
- single mothers don’t pass “affordability”checks as any UC top ups aren’t taken into account (well how have we all paid our rent the last few years then if we can’t fucken afford it?!)
- LLs all want home owner Guarantors who earn 40K minimum
And my personal favourites
- almost every advert states “£2500 per month income required, not including benefits”
- Working couples only
- 3 bed houses in catchments for fantastic schools - No Children
- no students
I cannot stress enough how fucked my life is right now. S21 eviction as LL wants to turn my 3 bed house near the City into a HMO as she can earn quadruple if not more that way.
I was served last June (Fixed Term ending January), so, as a disabled single mother with one disabled child out of my three children total and a STEM student, I was looking constantly.
In 10 different areas of the city.
With an income of £45,000 - through student loans, grants, bursaries, scholarships, UC, DLA High Rate Care & Mobility and High Rate Daily & Mobility PIP, and child support - he’s never missed a payment in 11 years so it absolutely is counted in my pot every month.
I have a CCJ which happened during my abusive marriage (fucks me off that it was impossible for me to prove that I didn’t take out a credit card with a limit of £3,000, spend it all then never pay it back - but it is what it is). It’s fully paid off and it’s 4 years old, but I have a homeowner Guarantor who earns £55,000 anyway.
I also have 6 months rent upfront saved (plus deposit and fees).
One glowing landlady reference and a personal/academic reference from a Professor.
I’m intelligent, articulate, well presented etc
As soon as the words “single parent” “mature student” came out of my mouth, I was fucked. In 10 months of frantic searching, I was “allowed” 6 viewings, “invited” to apply for 4 of those, 3 of them rejected me “in favour of a working couple/I’ve decided to go in a different direction for tenants on this property”
Finally, 8 weeks after the end of my S21, and 4 weeks after the Possession Order was granted,
the final house I viewed, the landlord accepted me, we signed the tenancy agreement and guarantor papers, money was exchanged, then 72 hours prior to moving in - the fucker pulled the plug.
Now - there is zero cooling off for Tenancy Agreements. There is no backing out at the last minute. If I had done it - the EA and LL would have hauled me to court and forced me to pay the full 12 months rent, costs associated with finding a new tenant, court fees, solicitor fees etc.
In theory, I could have sought an emergency court order to enforce the contract -if I had a spare £3000 around to instruct a solicitor (I don’t). Another option would have been to take a locksmith to the property on move in date and gain access that way, as the police would have said it’s a civil matter, and civil court would have upheld the tenancy agreement.-*
*as advised by Shelter, my local law centre, and the pro-bono law centre at my University.
In reality, there was fuck all I could do, other than wait for them to refund all the money, and wait for the Bailiff Order to come through.
As a result, I now owe court fees, which are an automatic CCJ (after I worked so hard to pay off the CCJ I didn’t fucken owe and repair my credit score), so my credit score is decimated now.
I was halfway through my Masters, that’s been suspended now as I can’t possibly study whilst “moving” every day/every other day from grubby hotel to grubby hotel, getting my kids to school (one secondary two primary), figuring out how the fuck to feed them well when I have no access to a fridge or even a microwave, let alone a cooker.
Despite multiple medical letters from the variety of specialists me and middle DC have, the council just shrug it off and say it doesn’t make us a higher priority for one of the temp flats when they become available.
I’m also still on Band B for social housing, so I’m not coming higher than 200, most weeks there’s only 2 houses to bid on. Our disabilities don’t matter there, either.
An educated guess says it’ll be about 18 months at best before I land a permanent social housing house. And this is in the East Midlands
It’s always harder to find a private rent as a single mother, but I have never had it be impossible. I’ve been renting for 15 years and I’ve always found somewhere before the end of the S21, it’s fucking humiliating that I had to wait for court orders. Humiliating doesn’t even cover it, actually.
I’ve developed stress alopecia, I’ve lost 3 stone so I’m now bordering on underweight, I’m popping Diazepam like they’re Smarties (Psychiatrist prescribed, obvs) on top of the cocktail I’m already on for PTSD and ADHD.