What does a 62 year old man on just above minimum wage do when served with section 21 eviction notice and cannot afford anything on the current rental market?

[Mxflamingnoravera]

I have a friend aged 62 who has been living in a pretty awful but liveable one bed flat for six years. He works full time in a call centre on little more than minimum wage. The flat was recently assessed by the local authority as part of a new local licensing scheme for private rental properties in our city. It needs a lot of work done on it and today he was served with a section 21 order because (he was told) the builders say it's too much work to have him stay there whilst the place is brought up to standard.

He has looked around an there is nothing under £900 a month in our city. He cannot afford this. He has no car and cycles everywhere. So he needs to live fairly close to his workplace.

He is devastated, he cannot live in a shared house at his age. He is a very private, shy man, has few friends and no family.

I'm at a loss to know how to help him. He cannot live with me, i have no space and do not want a lodger.

There is literally nothing affordable in our city. He is looking at homelessness in January. What happens to people like him?

Move day is Friday. He's had a bit of a shock with the rent though...it's £873 a month but only £105+ £26 per week counts towards UC and he'll not be entitled to any UC. The other part is utilities and doesn't count for UC. Nonetheless, the man with van is booked for Friday, carpet is being fitted tomorrow and he'll be in by the weekend.

I cannot thank you all enough for the kindness shown here along with the advice over the past few weeks. It's his birthday tomorrow, I'd hoped he'd be in for it, but at least he is on his way.

Sorry to hear that it’s about £200 a month more than he is currently paying but it does sound miles better so I’m glad to hear that he has accepted it & is moving in on Friday. What a great outcome really, if you look back on the desperate situation he was in when you first posted. At least he is well aware now of what he is & isn’t entitled to and he has a lovely new secure home.

I think you said he takes home £1700 a month so it sounds manageable. Congratulations to him and to you.

Op, sometimes UC gets service charges and personal charges mixed up,

personal charges are often utilities eg if communal boiler for heating

service charges are part of the rent and should be covered by UC/benefits.

his new housing officer/worker will be able to assist with all that, keep referring him back to them, they will be used to it.

as he works only some UC will be paid, but if it includes bills then he won’t have those bills to pay separately.

great news that he is moving, it’s a stressful time, but fingers crossed all goes swimmingly 💐

Hi op , I've only skimmed the tread but I'm so pleased your friend is now moving.
You say his rent includes utilities, you mention elec and water. I would look closely into if it includes other utilities such as gas then obviously depending on the heating system he might be better off using electric heaters than gas central heating. But with it all being included he won't have to worry about being cold and damp again.
Hope it goes well for him on Friday you have been a wonderful friend helping him.

Great news! Hope the move goes as smoothly as possible. The rent and benefits can be addressed once he’s in. I hope he can focus on it being secure, clean and warm.

@Mxflamingnoravera and yet you will still get people on here insist that HA is ALWAYS cheaper than private rental.

@JenniferBooth We left a council flat in the early 70s when we moved a long way for work. It was more expensive than the private rental we found. The council flat was modern, well heated and insulated. The private rental wasn’t nice, the only loo was in the back yard. The standard of the property plus the confidence security of tenure can give a tenant is often worth the extra.

That seems a high rent for a one bed flat, not in London to me, but I have heard Bristol is expensive. Up to 2022 we rented a detached house in the East Midlands for not much more. I thought housing associations existed to help people not for profit?

Still it will still be worth it for the security of tenure, better maintenance etc. That private rental he was in sounds dreadful. And then I suppose when your friend retires housing benefits will kick in?

YY @Seymour5 i agree but HAs are now charging ££££ for shitholes.

Ime council rent is always much cheaper than HAs, but the HA properties tend to be newer builds. HAs don't get as big a discount either under right to buy/acquire.

He is 62 years old on minimum wage. He needs to get down the council, he is over five years in the same borough, he should be entitled to over 55s accommodation, it may be an bedsitting/kitchenette room with an en-suite, but it will be his.

@ScroogeMcDuckling
He moves into an over 55 accommodation on Friday.

New year, new start. I’m truly thrilled. Thank you for letting us know. Good luck xxxx

Great result; he's lucky to have a supportive friend!

He's had a bit of a shock with the rent though...it's £873 a month but only £105+ £26 per week counts towards UC and he'll not be entitled to any UC. The other part is utilities and doesn't count for UC.

I think you said he was paying £675 rent before so on the face of it this is £200 a month more. However if it covers heating and hot water which he was previously paying on top of his rent the actual increase will be a lot smaller. Plus he will be somewhere where he can be warm, free of mould and rodents and is somewhere secure for life.

Hopefully he can balance the books financially with careful budgeting. All the best to him.

What was he paying for his utilities before? It will reduce the shock to know what that was. Surely the rent cant be £200 a month and utilities £670? HE needs to put this into entitledto again and check he cant get UC.

£131 a week is deemed rent by UC so about £568 a month. Which makes the utilities (and possibly service charge) £307 a month to total £875.

That’s really high for utilities. What’s included in that?

The thing is he only has to hang on for a few years until retirement age then he’ll get housing benefit and pension credit at which point he’ll be much better off. It will be hard for a while but things will get better.

Am I missing something.
I didn’t think he was claiming benefits before.
Whilst the new place is £200 more rent, his “income” has gone up by £567 per month overall

Where do you get £567 increase to income from? UC are not paying his rent for him but classify £568 pm (if you took the number from my post) as rent and the rest is electricity and water costs. Using those figures the OP says he apparently isn't entitled to any help from UC with rent.

OK I misread it as £... (a month) plus £26 a week. Presumably part of the rest is service charge and I thought service charge could be included in UC assessment? Anyway he needs to clarify exactly how much is rent, how much service charge, how much utilities and check on entitled to whether he can now get UC.

If it's sheltered housing the service charges will be higher to allow for that.

Today’s supposed to be moving in day. Hopefully it’s happened without too much stress.

I hope the move went well. I think once he's settled he needs to try to claim PIP , this could be a life changing amount of money for him.

The move is done. His remover let him down at the last minute (van broken into) and of course he calls me rather than looking for an alternative. I was at work and tired of constantly having to sort things out so I told him he needed to sort it himself and he did.

The two removal guys were ace, they were so kind and could see why he needed to move (I think they were shocked at where he had been living, and when they saw the new place with wide open windows and a view (his old place looked out onto a blank wall and he could only see a bit of sky above the wall.

I took him shopping for blinds and curtains and as a temporary measure put up the curtains with drawing pins. He's going to try to fit the pole and tracks himself (he's perfectly capable of but has become helpless).

He said his first night was bliss, no road noise, no passers by his bedroom window and waking up to see grass and trees and birds. Honestly it was like he had come out of prison.

We did a run to the tip today and I had to put my fur down and say I could not keep driving him all over the city to shop for curtains. Either he could wait for a delivery from eBay but it now or he could wait until next weekend or use the shop nearest the tip. He went sulky and I did my best to be assertive and hold my boundary. We got the curtains.

I have spent pretty much the last 48 hours with him or caring for my mum and am so tired. I'm staying in bed tomorrow until whenever I please, I'm going to enjoy my solitude, I need to have time to myself now. As I left earlier he started to mumble moaning about me leaving him on his "jack jones" and I reminded him that I was going home to my empty home too.

I'm now going to withdraw, his neighbours are all over 60, they have social events and he will be invited. He might finally get some so social life. I cannot do anymore short of moving in with him (he'd love that! ) Needless to say that is most certainly never going to happen!

I think it's all going to be ok. He's all ready for an attempt by the landlord to try to retain the deposit, but knows about the appeals process etc to ensure this doesn't happen.

I hope that this update is over and out. We'll see!

You've all been fab, mumsnet at its best. Thanks everyone.