Landlord evicting us

[Mummyof2asd]

Hi I have renting in a property for 5 years the land lord has told us we have to be out by February as he is selling. I’m a carer for my two autistic children, my husband and Is self employed but doesn’t earn a great wage, we are on universal credits. My son after a year out of school and severe anxiety got into a Sen school a few months ago and he is like a different childhood been doing so well, I’m so scared he will have to leave his school. This property was with a private landlord a friend of a friend . so the rent was really cheap. We can’t afford to rent on one wage, plus estate agents will not accept just my husband‘s wage as income. Would I be entitled to help from the council? I just don’t no what to do so worried. My other son was due to start the same Sen school in September feel so gutted it was such a fight to get them in.Their both autistic and on DLA high rate care . Any advise would be great. I suffer from anxiety and this is making me really really anxious and worried. Obviously renting you have to expect this but just been such a hard couple of years with my child’s diagnosis and constant fights for school. My child have a lot of needs they do not sleep so I don’t sleep I can’t even think straight atm, they are very pound, meltdowns , throw things been lucky with neighbours that they understand this as we aren’t the quietest
a neighbours so imagining being in a flat with my two ASD children terrifies me as of how pound they can be when stimming ect or melt downs . Feel so drained and clueless what to do, feel I have let my child down so much but not providing them a home if their own . Sorry if this don’t make sense or for spelling and grammar. Writing this through tears I’m just so fearful .

Artistic licence.............Sorry.

I'm afraid I don't know, as everything was above board and legal in my case.

This forum might be useful to you though. You could add your question here:

thetenantsvoice.co.uk/

I have to disagree. Anyone who owns more than one home has been partially responsible for pushing house prices up over the last thirty years, so someone like the OP cannot afford to buy their own home.

Oh, I know. It's never taken us more than six weeks to find a rental before. This time it is over three months and counting, and that is across a dozen locations.

Loads of tiny "built for renters" houses out there for £1500 a month for 850-900 sq ft tho.

It is depressing.

Many people would never be able to own their home. And since the vast majority of public housing stock was sold off, there was always going to be a need for private landlords.

I was only, in effect, a landlord for the amount of time it took to manage my parents estate and debts, but it was grim. I don't know why any amateur buy to let landlords do it (and my lettings agent agreed).

Of course they're nearly all disposing of their rentals now, due to the new act (and probably because they've had enough of the problems involved and poor profit margins). It remains too be seen whether the corporate landlords buying up those rentals will be any better for the sector.

When the rental property went on the market I had seven offers. The majority were from investors.

It’s impossible to say how much the buy to let phenomenon has inflated house prices but regardless, the government has been happy for years to ignore the need for more social housing and look to the private rented sector to pick up the slack.

For some inexplicable reason, they now see fit to penalise them for doing so, all while still failing to provide tenants with suitable alternative accommodation.

The reason buy to let has been successful is a) lack of alternatives and b) increase in demand caused by population growth and changes in lifestyle eg divorce, people living alone for longer.

Can you tell him something like - I’m sorry, we cannot find anything on the market with one age and the council won’t house us if we leave. I’m sorry, you are really a great landlord and a great person, but we don’t want to die on the streets in the cold with our children. I don’t know what to do. Can you sell with us as tenants please.

Something like that

Selling the property tenanted isn't realistic. OP is playing less than half of the going rate. Any landlord who buys the property with her family in it, will do it properly and then issue an S21 of their own, so that they can find new tenants at the going rate. And after May, no landlord would buy a tenanted property with a tenant paying vastly under the going rate, as they won't be able to evict them with a no-fault S21. .

Not officially, but of course they still do. And landlords aren't obliged to accept the first tenants that come to view.

nobody is dying on the streets here - what a daft thing to say!

The council won't house them because they have not been evicted. So they either ask for a proper eviction notice or tell the landlord to get knotted and you are not leaving.

The OP can but ask as this buys them more time potentially. Or the OP can omit the last sentence.

Roughly what area are you in? Do you have any idea how long the wait is for social housing?

We’re in a midlands town where there is virtually no private rents available at all, and absolutely none available to people on benefits. However there is a massive amount of house building going on of which a certain amount has legally to be social housing. So, in this area it would be much better to get on the social housing list.

In other places though (London) it’s probably a totally different story.

@cestlavielife that’s a good idea. And speak to the school’s welfare as it’s an SEN school. I doubt the distance will affect their placements if it’s named school.

I thought no fault evictions were illegal now

Not until May, and it's always going to be legal to evict in order to sell

Aww situation.

1. Speak to shelter
2. Speak to the council
3. Speak to your landlord

Do 1 to know your rights
Do 2 to get on the housing register
Do 3 to keep the landlord informed that you have no option but to stay beyond the notice period and that you aren't deliberately being difficult, it's the system (just like they aren't trying to make you homeless, it's the renters bill).

As for the school, if it's a named school on an echo, unless you end up moving closer to a more suitable school then you'll be entitled to school transport.

no point speaking to the council to register as they have not been evicted

I feel for you, OP — it’s an awful situation to be in.

But honestly, whether a landlord is “nice” or not doesn’t change the basic fact, he’s renting the home only for as long as it suits him. That’s how private renting works . At some point, you were always going to be asked to leave.

This is exactly why stable, secure social housing matters.

Families shouldn’t be living with the threat of being uprooted every few years just because an owner decides to sell.

Push for social housing. Do not accept private rental again. You cannot allow yourself to be put in this precarious situation again. It is not easy but contact your local council, do they have a bidding system? Where are you? Insist that due to your imminent eviction and you DCs schooling you need priority social housing.

A lot of LL's are issuing section 21's ahead of the RRB. If a section 21 is issued before May 1st it is valid provided they have given you 2 months notice, put your deposit in a government scheme, had electric and gas certificates issued and given you How to Rent booklet. If they have done this you can go to the council as soon as you receive section 21 and explain they were charging you under market rent. They will advise you not to leave. The LL will wait 2 months then take you to court to get you evicted. After 5-6 months a baliff will be around to make you move. Keep in touch with council. They will probably put you in temporary accommodation. Blame the government for this. I know so many LL's who have issued section 21's in last month or who are planning on doing it before May 1st. Tenants thought it would be good for them but many wish it hadn't been started once they are evicted.

I understand that waiting it out to get evicted by a bailiff could result in a county court judgment which would mean no credit for years and possibly put you and your family in a vulnerable situation, if you need credit. Happy to be corrected if I’m wrong.

And this is exactly why Private Landlords should stop being penalised.

You're wrong. CCJs can only be issued for unpaid rent and even then only when Section 8 is used rather than Section 21.

You can still register. Anyone can register, you'll just be really, really, really low down on the list and not get a look in on a house until the eviction is imminent. But what it does mean is that they'll have already done all the paperwork, have provided almost all paperwork and have log in details etc for the systems in good time to check they work and learn to navigate the system. All prior to being even more stressed and finding it really difficult to do.

Indeed.

I know on mumsnet landlords are seen as the devil, but until we have a better alternative system in place private landlords needs support, not penalizing. House prices are not going down, rent is only going up and the need for a deposit to buy hasn't changed so getting rid of landlords is not helping people buy houses and is just causing stress and increased homelessness.

No advice beyond what others have said but sympathy to you. This really sucks. Please keep posting for ideas and information.
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