Council housing

wendykearney · 26 February 2008 at 12:38AM

In a few weeks we will through no fault of our own be homeless.I'm disabled which is why we are finding it so hard to find a suitable property. its also an area where rented property that is affordable is difficult to find.

A man from the Council came today to assess us but said it was unlikely they would have anything in time and their temp accomadation was not suitable. We went through all that we have done to find somewhere and he admitted that we'd be very lucky to get something in the private sector that was affordable as well as suitable. (My health has taken a dowturn and though our current house has problems i have been able to manage with help but LL is retiring here hence our eviction)

When i asked what would happen if they had nothing he wasn;t forthcoming and just said keep checking for private housing.

So my question, what does happen if we can't find anywhere? Is the councils excuse of their temp accomadation not being suitable mean they can wash their hands of us? We also have a 12yr old son.
The stress of all this is really having a effect on my health which isn't helping either

I'd be very grateful for any advice.
wendy

WYBMADIITY_2 · 26 February 2008 at 1:13AM

Hi Wendy

I've recently been unlucky enough to find myself in a similar situation. I am disabled with 3 children, one of whom is also disabled. The council have accepted us onto the housing list and as being potentially homeless. They have accepted we need a 4 bedroom home, and then in the same breath said they don't have any and to keep on looking privately.

However, the council have a legal duty towards you. Once they have accepted you as potentially homeless, they can only discharge that legal duty in a number of ways. The first is to provide the accommodation you need, but note it MUST be suitable under their own guidelines. Or they can lease a property and allow you to live in it as a council tenant. The only other way is for you to obtain private rented property - but please note!!!! If you were to move into private rental which you were unable to afford, this is not classed as the council legally discharging their obligation, and could also be construed by them as you making yourself intentionally homeless.

I currently have a housing solicitor on my case through a local housing charity. He has said the council have accepted my application and acknowledged my need, therefore have no option but to provide accommodation even if it means they have to go and buy a house I can rent from them! Though the other option I prefer to explore is renting private property (very expensive in my area), and as they are unable/unwilling to provide social housing, they will have no option but to top up my housing benefit to cover the rent. They have no choice but to do one or the other, and the housing charity are quite prepared to take them to court for to force their co-operation if they don't comply very shortly.

I hope that helps you somewhat. Find out who your local housing charity are (through Shelter is probably the best place), and ask to be assigned to a caseworker ASAP. If I can help any more please PM me.

Best of luck. I understand how hard this is, but try to keep your chin up and you'll get there eventually.

Wyb

squinty · 26 February 2008 at 7:34PM

Hi Wendy,

I'm not sure from your post if you have applied to the council for housing (ie on their waiting list) or made an application under homlessness legislation.

Can you clarify?

(If you are not sure - a waiting list aplication was probably a form you filled in yourself, and may have been followed by a visit. A homlessness application would involve a longish interview with a council officer)

wendykearney · 27 February 2008 at 8:20PM

Hi, I only put in a housing application form when i realised i may not be able to find another property in time. I've put adverts everywhere, bugged the hell out of LA's etc etc. So i rang the council for advice, was told to put ina form and was seen by the bloke in charge of the homelessness on monday. He came to assess me for my disability etc as i can't go just aywhere (hence the prob getting somewhere

He did actually ring this morning to tell me of a flat for sale locally, i'd already seen it but its at the top of what anyone would lend us and its been up for sale for over 18mths which makes me wonder whats up with it! Also if we did buy it we'd be hand to mouth cause of higher heating bills etc etc.If interest rates carried on going up we'd be in trouble. We have no debts now and i'd like it to stay that way! lol Because we've refused to buy it could that class us as intentionally homeless?

wendy

JasonLVC · 27 February 2008 at 8:32PM

It's been a three years since I worked in Homeless/Housing but the basics were that the homeless person was offered upto three properties after whichld then legally discharge its responsibilities.

If the proeprties were suitable for disabled use (?) and you've rejected them due to location/condition then you'll be getting close to being left high and dry. I guess it'll come down to how you and the council define yability and determine how a property can be suitable/unsuitable.

If it is high rise but with a lift then a wheelchair bound person can still live there. If too far from a bus stop or shops then that may be a problem, etc.

Sorry to hear your plight, best wishes and good luck and hopefully it'll all just slot into place for you.

wendykearney · 27 February 2008 at 8:59PM

The council haven't offered us anything yet, just pointed out a flat for sale locally. Its the for sale flat i've rejected.

We have offered to pay to make a house adapted for me if its possible to do so,(with grants and my mum will help) it seems our council only has one temp accomadation place and its an old pub and he said its in no way suitable for any one who is disabled. So he is hoping a suitable house comes up but he didn't say what would happen if it didn't, just rather left it open to suggestion as not their prob if they have nothing... We are still looking for private housing so i'm not just sitting back and waiting for the council to sort us a new home.
He did say he expects to be busier after the new HB thingi starts in april though!

wendy

Alleycat · 27 February 2008 at 9:25PM

Hi, I'm a Homeless Assessment Officer and hope I can help with some guidance.

Firstly, make sure that the council have definitely taken an application under Part VII of the Housing Act from you. This is basically a homeless application. Once this has been done, the council will have a legal duty to secure temporary accommodation (interim) under S.188 of the Housing Act 1996. Regardless of your physical needs in relation to a suitable property they will have to find it. Whether it be B&B, leasing from a private landlord, own temporary accommodation stock or leased from a Housing Association. They cannot fob you off with a "oh there's nothing suitable for your needs" line.

All the council basically need to have is a reason to believe homelessness and priority need for them to have a duty to provide interim.

Please be aware, that if you refuse a suitable offer of interim accommodation the council can and most likely will discharge their duty to provide this interim accommodation. The accommodation must however be suitable for your medical needs. If in doubt, move in and then request a review of suitability just to be on the safe side.

The council will then have a legal duty to make enquiries into your eligibility (i.e. British Citizen, recourse to public funds), homelessness (if your landlord has evicted you through the proper channels), priority need (disability would count as would having children living with you),
intentionality (did you do or omit to do anything which has led you to become homeless) and lastly local connection (have lived for 6 out of the last 12 months, 2 out of the last 5 years in the LA, work there etc). Once the council have concluded their enquiries, they will issue you with a decision under S.184 of the Housing Act 1996.

Once a decision has been issued and if a positive one i.e. homeless, priority need and not intentionally homeless, the council would continue to have a duty to accommodate you whilst it seeks to discharge its full duty by securing long term accommodation (this could be private rented, but you would have to choose to accept this and would not be penalised for refusing). With regard to permanent accommodation, most local authorities have their own individual rules on this. Some will discharge duty after refusal of 3 suitable properties, others will let you keep bidding and refusing offers. You will get informed of their policy once the council have accepted a full duty towards you.

Just to clarify your current position. Has your landlord issued you with a valid two months written notice? If so, has this expired and has an application been made to court for possession of the property?

squinty · 27 February 2008 at 10:49PM

hello,

The advice that Alleycat gives is excellent.

However, from what you have said it does not sound like you have made a 'homlessness' application. You may make an application when you are either homeless now or at risk of becoming homless within the next 28 days. - It may be helpful if you provided information on your current situation (ie details of tenure and why you are losing your current accommodation) which will allow more tailored advice.

And/or take a look at the Shelter website - they have a very good guide that leads you through the homlessness route.

Please be aware that the '3 offer' rule refered to by Alleycat and Jason is not legislation. The authority may consider it has discharged it duty after one offer of suitable accommodation. You may want to check on the local rules.

Good luck

wendykearney · 28 February 2008 at 3:56PM

Hi, we've have been given a sec 21 which means april 18th is whne we have to be out( it was originally 18th march but the sec 21 was wrong so it was reissued correctly). The man from the council who has been dealing with it is the person who is in charge of the homeles section of the housing dept. He has rung the LL and checked everything out and has verbally accepted that we have no movement with regards the end date as the LL has builders etc booked. No application has been made to the Court but Homeless Officer didn't say i needed it.
When he came round he said it was to assess my disability so he knew what housing we would need. I'm going up later to drop of my OT's report so i'll check that we have correct housing application in.

They have checked eligiablity etc, we have lived in the area over 12mths, son goes to school in local area, am UK citizan, not our fault becoming homeless etc etc.

So they can't hold the fact we don'y want to buy the Flat against us then? Buying it would be a really stupid move as we'd prbably be in real fiancial trouble if the interest rates go up etc?

Looked in LA offices again yesterday but the only suitable houses are over our price bracket and i've renewed some of the ad's i've placed in various places so i am still trying to get somewhere before i has to resort to begging the council to sort something...

Thanks for your help and advice. i'll post later after i've been to the Council.

wendy

wendykearney · 28 February 2008 at 6:58PM

Right i'm back....
The section 7 has been sorted. He has put the appropriate homeless points on for me. I asked him where we go from here and he said keep looking for private housing. He also suggested a holiday let but this would be a strict4month, we'd have to also top up rent with savings so going this route would eat badly into what little we have. Also we'd be back at sq 1 at the end. He kept going on how we knew this tennacy was only for just over 6 months, yes we knew that thats why we've been looking for somewhere since end nov....
I tried to get him to say they have a duty to home us but all he'd say is get storgae now and start packing as you won't be able to take your belongings with you if in hostel - but he's already stated the hostel is a no go... Anyway we have been packing already and have a storage unit with some furniture in it from when we moved as we've been tryinmg to find somewhre long term and until we did that we didn't want to get rd of nearly new white goods etc until we knew we wouldn't need them.

He wasn't very helpful at all and wouldn't say anything to give me any kind of assurance we wouldn't be in a tent! He just kept harping ona bout people being on list for years before they got anything...

So at least we have just over a month before we have to be out( the council don't recommend staying after date and making LL go to court and if you left at the sec 21 date you would not have deemed to made self homeless

Hope all that makes sense - new dose painkillers messing up my head! lol

wendy

PasturesNew · 28 February 2008 at 8:10PM

If you say where you are, maybe somebody reading will know somebody ... who knows somebody ... etc.

You can always edit it out after the event.

Council housing

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