Advice Re. Private Let Please

gravitytolls

silvercar wrote: »

You rson would only have had the status of a lodger of the main tenant. He therefore has very few rights and the main tenant can evict without notice.

The landlord has the right not to accept rent and require vacant possession of the property before giving a deposit back to the tenant. In fact, she could charge rent to the tenant until all personal property is removed.

This arrest for criminal damage to the property will cause a difficulty. I'm not sure of the council obligation to house someone who caused criminal damage to their last property. Though I suspect charges may be dropped given the circumstances.

Where does this leave your son? homeless for a start with a bit of a problem regarding his previous address. If you can help at all, it could be worth you housing him on a sofa for a few days then he could present to the council as having been made homeless because you have asked him to leave due to overcrowding/ new kid arriving. As a single lad made homeless, he won't be a priority and will probably only get a hostel or B&B.

I hope he won't be charged any further rent, as the previous tenant took a full months rent from him just a week ago, so he is theoretically paid up for the next three weeks. He did this, supposedly because the tenancy was being transferred, it would now appear it was to line his own pocket.

He's kipping on a friends sofa. The council's position is that if he is on ours, he can remain there until he is 25, as in their eyes, he is not in need or homeless. It is not an option, we are already a household of 9 people and one on the way.

As I said, I know the council do arrange tenancies for folk on their list via private LL's, and have done for years, he always pays his bills, it's simply forward planning and saving deposits that he struggles with ~ hence the problems he has.

His condition means that he does what's expected of him, because he knows what that is, i.e go to work at the the right time, pay the bills at the right time, wash, turn music down at appropriate etc. because he can do what he's told. But when he's confronted with situations he doesn't expect, he doesn't know what to do, and his reaction is unpredictable. Had he called me when he was locked out, I'd've told him to call the police who would let him back in, but he didn't, he gained access himself, putting himself on the wrong side of the law.

I understand why a prospective LL would be concerned about criminal damage to a previous property, but if he were released from prison, for instance, he would be given assistance in finding accommodation wouldn't he? And this is what he needs, assistance.

silvercar

Had he called me when he was locked out, I'd've told him to call the police who would let him back in, but he didn't, he gained access himself, putting himself on the wrong side of the law

I suspect the police would tell him it was a civil matter and not get involved.

The council's position is that if he is on ours, he can remain there until he is 25, as in their eyes, he is not in need or homeless. It is not an option, we are already a household of 9 people and one on the way.

I'm not sure that that is true. If you give tell him to leave he has no more rights to stay than any othe lodger, as he is over 18.

BitterAndTwisted

gravitytolls wrote: »

Re. the 'friends', I'm pretty narked, not least because it turns out one of teh reasons they wanted to move to the three bed house with huge garden is because they've decided to become a 'weed' farm, presumably with intention of becoming the local suppliers. Nice.

Dear God in Heaven, these really are scumbags of the first order! Do you know where they have moved to? In your position, apart from shopping them for HB fraud, I'd give them a month or two to get their horticultural project under way and then shop them to the police.

Is there anything your son's employer can do to help him? Like a loan or a salary advance, which could work like a season-ticket loan, to get a deposit together? As the employer is giving him a hand to collect his furniture and possessions in a company van, they do sound like a decent sort and it certainly wouldn't hurt to ask. Is there anywhere at work he might be able to bunk down in for a short period if he asked permission?

gravitytolls

silvercar wrote: »

I suspect the police would tell him it was a civil matter and not get involved.



I'm not sure that that is true. If you give tell him to leave he has no more rights to stay than any othe lodger, as he is over 18.

In fact he was asked to leave last year, though no time limit was in place. I was told myself by the council housing department that they will not accept a parental eviction for anyone under 25 unless pregnancy or abuse is involved.

He wasn't pregnant, or abused, and though we asked him to leave, we gave no formal written notification ~ I contacted the council re. advice with private lets and lack of deposit type stuff, as I certainly didn't want him in a hostel mixing with folk who may not have his best interests at heart. Turns out it made no difference anyway.

Jowo_2

gravitytolls wrote: »

In fact he was asked to leave last year, though no time limit was in place. I was told myself by the council housing department that they will not accept a parental eviction for anyone under 25 unless pregnancy or abuse is involved.

That's a new one on me. I thought local authorities had a statutory obligation to assist the homeless and so long as it wasn't deemed 'intentional' didn't have any discretion in the matter.

Do you mean to say that they didn't help at all, or they have a policy of not giving a social housing tenancy in that situation but will help them into private lets, such as through a referral or deposit guarantee scheme, or in temporary accommodation?

silvercar

I accept what you are saying, that the council does not consider a young adult as a priority rehousing need, just because their family have asked them to leave - otherwise the housing waiting list would be full of 18 year olds demanding houses on their birthday.

I was saying that you can ask your adult child to leave as you have no legal responsibility to house them. Of course this means they have to sort out a private house share or rental; I was not suggesting the council should have this responsibility.

At 18+ most adults are just finding their feet and need the support of parents. In most cases this means staying at home a while longer, but where this is not possible it is reasonable for the family to get involved helping sort out a private rental.

Morglin

I would contact the Adult and Disability Team at your local council social services dept., - even if he hasn't been specifically diagnosed, his GP should be able to confirm that he has difficulties, realting to Autism/Asbergers etc.,

They then should be able to work with housing lettings to help him to find either a private let, or social housing.

He is classed as 'vulnerable' and they should help him - though you may need to be forceful and go through the right departments.

Lin

silvercar

Morglin wrote: »

I would contact the Adult and Disability Team at your local council social services dept., - even if he hasn't been specifically diagnosed, his GP should be able to confirm that he has difficulties, realting to Autism/Asbergers etc.,

They then should be able to work with housing lettings to help him to find either a private let, or social housing.

He is classed as 'vulnerable' and they should help him - though you may need to be forceful and go through the right departments.

Lin

He won't be classed as vunerable until he has a diagnosis confirmed by a doctor at the very least. Until then he is just a young adult who needs to leave the family home.

gravitytolls wrote: »

In fact he was asked to leave last year, though no time limit was in place. I was told myself by the council housing department that they will not accept a parental eviction for anyone under 25 unless pregnancy or abuse is involved.

He wasn't pregnant, or abused, and though we asked him to leave, we gave no formal written notification ~ I contacted the council re. advice with private lets and lack of deposit type stuff, as I certainly didn't want him in a hostel mixing with folk who may not have his best interests at heart. Turns out it made no difference anyway.

This is the problem, you don't want him living with you but you want to choose where he lives. The world isn't like that. A homeless single person of 18 is more than likely going to be given a hostel or B&B. He may be directed towards finding a shared house, but I doubt the council are going to do this for him.

IMHO you have gone about this the wrong way. You should get the diagnosis confirmed first and possibly also involved social services. Then you should have got him on the lists for housing and only then you should have asked him to leave.

Change is difficult to manage for people with his conditions, so you want as smooth a transfer as possible, rather than leave him not knowing where he will be living. Could you not take him back home before your 7th child arrives?

PasturesNew

As I was reading the OP's postings I thought "he's on the spectrum", that she then confirmed.

While able to function normally, there are situations and circumstances that make one go completely the opposite way. If you don't know what to do then emotions can run high and it's difficult to ask for help because often one thing you can't do is "just ask".

People on the spectrum can easily be lead into situations simply because they don't have the social interaction skills to confront people assertively or communicate so that things are clear between the parties.

It's a s0d... clearly, all he is trying to do is "the right thing" in life, but getting tripped up - and now this upset has probably made him withdraw and feel lost and alone. There are rules to live by (hence he was doing all the right things with regard to setting things up, paying bills etc) - and when others don't do the right thing it's confusing, we expect everybody to do the right thing and rely on it to a certain extent.

Good luck OP!
(I am on the spectrum)

You can tell him things do get better as you learn to question and anticipate the motives of others and learn to distance yourself from getting involved with people.

Unfortunately, as we're "naive", it's a fine line between getting sucked in by people and losing money along the way (such as this) and being called awkward for not assisting people in their selfish lives.

PasturesNew

Oh - and another thing - for dealing with the police.

Essex have an initiative called the Essex Autism Alert Card. Just for the record, if you are living there you could get one, or you could perhaps investigate how it's going and if it will be rolled out elsewhere, or even create your own:
http://www.autism-anglia.org.uk/downloads/newsletters/autism-anglia-spring07.pdf

"The card will help the Emergency Services
quickly identify that they are dealing
with someone who has autism. It will have
the card holder’s name, offer some simple
advice and will have the contact details for
further help.
If you would like a card or know of someone
who would benefit please contact
Jo Keys on 01206 577678"

For those reading this and wondering what it's about, if you are confronted in a situation by police, their handling procedures might be the opposite of what's required to calm you down. e.g. touching is likely to make somebody flail out - distance is required, personal space. Bright lights and loud noises make somebody on the spectrum become anxious and "like a rabbit caught in headlights".... the body goes onto "hyper alert" mode and so questioning you if you've been a bit rough handled and shouted at will mean you might be appearing to act irrationally, perhaps even dangerously, when you're not, you're just confused and your brain can't process the events and surroundings quickly enough to respond in the way they expect. So you're then, further, treated as a danger - when in fact the complete opposite is the truth.