Council pushing brother over house

gally56

Hi hopefully my brother and I can seek advice over this matter.
Basically my brother has lived with my mother at thier current property for over 17 years now. The House is rented from our local council and my mother was the sole tenant after my father left over 9 years ago.
My mother was placed in a nursing home after being diagnosised with cancer and will not be be returning to the home.
My brother at present is still at the home which is a three bedroom property and he fully understands that the Council would want to house a family in that property rather than leave a single man in their.
The moment we knew that our mother would not be returning to the home she signed and termination to end her tenancy in four weeks whilst my brother filled in an application to be rehoused as is effect he is now homeless and but alos with my help continued to pay the rent.
The council issued my brother with a grade 3 (1 is highest -4 is lowest) Which means he can look for any 1 bedroom properties they or any housing association has in the area of bedfordshire (We live in luton).
Basically every 2 weeks the council and housing associations put on properties that are available and people who are are seeking properties and are on the 1-4 grading can bid (i.e. show an interest) on properties.
my brother has been visiting the website ever since he received his grading and has not been able to find any properties suitable. As he does not drive and lives a short distance from his work and has all his friends and family close by he really doesnt want to move too far away from the area but would accept having a propety in a certain radius of where he is.
The trouble is that everytime the new properties are advertised any ones that we see would be suitable for him have a clause that they are suitable for people over 50/60 and are basically warden control properties and the rest of the properties are so far out of his perferred radius is would be unsuitable for him to ge to work as his does double day shifts for 2 weeks can mean he has to be at work by 6.00 am some mornings or leave by 10.30pm in the evening.
Yesterday he receieved a call from the local housing officer who said that she had spoke to the housing allocations in view of getting his grading moved to either 2 or 1 but they had said he was in the grading suitable for him but had not placed any bids since he was graded. My brother said that he could not bid on properties that cleary stated they were for the ages off 55-60 and would not bid on properties that meant he had to walk for over an hour just to get to work.
He is now worried that when my mother's four week notice on the property runs out (its now in its last 2 weeks) the council his force him out regardless off wherever he has found a suitble propety or not he has tried to look in the private lettings but the rent is so high that there is no way he could rent at those rates.
Does anyone have any advice or can relate to similar situations over the rights of someone who has lived in the same rented council property but is not been tenancy holder.
Any advice given is very gratefullu receieved and we thank you for taking to time to read this post.

seven-day-weekend

It really seems to me that he will have to move further out if he wants a Council property.

Could he buy a moped or cycle to get to work?

poppy10_2

gally56 wrote: »

he really doesnt want to move too far away from the area .

You can't always get what you want. Either he moves further afield or he privately rents closer to where he wants to stay.

gauly

Does your brother have the right to inherit your mother's tenancy? He could then arrange to swap for a smaller place. It would certainly leave him in a much stronger position to get the property he needs.

silvercar

The mistake was probably in your mother giving notice, she shoud have tried to transfer the tenancy.

If your brother moves into private renting would he be entitled to help with the rent if he is low paid?

If not bidding on anything is preventing him moving up a band, maybe apply for properties with the older age range in the knowledge he will be rejected.

mbga9pgf

Why doesnt he tell the Housing officer to kick some idle benefits claiming waster sor chav unemployed single mum out of their council house to make space for someone who works?

mqandy

You say he works, and does shift work. He must be earning a fair amount (from the shift work) and has no dependents to support.

Which begs the question, why does he need the council to house him?

Plenty of very cheap private sector rents in Luton. His council house rent can't be much less than the cheapest private sector rents can it?

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-12939855.html

There will probably be housing benefit available if it is.

pineapple123

Hi,
This is part from a previous posted by me...
Had same situation with my mother and her grandson ( not my child) who had lived in H/A property all his life, mum went into care and cos tenancy had changed already over the years grandson was not able to take over tenancy of her 3 bed house.
Grandson had notice to quit, at first H/A tried to flog him off with the fact that he had no rights and would have to move even if it meant him being homeless however spoke to housing assocation and appealed to them stating situation and suggesting if they could help get him a suitable place that would free up large 3 bed home. It had to go before a commitee but outcome was grandson was offered 1 bed flat in same area. even though the H/A didnt have to do this , they said he was an exception. Outcome he was given 2 weeks to vacate mums house and move into new flat 400 feet away from mums home.

Try to speak to someone in the H.A/council- preferably senior housing officer get there name and continue to liase with them, you may be able to come to some arrangement . Sorry to say this but If you are not on the tenancy you have no automatic rights to the property regardless of time spent there.
Push them into helping but dont get angry or demanding.

squinty

Once the notice period ends he has no right to remain in the porperty.

There is a right of succession for a secure tenancy, but this only applies once per tenancy, and this has been used when the mother took over the tenancy which was previously held by father (or as a joiunt tenancy).

Once the tenancy has expired the council may start action immediately to remove him from the porperty. They may allow him to remain for a short time, charging mesne profit rather than rent, but are not obliged to do this.

Its unfortunate that there have been no properties advertised that meet all his requirments, but he is not in a position to be fussy. He has a choice - if he wants to remain in the same area he needs to look at all porperties regardless of landlord/tenure. If he wants to remain in a council porperty he needs to look at all council properties regardless of location. It is very unlikley he will get both.

Fire_Fox

Is there any reason why your brother cannot move into a shared house or flat, live as someone's lodger, get a privately let studio flat?

seven-day-weekend

He is very, very lucky that the Council are even considering re-housing him. Most able-bodied single people without children don't stand a chance of social housing.

If he wants a Council place he will have to move further away, as others have said, the other option is to rent privately.