Help: finding a home when bankrupt!

MrsF25

can anybody offer any advice??

My husband has been made bankrupt, our home was above his business.

We are currently stopping with family (ourselves plus two children) but no letting agencies will touch us. Now in full time employment so we can afford to rent.

The council so far have been useless, conflicting themselves, we earn to much, then when we talk about the bankrupt they dont take financial situation into account. Can anybody suggest anything, we are at our wits end.:mad:

Ineedaname

Hi there, it's a matter of seeking out private landlords if none of the local letting agents will consider you.

Depending on the type of location, shop windows can often prove fruitful for direct landlord lettings. There's always Loot and Freeads and a websearch for "private landlord lettings rentals" with your locality added should bring a few things up. Obviously you can play with combinations of the search words. Some members have had luck with the Gumtree website too.

LilysMum_2

Hi Mrs F

When my husband and I first went bankrupt we also needed a place to live. I went around 17 estate agents and was completely honest with all of them. The last one I went to accepted us and they happened to be a very small company so they needed the business. We are currently renting through a housing association (Jephson) who know all of our credit history and didn't question it. Have you tried contacting the housing associations directly rather than going through the council?

Good luck with your search and I hope you find your new home very soon

Raphael

LilysMum wrote: »

I went around 17 estate agents and was completely honest with all of them. The last one I went to accepted us and they happened to be a very small company so they needed the business.

Same here, I assumed letting agencies wouldn't touch me with a barge pole since they'd always been so strict with credit checks / proof of income in the past, and I knew I would fail credit checks, had a low income and expecting to get about half of my rent from housing benefits, and there was no way I could pay 6 months' rent in advance either.

So I looked for private landlords on gumtree, with no luck for a while (flats either completely unsuitable for me, or only available for short term, or costing more than what I could afford) until I found one I really wanted, it didn't specify it was an agency on gumtree but it turned out a small letting agency and I had to talk to them for a while when going through the application: I had to tell them I was bankrupt (they asked me for details of how it'd happened) and had been self-employed for several years, with low earnings so I would have to claim HB but had never failed to pay my rent in the past, they phoned my landlady to get confirmation of that, and I was amazed they accepted me in the end!

I think it helps if it's a small agency and you can talk to them as people and they can see you're being honest with them and they like you. Also, if you say you're both employed and able to prove you can afford the rent, that's gonna work in your favour, I couldn't even offer that myself and had to admit I'd be relying on HB for part of the rent.

Trajal

Andrews will talk to the landlord to see if they will accept you. There's an earning 'prove it' check of 25 times rent i think. If you earn more than that per annum then you have a reasonable chance if you talk to someone nicely and just ask for help.

Ineedaname

Who are Andrews?

immoral_angeluk

Have a look at other registered social landlords in your area besides the council, IE housing associations et al.

Tigger1983

We moved into a council house just before giong BR two years ago, and our experiences have not been positive. When we viewed the property it was very quiet, and seemed quite a nice area. However, since the day we moved in we have had endless problems with our neighbours, and the housing association does absolutely nothing. I would urge anyone considering this type of property to view any potential ones several times over the course of a week, particularly at evenings and weekends. Some are quite nice but some are an absolute nightmare!

Good luck,

Tig x

Raphael

Tigger1983 wrote: »

We moved into a council house just before giong BR two years ago, and our experiences have not been positive. When we viewed the property it was very quiet, and seemed quite a nice area. However, since the day we moved in we have had endless problems with our neighbours, and the housing association does absolutely nothing. I would urge anyone considering this type of property to view any potential ones several times over the course of a week, particularly at evenings and weekends. Some are quite nice but some are an absolute nightmare!

Good luck,

Tig x

What can you do though, if you've been on the waiting list for a while or been homeless, you know refusing a house has consequences, so you're pretty much bound to accept anytghing that comes up and and ve grateful for it!

Ineedaname

Raphael - With the new bidding system you only bid for a house you want anyway, so the question of refusing an offered place doesn't come up.

I doubt there's many, if any, LAs that still run on first come, first served waiting lists and offering places to be refused. Even if they are, you used to be able to refuse at least once before being booted off the list, although you would be dropped down the list for refusing.

Raphael

Ineedaname wrote: »

Raphael - With the new bidding system you only bid for a house you want anyway, so the question of refusing an offered place doesn't come up.

I doubt there's many, if any, LAs that still run on first come, first served waiting lists and offering places to be refused. Even if they are, you used to be able to refuse at least once before being booted off the list, although you would be dropped down the list for refusing.

Thanks for that, I know this was a while ago but missed your reply earlier, I've not been on here that often recently... I think I didn't put it across that well and confused things by mentioning the length of time you've been on the list, it's 2 separate issues I had in mind.

What I mean is if you're suddenly being made homeless, you might be eligible for priority accommodation, and in that case you can't be too picky... is it not the case that if you refuse something you "lose the priority status"?

But also even without an emergency, if you've been on the waiting list for a while and unsuccessfully bidding for nice areas, you might end up bidding for properties you're not so sure about if you think you're more likely to get them, and it can be hit and miss, you might end up with nice neighbours in what might be considered a trouble area, or you might end up in the property from hell, but by the time you find out it's too late...

I realise this is a bit off-topic compared to the original thread, I'll try not to say much more on that topic (might start a separate topic about council houses) it's just that I think the system is so messed up you don't know whether you should get people's hopes high about getting a council house if they're threatened with homelessness or tell them to stear clear...

And it was also an example of someone who could have afforded to rent privately but was turned down because of the usual credit checks after bankruptcy, and when threatened with homelessness was told they weren't gonna get a council house but might have been happy to choose a council house and pay rent market for it; it doesn't make sense to me when I know people who recently got council houses regardless of their circumstances, just because they'd put their names on the list so many years ago, and it finally became their turn, even though by now they're earning more than enough to keep renting privately or even get a mortgage, but somehow they're getting subsidised rent whilst other people (who can't get a mortage or rent privately but are not classed as priority) get turned away!