Housing assiciation after RTB council house

Toto

Hi all

I'm looking for a bit of advice for a friend of mine. She had a council house which she bought a few years ago while she was married. However she broke up with her husband and had to remortgage. He took a massive chunk of the equity, the rest she used to pay off debts he had run up in her name.

Things were ok for the first year but then the mortgage repayments almost doubled to a staggering £1300 per month. She really struggled to keep making repayments every month and it looked like she was going to lose her house.

By this time the husband had moved abroad, leaving her to support their 4 kids alone, the youngest 2 (twins) have a genetic disability and need a lot of care. The CSA can't help her because the husband is out of the country.

So, rather than lose the house through reposession she decided to sell the house and move into rented accomodation. She needs to have a large house because of the kids and their needs, so the rent is also quite steep, around £1000 a month I think.

She works, which is her escape from her home problems, but this means she is not entitled to housing benefit. Her worry though is that her landlord will for whatever reason ask her to leave the property at the end of her term and she will have to be moving regularly. Also with interest rates going up she is worried how this will impact on her rent.

She is a really lovely hard working woman and i do feel for her, she isn't the sort looking for a free ride,she does feel really insecure about her and the kids future though. She isn't able to save a penny, the rent and council tax takes up all of her wages and she survives on the tax credit.

So, does anyone know if she could go on a housing association waiting list? Would the fact that she bought her council house originally stop her from doing this? I could understand why the housing association would say no because she once had a council home, but in my opinion a genuine need is there.

Anyway, I thought I would ask for her, you lot are much wiser than me when it comes to these things. I would love to be able to help her out though and point her in the right direction.

astonsmummy

Hi, most HA properties are given to people who have been nominated by the council, she can go on the council list even though she bought a house before, tell her to go on the list anyways then if the worst does happen she's already on the list and will just need to inform them of her change of circumstances rather than applying then and waiting longer, some councils operate a bidding system where you bid on properties and the person who has bidded on a certain property and has been on the list the longest will be offered the house/flat.
If it's done on a points system she may get extra points for her childrens didabitities.
Advise her to go on the council list and make an appointment to see a housing adviser.