HELP....urgently looking for a place to move!!!

gino_76ph

Hi there!

I had to go here and ask for help regarding my predicament. I'm a nurse and staying in a hospital Trust accomodation with my wife. I received a letter from the Trust yesterday basically saying that the building has been bought by a private company and now kicking us out ASAP. we were given at least 3 more months to vacate the premises and look/move into a place. It was very upsetting because it was a very short notice, financially we can't afford it right just now (as our money went to the christmas/new year sales and a holiday in the Carribbean this March) and me & my wife were talking about having a baby this year.

I don't know how to start my questions to be honest.

Which are the best persons or places to speak to at first? I heard that estate agents should be your first port of call. but i don't know which estate agents are there. could be hundreds in my borough alone. haven't tried websites but again which website shall i start looking? would my council help us in our circumstances. which borough or neighbourhood are cozy and quiet? and how would i know if its that cozy or quiet and accessible to say central London by train or tube?

We live in the London borough of Lambeth, looking to rent monthly, can afford roughly a monthly rental of £1000 (maximum!) and best if its within zone 2 or 3 roughly "in-between" areas of Chelsea (where my wife works) and London Bridge (where i work).

We are currently thinking of a 1-2 bedroom flat with all the basic amenities (water, gas, BT phone line, washing machine port, TV aeriel, etc.) and can be partly or not furnished at all we don't mind.

We are looking to move by April time.

PLEASE....help us!!!!

carefullycautious

Im sorry to sound harsh, but you are both in employment and should be putting money aside for just such an issue. Living from week to week has plunged you into this mess.

And as for saying you want to add a baby into this mix, is madness to say the least.

I hope this is a lesson learned

silvercar

Being given 3 months notice is not short notice in rental terms. In a private rent, you would leave at the end of the fixed term or be given only 2 months notice.

If this is work accommodation are the employers doing anything to help you find alternatives?

You will need to budget for a deposit (up to 6 weeks rent is normal) and to pay your first months rent when you get the keys. You are also likely to be referenced and charged for this.

Has your rent been subsidised up to now? Is your employer doing anything to help?

WestonDave

Rightmove has places to rent on as does gumtree - those are possibly good starts - Rightmove will give you a lot of the agent managed places whilst gumtree will probably pick up a lot of the self managed places.

You'll have very little priority for a "council" place, and virtually none unless you actually hang on and get evicted via court proceedings.

Given that you have spent out without insuring you have an emergency savings fund, you may have to do this in two stages - somewhere you can afford at the moment for a year, which should then enable you to save up to move on to somewhere better again. That said if you bring a baby into the equation you will lose a lot of income at least for the maternity leave period so you'll need some funds in hand for that as well.

BigAunty

As a nurse, do you qualify as a key worker?

If so, I believe there are many social housing providers that offer market or under market rents to key workers on private ASTs.

Also I believe a number of hospitals or social housing providers have links with each other and offer tenancies (not necessarily social housing ones) to NHS workers.

I'm sorry that I can't provide very specific links though I've definately seen threads on this topic before so hopefully other members can provide guidance.

Would something like this appeal to you?

https://www.peabody.org.uk/finding-a-property/intermediate-market-rent-(imr).aspx

https://www.peabody.org.uk/finding-a-property/intermediate-market-rent-(imr)/intermediate-market-listing-(imr).aspx

DannyboyMidlands

The first thing you need to do is relax. 3 months is plenty of notice so you need to save any spare cash for your deposit which may be up to 6 weeks rent. In my experience letting agents and landlords in London wont even take you seriously until around 1 month before you need to move.

If you want to be between Chelsea and London Bridge then you'd be looking at Elephant, Camberwell, Kennington, Stockwell, Brixton, Clapham, Battersea but your budget is likely to be a problem. £1k will only get you a one bed flat at best and it certainly wont be a cozy and quiet area. I guess it depends what you are used to though. Where do you currently live?

You need to look at a map, use gumtree and rightmove to compare prices, if you end up looking further afield then commutefrom.com will give journey times into various London stations.

DominicJ_2

Rightmove Rentals and a few minutes will find thousands of properties.
Have a look whats out there and then pick a random estate agent that does lettings and pop in for a chat.

gino_76ph

To carefullycautious with respect to your response (and on what your job is) me and my wife were caught UNAWARE of this decision taken by the hospital Trust. we planned (on the March holiday and a "possible" baby) for 2012 in 2011!!! we didn't even bought plenty of say designer stuff during the sales because we asked ourselves "Oh, that's pretty. but do i need it?". you make it sound as if we are on benefits and just wanting to have a baby for the hell of it. a more realistic and polite reply would be highly appreciated you know.

As regards the Trust "helping" us...well, the only help they are giving us right now is giving us time to vacate the premises. i know May 2012 is still roughly 4 months away but we would like to start finding a place as soon as we can and as soon as possible. and by April time.

I'm working for the NHS (as a frontline staff) so i suppose i'm a key worker. and so is my wife. will try peabody though.

We are currently in Stockwell (just off South Lambeth Road). our building is 3 blocks away from the main road and its a middle-class/working-class neighbourhood. it is quiet and clean and with easy access to shops. central london is just 15 minutes away to Victoria or to Westminster. We liked the place because its almost central so we thought why not start with our plans, isn't it?

And from the choices you gave me i would certainly look at areas of Stockwell (again), Pimlico, Battersea & Clapham for now. why? because of personal reasons and from what we know/perceive about the said areas.

Will the council help us in our situation? will we get some degree of priority? heard of rightmove.com so that's a good head-start. :-) (thanks for the suggestion)

BitterAndTwisted

The Council will help in one way or another. Perhaps not be treating you as a priority for Council housing because you are not at IMMINENT risk of being homelesss. Imminent for some councils is either a court-order or the bailiffs at the door. This is because they cannot meet demand and therefore must prioritise. That does not mean that you cannot apply and that you will not qualify.

Many Councils have a Private Rentals section who could choose to help you with finding the initial deposit for a private rental.

The only way to find out what help may be at hand is to make an appointment or turn up at their offices and enquire.

Find out which Housing Associations are in the areas you are in now and which areas you may want to live and ask them whether they can help key-workers.

Find out via both of your employers' welfare people whether there could be any avenues for investigation there.

Just because you have been given notice does not necessarily mean that you automatically must leave the property by the date they have given you. You could have up until June or July at the earliest to find somewhere else. Try not to panic just yet.

Uk_Lover

Lot of people on here looking for help have nothing, no home, no money and defiantly no Caribbean holiday. How much would you lose if you cancelled the holiday ? (I'm not having a dig by the way!)
You have no chance with the council. Your only chance is with the key workers scheme so get onto them and start saving as you will need a decent deposit for wherever you end up. I hope the key workers people help you out as I know you guys get paid a pittance for what you do so big respect !!

BigAunty

gino_76ph wrote: »

...

Will the council help us in our situation? will we get some degree of priority?

Doubt it, without being classed as a priority (and you are current not)you'd probably get advice on how to find private accommodation, particularly as you're currently adequately housed, albeit your landlord has given you notice, rather than any assistance.

You could check the social housing allocation policy for the councils where you work, where you currently live and areas you are interested in to see if they give additional points for a local connection or keyworker status or their advice to private tenants seeking accommodation.

Read up on the Shelter website about how local councils prioritise those that complete a homelessness application (for those with no security of tenure past the next 28 days). Priority for social housing tends to be given to those with dependents and disabilities. The Shelter site has good info on how homelessness applications are processed.