Can the council evict my dad/what happens to me?

267

Werdnal wrote: »

Councils vary on their criteria for housing, but although they might evict your dad if he was in the property on his own, I doubt they would chuck him out on the streets. They may insist he "downsize" to a smaller, perhaps one bed flat or bungalow, and free up your former family home for another family.

As for you, I assume you are not on the current tenancy? I know our local council have a policy of allowing one change to the tenancy, ie your mum and dad were joint tenants, now your dad is the only tenant - so this is the one change. If your dad passed away, then you would not automatically succeed on the tenancy, as the one change has been used, so you would have no right to stay there. Again, I doubt you'd be chucked out on the street, but you would have little say on the size or location of property you were offered, and our council only offer you a chance of 1 or 2 properties, and if you don't accept them, then you are evicted anyway!

I think it is perhaps worth toning down the terminology. They certainly won't "evict" for under occupancy. Rent arrears, anti social behavior etc, yes.

They will try to encourage moving to a smaller property and some councils & HA's have incentive schemes where they offer perhaps £1000 towards moving & decorating costs. Depends how desperate they are for family size properties.

The other question is if the council are even aware that mum has passed away. Even if they are, did dad request a new tenancy agreement, or transfer in to his name only, I doubt it.

To my mind the original tenancy agreement is still in force therefore if, (for example) dad passed while the daughter was still living at home she could "inherit" the tenancy although, as you say, they would at that point insist she accept a smaller property.

Old_Git

why dont see if you can get your name on the tenancy and then move your bf in with you .

faerie~spangles

no1wf wrote: »

Are you sure he won't?

If I could live here forever I would, but we can't set up home ourselves with my dad still living here so I would move out as long as I was sure he would get to stay here, and we could keep this house in our family as long as possible.

That would be until your dad dies or moves somewhere smaller.

If you remain living there, can prove you are paying the rent then you might be able to inherit the tenancy.

no1wf

grey_lady wrote: »

If you move out and anything happens to your dad then i think the house would go back to the council - if you dont have any siblings living there.

-If you still live there and anything happens to your dad then theres a good chance the tenancy would pass to you, but there are rules around this.

Have you and your dad thought about buying the property under the right to buy scheme?

Mum mentioned it a few years ago and even then I said it was a good idea but I don't think anything ever came of it. I imagine it would cost a lot to buy this place though.

267 wrote: »

I think it is perhaps worth toning down the terminology. They certainly won't "evict" for under occupancy. Rent arrears, anti social behavior etc, yes.

They will try to encourage moving to a smaller property and some councils & HA's have incentive schemes where they offer perhaps £1000 towards moving & decorating costs. Depends how desperate they are for family size properties.

The other question is if the council are even aware that mum has passed away. Even if they are, did dad request a new tenancy agreement, or transfer in to his name only, I doubt it.

To my mind the original tenancy agreement is still in force therefore if, (for example) dad passed while the daughter was still living at home she could "inherit" the tenancy although, as you say, they would at that point insist she accept a smaller property.

So they could suggest moving but he wouldn't have to?

I thought you could only change the name on the agreement once. So when mum died her name was taken off and it was just dads so I wouldn't be a successor to anything because there can be no more changed.

Old_Git wrote: »

why dont see if you can get your name on the tenancy and then move your bf in with you .

My dad asked that to the lady that came round and she said there can be no more changes made to the agreement because it's already been changed once. She did ask how long I've lived here so not sure if that means anything.

faerie~spangles wrote: »

That would be until your dad dies or moves somewhere smaller.

If you remain living there, can prove you are paying the rent then you might be able to inherit the tenancy.

How could I prove that? I didn't think I could inherit the tenancy as there's already been one change but do you think they could be swayed by that?

267

no1wf wrote: »

I thought you could only change the name on the agreement once. So when mum died her name was taken off and it was just dads so I wouldn't be a successor to anything because there can be no more changed.
My dad asked that to the lady that came round and she said there can be no more changes made to the agreement because it's already been changed once. She did ask how long I've lived here so not sure if that means anything.
How could I prove that? I didn't think I could inherit the tenancy as there's already been one change but do you think they could be swayed by that?

Ok, it wasn't clear from your original post that the tenancy had been changed in to your dad's name alone. So, as already stated, that is the only change allowed under the system.

Is this tenancy definitely with the council or has it been transferred to a housing association.

no1wf

267 wrote: »

Ok, it wasn't clear from your original post that the tenancy had been changed in to your dad's name alone. So, as already stated, that is the only change allowed under the system.

Is this tenancy definitely with the council or has it been transferred to a housing association.

I don't think it was changed as such, I think it was in both their names and then mums was taken off which counts as a change, which I think is unfair.

I'm not entirely sure but I believe it's with the council. Our rent card has the council logo on it so I would guess that it is.

Strachan

The lady might be looking to see if you owe the council any rent for living there yourself or seeing if there's any way to help advise you.

I have been in a very similar situation and will try and advise you best based on that so I apologise if I make any assumptions about your intentions or situation

My parents lived in a council flat whose tenancy passed to my mother (with two dependent children in full time education) when my dad died.

My sister contributed her (reduced) share of the rent (to the council) when she became liable for it (even though tenancy did not pass to her)

My mum died a few months after my sister started paying.

If she had been paying 1 year's rent (at the reduced rate she was liable for because she was a student and had a parttime job), she would have had tenancy rights on the family's council flat.

We could have, between us, tried to come up with the money because the council were willing to accept backpayments for however much. we didn't have the money to do this (otherwise we wouldn't have been in a council flat)

My mum had cancer, which although took a lot away from us, gave us time to talk through options.

We would have also been able to use mum's built up discount based on how long she'd been living in this council's accomodation as her and my sister could've entered into an agreement to buy the house together. my sister had lived there since birth. We couldn't use this option because we did not have access to any funds or savings, because as I say again, we would not have been living in a council flat.

The other problem was obtaining a mortgage. I was the only one in the family in full-time employment (but didn't live at the flat) I wasn't able to get a mortgage on a non-brick built building. It was a ground floor concrete flat which I loved for many years as my home.

You will not be allowed to sell it if you need to release any money tied up in it for a fixed period (3 years in our case)

I would say this - If you want to be able to keep it, look into if you can make backpayments to any rent you would owe the council if you had lived there for whatever the minimum is i.e. 1 year in my family's case.

My mum and sister could possibly have bought their home for 30% of market value but we as a family were not in any postion to even afford that much.

We went our separate ways after mum died but are still a family who care for each other.

Good Luck to you

no1wf

Strachan wrote: »

The lady might be looking to see if you owe the council any rent for living there yourself or seeing if there's any way to help advise you.

I have been in a very similar situation and will try and advise you best based on that so I apologise if I make any assumptions about your intentions or situation

My parents lived in a council flat whose tenancy passed to my mother (with two dependent children in full time education) when my dad died.

My sister contributed her (reduced) share of the rent (to the council) when she became liable for it (even though tenancy did not pass to her)

My mum died a few months after my sister started paying.

If she had been paying 1 year's rent (at the reduced rate she was liable for because she was a student and had a parttime job), she would have had tenancy rights on the family's council flat.

We could have, between us, tried to come up with the money because the council were willing to accept backpayments for however much. we didn't have the money to do this (otherwise we wouldn't have been in a council flat)

My mum had cancer, which although took a lot away from us, gave us time to talk through options.

We would have also been able to use mum's built up discount based on how long she'd been living in this council's accomodation as her and my sister could've entered into an agreement to buy the house together. my sister had lived there since birth. We couldn't use this option because we did not have access to any funds or savings, because as I say again, we would not have been living in a council flat.

The other problem was obtaining a mortgage. I was the only one in the family in full-time employment (but didn't live at the flat) I wasn't able to get a mortgage on a non-brick built building. It was a ground floor concrete flat which I loved for many years as my home.

You will not be allowed to sell it if you need to release any money tied up in it for a fixed period (3 years in our case)

I would say this - If you want to be able to keep it, look into if you can make backpayments to any rent you would owe the council if you had lived there for whatever the minimum is i.e. 1 year in my family's case.

My mum and sister could possibly have bought their home for 30% of market value but we as a family were not in any postion to even afford that much.

We went our separate ways after mum died but are still a family who care for each other.

Good Luck to you

She was a woman who had been helping us before mum died and continues to help us now with paperwork and sorting out benefits. Shes on our side but I don't know what her job title is

So I would pay the council back payment on rent for X amount of years worth, even though mum and dad have been paying it all this time?

kj*daisy

Look up 'succession' it's the legal term for inheriting a council tenancy. It can only happen once so your dad will probably have succeeded to the tenancy when your mum died, so there will be no remaining legal right for you to taken the tenancy in the future. Some councils let you stay and take a new tenancy in those circumstances depending on their lettings rules, you may be able to find out more on the Councils website.

your dad should be ok if you decide to move out as he will have taken over the tenancy himself, the council can try and take possession if the house is too big for him, but they can't do this once a year has passed so if you want to make sure, stay there for a year, then he will be ok.

no1wf

kj*daisy wrote: »

Look up 'succession' it's the legal term for inheriting a council tenancy. It can only happen once so your dad will probably have succeeded to the tenancy when your mum died, so there will be no remaining legal right for you to taken the tenancy in the future. Some councils let you stay and take a new tenancy in those circumstances depending on their lettings rules, you may be able to find out more on the Councils website.

your dad should be ok if you decide to move out as he will have taken over the tenancy himself, the council can try and take possession if the house is too big for him, but they can't do this once a year has passed so if you want to make sure, stay there for a year, then he will be ok.

Councils website is rubbish I can't find anything for what I need on there.

So there's a chance they might let me carry on the tenancy, if it's in their rules? I want to write to them somehow but don't want to point out the situation and make them aware so that they can do everything I don't want them to do.

That's really good to know thank you, it will be a good while yet before we've got the money together to buy things for a house let alone rent one ourselves.

It's by no means a big house, there's 3 bedrooms but they're only small rooms. I'm just worried that they'll go "there's 1 man and a dog living in a 3 bed house, lets move him on and we can stick a family in there and cross them off the list"