60 year old widow needs some advice to survive

oliveoil99

marybelle01 wrote: »

Not just shocking but something is wrong entirely. As I have mentioned, I live in the same area as the OP. My water is from Yorkshire Water. I know that a meter would be cheaper but have been too lazy to do anything about it. I have a huge 4 bedroom house. My bill is £10 a month less than the OP's. The only explanation for that could be that the rateable value of this two bedroom bungalow in a very poor area (compared to my huge 4 bedroom in a nicer area) is absolutely enormous!

I talk to a neighbour in a 3 bedroomed town house across the road and their water in cheaper than mine and they are in a lower council tax band they are in B I'm in C they said what you did about the rateable value.

oliveoil99

Shovel_Lad wrote: »

Makes perfect sense to me as it's what my water company does too.
The bill is split into 8 and paid April - November.

You have it in one. :~))))

oliveoil99

oliveoil99 wrote: »

The landlord has only every let this property out to working tenants so when I informed him 2yrs ago I was appling for HB he was not very happy even though it does not affect him in any way as I receive the HB then send the landlord a cheque, I worried that he may not re-new my next tenancy agreement but that was unfounded. You feel very vunerable in rented property and my ownly safety is the 12monthly tenancy agreements that I sign. I asked him about the water meter but did not consider me but the next tenant that might have a family and not want a meter, he is not a good person to reason with have had a number of fall outs through the years.

Apart from doing it without his permission and forging his signature come July next year I would be without home never mind water. :~((((

marybelle01

oliveoil99 wrote: »

I talk to a neighbour in a 3 bedroomed town house across the road and their water in cheaper than mine and they are in a lower council tax band they are in B I'm in C they said what you did about the rateable value.

I know I said this before. I know you don't want to hear it. But you need to find another property. A band C home in a poor area of Bradford??? With what you are paying "extra" on the water rates, plus about 4x that extra on rent that you cannot afford, you would be considerably better off. And that's without working, so if you could get a job too, then you'd be rolling in it - or at least compared to what you have now. I happened to have to go to my local post office the other day and while I was queuing I noticed three private rents on offer within your price range. I know the Co-Op and Tesco Express has more adverts like this. One even said they'd take no deposit if the person committed to staying for at least a year and they were looking for someone to be there longer!

Can you and your daughter not do some searching around - I bet you will find a lot of you targetted a few local PO's and shops. Not all private landlords are bad landlords - as I said, we have a few good ones in our area and I don't think that's unique to us! At your age you will be seen as a reputable and dependable tenant - I don't think you'd find it as hard as you think to find a place.