Help with private renting

Big_is_beautiful

I have not read through the whole post, so this may well have been mentioned before, but your Environmental Department may be able to assist.

Charityworker

I had a similar thing in my last house. I was in privately rented accomodation and there were a group of my neighbours who werent all from the same house but all in it together. It started when my daughter who was 14 at the time was out shopping with a friend on a saturday was beat up in the indoor shopping centre by a group of teenage girls. She came home cut, bruised and crying and I called the police. The police were totally rubbish (as always) and said there was nothing they could do and it was my daughters fault for not running away! After that there was a constant string of terible things happening such as my daughter being beat up again, setting fire to our front door, putting lit paper through the letter box, jeering and name calling in the street, being spat on and my dads car being damaged. In the end I started ringing the police and getting a crime number every time something happened no matter how small. It got to the point that I was having to ring them every day and they couldnt keep ignoring me. My daughter had to change schools in the middle of her GCSEs because even though the bullying was happening at school they wouldnt do anything about it and refused to expel them. The whole thing went on for about 2 years. In the end I told the police to tell the families involved that I was going to continue to keep pressing charges every time something happened so unless they wanted children with criminal records as long as their arm they should start doing something about it. It ended in 2 people being done for assault on my daughter and 2 other people being done for arson. I also laughed my head off when I found out that one of the the teenage girls that was done for arson was kicked off her college course as she was learning to be an air hostess. Oh dear, she didn't think that through did she?

Anyway, because of all this the council rehoused us to somewhere a mile away from where we were before. We still have nightmare neighbours but it more about loud noises and parties than voilence and we keep ourselves to ourselves.

Keep ring the police every time something happens no matter how small. Dont give up and get a crime number each time. Contact the housing office and let them know you now have crime numbers.

Tottyshouse

Dunroamin wrote: »

Return of deposits in rented accommodation has always been one of the more contentious issues, which was why the current deposit scheme was introduced.

Whilst you may be a professional landlord who encourages long term tenants , many are not and lots of tenants have to leave because the LL is selling, needs the property for family or a dozen other reasons.

It is not necessarily a bad thing that private landlords are able to end a tenancy so easily. From personal experience as a landlord and from the conversations I have had with hundreds of fellow landlords we want tenants who stay, pay, and behave. Voids are expensive. It is good for us (we have the money to deal with any repairs) good for the tenant and good for fellow residents. I personally do not see the problem with being allowed to evict those that do not comply with the above. My first job after leaving uni was in social housing. It was ridiculous watching "good" tenants give up their tenancies because it was nigh on impossible to get the bad ones who were causing all of the trouble out. The best thing for the OP is to enlist the help of her MP and arrange a meeting with the MD of her housing association or Director of Housing at her local authority. It is a long and expensive process to evict even the most anti social tenants - so they will do nothing unless you force their hand. After all the Housing officer's are going home to their safe quiet homes - they may sympathise but at the end of the day it is just a job to them. If your partner is not currently working - then he has spare time to basically make a nuisance of himself. Call, visit, write, keep a diary and make sure your housing provider is aware of every single incident. It is most definitely the squeaking hinge that gets the oil. Private landlords generally don't want people on benefits as tenants ( I don't accept them) so you may end up in private accomodation that is of a poor standard with landlords who don't look after their properties or tenants.

BigAunty

Natalie6999 wrote: »

...

Is there anywhere we can get help with money for a bond, rent up front & moving expenses wich will total around £1500?

I'm with the others in asking you to consider all other avenues to retain your tenancy or swap to a new social housing tenancy rather than end up in the private sector with high rents and insecure, short tenancies, lazy landlords and so on.

Have you looked into a mutual exchange? I don't know or not if you have to declare neighbour disputes with this.

If you feel the council or police isn't doing enough to resolve the issue, look into their internal, then external complaints procedures and involve your local councillor and MP. Contact Shelter and see their website to understand your rights, options and your landlord's responsbilities.

If you do want to go into the private sector (and you may well rue the day if you do this), then many councils operate a deposit guarantee scheme for certain tenants in housing/financial need. Also, you may be able to get a budgeting loan from the DWP, I think, for this, though other posters can advise if there is a more appropriate loan.

iluvmarmite

BigAunty wrote: »

I'm with the others in asking you to consider all other avenues to retain your tenancy or swap to a new social housing tenancy rather than end up in the private sector with high rents and insecure, short tenancies, lazy landlords and so on.

Have you looked into a mutual exchange? I don't know or not if you have to declare neighbour disputes with this.

If you feel the council or police isn't doing enough to resolve the issue, look into their internal, then external complaints procedures and involve your local councillor and MP. Contact Shelter and see their website to understand your rights, options and your landlord's responsbilities.

If you do want to go into the private sector (and you may well rue the day if you do this), then many councils operate a deposit guarantee scheme for certain tenants in housing/financial need. Also, you may be able to get a budgeting loan from the DWP, I think, for this, though other posters can advise if there is a more appropriate loan.

There's no requirement to disclose bad neighbours when doing a mutual exchange but it's only right and fair you do, it would be horrible to put another family through that and even though at times you have to think of yourselves you could cause yourself more trouble, the family you exchange with will of course know where you have moved to and come knocking on your door very angry if they get trouble and not expected it, most people ask what the neighbours are like and you would have to tell them a bare faced lie.

From reading the post the area is not very nice anyway, what with it being a no go for the police so unless there can be an exchange done outside of the town where no one has heard of it I doubt anyone would exchange there.

Perhaps the HA have many families on the estate who wish to get out and just can't deal with them all, as mentioned, there is a dire shortage of social housing and there might not be any where suitable to move the family to.

missapril75

lighting_up_the_chalice wrote: »

They don't need to give up the tenancy to be accepted as homeless. I'll wait for the OP to reply.

Last definition of homelessness I saw, in terms of being rehoused, was about being without your own home ie roofless, sleeping in friends/family accommodation, being in B&B, other temporary accommodation, or about to be homeless, eg under threat of eviction.

It's hard to imagine a local authority considering someone homeless when that same LA houses them in their own tenancy - as indicated by the OP.

I suppose stranger things have happened but there is still the risk of being considered intentionally homeless.

AMG762 wrote: »

lighting up the chalice, you are right...

Other situations can be more complicated, and the council has to look at your situation as a whole before deciding whether you are homeless. For example, even if you have accommodation that you have a legal right to live in and no one is trying to get you out, it may not be reasonable for you to stay there. T

Having looked at the links, it seems:

The examples are about having left (now homeless), due to threats (they haven't left, so not homeless) or being unreasonable to stay because of the accommodation itself (rather than the behaviour of those outside the accommodation) and that is what it says, rehousing because it's unreasonable to stay ie NOT the same as homelessness but about the suitability of accommodation.

More common examples would be damp accomm, so unhealthy, too many steps if someone can't manage them, not enough bedrooms etc.

It's about rehousing rather than homelessness.

BigAunty

Shelter has a good section on homelessness and how it is assessed. It's about having no security of tenure past the next 28 days and the ruling about intentional homelessness is about leaving a property that you did not have to.

Note that in England, the local council now don't have to allocate social housing to those defined as homeless and in priority need. They can now discharge their responsibilities by offering a 2 year tenancy in the private sector in suitable accommodation and only have to make this offer once. This changed a month or two ago.

lighting_up_the_chalice

missapril75 wrote: »

Last definition of homelessness I saw, in terms of being rehoused, was about being without your own home ie roofless, sleeping in friends/family accommodation, being in B&B, other temporary accommodation, or about to be homeless, eg under threat of eviction.

It's hard to imagine a local authority considering someone homeless when that same LA houses them in their own tenancy - as indicated by the OP.

I suppose stranger things have happened but there is still the risk of being considered intentionally homeless.

The legislation (1996 HA), which the council would have to adhere to, differs from your opinions stated above:

177 Whether it is reasonable to continue to occupy accommodation.

(1)It is not reasonable for a person to continue to occupy accommodation if it is probable that this will lead to domestic violence or other violence against him, or against—
(a)a person who normally resides with him as a member of his family, or
(b)any other person who might reasonably be expected to reside with him.

(1A)For this purpose “violence” means—
(a)violence from another person; or
(b)threats of violence from another person which are likely to be carried out;and violence is “domestic violence” if it is from a person who is associated with the victim.

preable

Best bet is to ask CAB