Friend having house repossessed

catkins

A friend of mine is married with 2 children (ages 6 and 11). She has an abusive husband and for the last couple of months she has been saving every penny she can to get out and rent a place with her children.

Today she told me that she has found a letter that came that he had hidden which said because the mortgage has not been paid for 9 months it is going to be repossessed.

Obviously she is worried sick but I have told her it could work out for the best. Surely if it happens the council will have a responsibility to help her as she as two young children and very little money as she only has a part time job.

If she rents she will have no security whereas a council place could be for life. I know she will probably have to spend a little time in a B&B which is not ideal but I think in my area anyone with a child is found a place pretty quickly.

She obviously will be getting help with the rent if it is council or private but a council rent is much much lower than private rent. She would want 3 bed as her children are different sexes and in my area a 3 bed private is about £900 a month minimum. Council rent is much lower.

BitterAndTwisted

"She would want". As we all would if someone else is going to supply it for us. She might have a rather long wait if the supply is as short where she is as it is here. Families can be stuck in B&Bs for up to a year here, and often the Council will find them in a private rental if they have nothing suitable come up. And some of the private rentals round here you wouldn't house a dog in.

zzzLazyDaisy

Also if the house is in joint names, there is every possibility that repossession would be viewed as intentional homelessness, in which case the council has no duty to house them.

By all means make enquiries of the council/housing associations, but she should not look on this as a magic bullet - there is still every chance that she'll be looking for somewhere to rent in the private sector, so she needs to get clued up on LHA and enquire if the council does local authority bonds to assist with the deposit.

sulkisu

catkins wrote: »

A friend of mine is married with 2 children (ages 6 and 11). She has an abusive husband and for the last couple of months she has been saving every penny she can to get out and rent a place with her children.

Today she told me that she has found a letter that came that he had hidden which said because the mortgage has not been paid for 9 months it is going to be repossessed.

Obviously she is worried sick but I have told her it could work out for the best. Surely if it happens the council will have a responsibility to help her as she as two young children and very little money as she only has a part time job.

If she rents she will have no security whereas a council place could be for life. I know she will probably have to spend a little time in a B&B which is not ideal but I think in my area anyone with a child is found a place pretty quickly.

She obviously will be getting help with the rent if it is council or private but a council rent is much much lower than private rent. She would want 3 bed as her children are different sexes and in my area a 3 bed private is about £900 a month minimum. Council rent is much lower.

What's your question OP? You haven't really asked anything.

How long she spends in a B&B depends on the length of the council housing waiting list in your area. The fact that she has children does not mean that the list becomes shorter, although she will be a priority. If they have nothing suitable available, she may be in temporary accommodation for a long time.

marisco_2

Has your friend contacted Women's Aid? They could be a wealth of information and support to her as she decides how to move forward at this difficult time in her life. She must be feeling very vulnerable to be saving and putting plans in place, to enable her and the children to leave her abusive husband.

Does he currently control all of their financial affairs? I only ask because I don't see how she would otherwise not know that the mortgage payments have not been made and that their home may be repossessed. I hope for her sake that she doesn't discover being in any further joint financial mess with him. Something she really needs to look into.

catkins

I was asking if the council would have any responsibility to help because she has children.

Her husband is very controlling and does, I believe, control almost all financial matters.

She works part time so earns a small amount of money. I don't know whether she gets to keep it all or not. She hasn't said and I don't really like to pry.

When I said "she would want a 3 bed" I only meant that because she has 2 children, a boy and a girl, that is what she would need - even the council if they did help her would agree with that.

She is not expecting help from the council or that she will miraculously get a 3 bed house. In fact I was the one who suggested that if the council were to help that it could be a better option.

It is going to take ages for her to save for a deposit which is usually 2 months rent, plus the months rent in advance plus if she goes through an agent the fee. Of course if she goes through an agent she may well not get accepted anyway because of bad credit rating, earning very little etc.

I know being in a B&B would be far from ideal but if she can't get a private rental she may well have no choice. I heard of someone close by with a baby who got evicted and spent 3 weeks in a B&B and was then given a 2 bed place.

I will tell her about Womens Aid. I think she is reluctant to admit to other people about her husband. He is Iraqi so has strong views about a woman's place!

I am not giving my views on whether or not the council should or would help, I am just wondering if they would. I know if she did not have children they wouldn't.

silvercar

Is she going to the council housing department with her husband as she has been repossessed? If so they may be offered temporary family accommodation (hostel with family rooms) while the council assess their claim. If the council decide that they became intentionally homeless they will get no further help and asked to leave the hostel after 28 days.

If she goes on her own, asking for help because she is homeless as abuse meant she needed to leave the family home, then the same will apply, but she is more likely to be assessed as unintentionally homeless and entitled to further help. In my area that could be the council renting a property from a private landlord for a fixed time. True council / housing association properties can take years to get.

The problem is that the council may couple the mortgage repossession with her seeking help and decide that it is a clever way to get help finding a home - not unheard of for a couple to get back together once the council have housed single mum!

pigpen

When I said "she would want a 3 bed" I only meant that because she has 2 children, a boy and a girl, that is what she would need - even the council if they did help her would agree with that.

Not if one of the children is under 10 in this LA.. though it is older in some areas.. Here they can share until the younger child reaches 10 years of age.. then you can request a move though you might not get that.

BitterAndTwisted

catkins wrote: »

When I said "she would want a 3 bed" I only meant that because she has 2 children, a boy and a girl, that is what she would need - even the council if they did help her would agree with that.

They might not, as it all depends on the children's ages. My downstairs neighbours have three teenage children of both sexes and they can't get a transfer from a two-bed flat. They've been tying since their youngest child, a girl, was born 13 years ago.


As LaisyDaisy said, they could find that she's made herself "intentionally homeless" and then they could wash their hands of her.

I think your friend should get in touch with Womens Aid as a matter of urgency

FBaby

It is likely that she will indeed be offered a council home, but will it be the home and more importantly the neighbourhood she would wish for? I assume she will want something close enough to her eldest school, but that won't be guaranteed. She should look into trying to save enough for a deposit in case she realises that she would much prefer rent privately a property of her choice.

Savvy_Sue

Another vote for Women's Aid and getting out now rather than waiting for this to happen. I fear that silvercar's assessment of the situation may be correct.