Can't afford rent anymore

Natty2310

Hi, I'm new here so hopefully I've put this in the right place!

Me, my partner, my mother and my 9 month old son live in a private rented house. Recently, I went back off maternity leave to work but they had moved me to a different store, which was further away and no public transport to get there. This caused me to leave my job, plus the issue of childcare, which I could not afford.

Now, we can not afford all the bills and rent associated with the house we are currently staying in. I am claiming child tax credits, working tax credits, and my partner works full time. My mother also works full time. The house is £795 a month rent, and then high bills on top (it's a 5 bed so it's a big house, and now too big for us to manage).

What is the likelyhood of us being able to have a council house? We didn't put a deposit down on this house as it was not required, and it was good for us because we were unable to save up for a deposit. We still can't save up for a deposit or the letting fees of the agents around here.

My partner's income is about £15,000 and my mothers is £16,000. However, my mother has really bad credit due to debt, which is the reason she now lives with us, to take the ease off her debts which she is now successfully paying back. With this bad credit, she will probably not pass the credit checks and we wasted all that money for nothing.

Would the council help us at all?

We don't know what to do as we are slowly getting into debt and we really don't want our son to get affected by this!

Any suggestions and help would be much appreciated!

(We have a 5 bed house because originally my sister and her partner lived with us too. We rent from a private landlord, not a letting agency).

Thanks in advance!

Guest101

1: even with a letting agent you still have a private landlord, the agent is just an agent, not a landlord.

2: credit checks for this only look for ccjs and bankruptcy

3: you need to earn more money. Have you considered lodgers?

4: the council may rehouse you, but u need to be evicted first

Natty2310

So the credit check literally only checks CCJ's and bankruptcy? If this is the case then it should be alright as my mother has defaults and debt management plans but no CCJ's or bankruptcy.

Our landlord does not allow lodgers unfortunately. It is something that we thought of doing but realised we wouldn't be able to.

We're trying to get as much money as possible, doing overtime and me finding a job nearer to where we live but jobs round here are scarce!

I'm just so sad at the moment because we were doing perfectly fine but then winter hit, cold came, job moves me and my sister and her partner move out

phill99

You getting a council house I'd unlikely. Even if you were to be evicted the council would put you into another private rented place. Council houses are a scarce commodity in the UK now.

Guest101

Natty2310 wrote: »

So the credit check literally only checks CCJ's and bankruptcy? If this is the case then it should be alright as my mother has defaults and debt management plans but no CCJ's or bankruptcy.

Our landlord does not allow lodgers unfortunately. It is something that we thought of doing but realised we wouldn't be able to.

We're trying to get as much money as possible, doing overtime and me finding a job nearer to where we live but jobs round here are scarce!

I'm just so sad at the moment because we were doing perfectly fine but then winter hit, cold came, job moves me and my sister and her partner move out

Don't think the ll can stop u having lodgers.

tbs624

Guest101 wrote: »

Don't think the ll can stop u having lodgers.

Most ASTs will contain a clause specifically prohibiting the subletting of any part of the property.

tbs624

OP - is your mother contributing a third of the costs of living in this property (rent plus bills) or are you and your partner subsidising her to try to help her get her debt paid down? It is clearly madness for you to end up in debt through trying to help her.

Whose names are on the original tenancy agreement?

Rather than looking at letting agencies you could perhaps try to find other LLs who let direct - they tend not to charge huge "admin" fees, usually just passing on the real costs of the referencing checks. The local Council's private sector tenancy officer may have a list of "accredited" local LLs and the local LL association should be able to give you some contact nos.

You could also look at placing your own "accommodation wanted" ads and stipulating "no letting agencies".

Check also if your local Council can offer any help with a bond guarantee - many run schemes in conjunction with a local charity but specific criteria have to be met.

Do you have anything that you could sell via ebay, gumtree etc? It is amazing what other people will pay for stuff you no longer need. Have you had a look at the "Up your Income" Board on this forum?

whalster

Yes as above try and find a private landlord look on your local councils accredited landlord scheme ,should be on their website .

Letting agents I think will be cost prohibitive and tend to represent property investors renting property rather than landlords .

If however you look at agents listings or indeed know someone who is moving out of a property but is with an agent ask them for the landlords details from their tenancy agreement and contact them direct to see if they want t save money with a private let.

You can find out the full property address and postcode from the Royal Mail website and then find out the landlords name and address from the land registry website for £3 .
Don't go into the agents office though before contacting the landlord or they may try to clam that they found you as a tenant .

Good luck

BigAunty

In England, there is not now any obligation for the council to offer social housing to the homeless, even those in priority need. A change in legislation a few years ago means they can now discharge their homeless obligations by offering settled accommodation and this can include a 1 year private tenancy. The days of being catapulted into social housing in England through housing need are over. See the Shelter website about how general social housing allocation works and the homelessness route.

Double check your benefit entitlements on the Turn2us online benefit calculator to see if you are entitled to any housing benefit or council tax discount and if the WTC, CTC is correct.

Tackle your mother's debts by ensuring she has a proper debt management strategy in place, one that get the repayments lowered or the debt written off rather than one that sees most of her disposable income vanish on this. See the Debt Free wanabee board or Direct Gov debt management section. She appears to be paying back all her debts at a sum that affects her contribution to the household expenses.

Your mother will net around £1140 per month, your partner 1080. You don't state the WTC, CTC or CB you receive but I assume this is at least £400 -600 per month. That's £2600 - 2800 per month. While the rent will take up around a third, it should still be manageable.

Download the MSE budget planner, work through the site to identify where to slash expenses by finding the cheapest energy, insurance, telecoms, broadband tariffs, how to reduce energy consumption, cheap recipes and so forth. That will help you formulate a spending plan to stick to and a saving plan to save up for a deposit, agency fees and first months rent.

Look into joining a local credit union which will be the best way for you to get a low interest loan for your next accommodations expenses, once you've been a member for a while.

SilverSaloon

As above, I cant see why with careful budgetting you shouldnt be able to afford to live in the current house.

Are you able to find another job locally?

hellokitty08

I agree that with a combined househhold income of at least £31,000 a year you should easily be able to manage. I know people who live on half of that, rent privatly £650 and have a three bed house.