Potentially homeless and pregnant

hickles69

In a nutshell we have to be out of our current property due to no longer available to rent.

I am eight months pregnant and on annual leave for the next three weeks before tarting maternity leave.

I saved £18,000 in the past year and the boyfriend has saved a little bit.

The council therefore said they won't give us housing and told us to private rent.

We found somewhere and i was due the keys on the 13th March.

The boyfriend is under debt management and on declaring this the letting agents decided to proceed with me as a sole tenant.

Unfortunately they have decided that as I will be on maternity pay that I wouldn be able to manage the rent.

I pointed out my savings and that I wouldn't be taking full maternity leave. Around three months.

After some discussion and begging they agreed for a guarantor. My options are two retired persons or a parent who is no good with money.
I am worried that if it doesn't go through not only have I lost £400 but I will have nowhere to live with a baby.

Any advice would be appreciated.

whitewing

Speak to Shelter.

Could you not just pay the rent up front from savings? (Get advice from Shelter before you do this though because I have no idea whether it's a sensible idea or not).

lighting_up_the_chalice

On the private rent issue, you have £18k in the bank, can you not offer 6 months rent up-front?

On the council issue, they cannot simply turn you away because you have savings, however much they may be. They have a DUTY to help you. That DUTY includes providing that temporary accommodation is made available to you. Having said that, temp accommodation is rubbish and expensive, so be warned.

Have a chat with Shelter, who will be able to advise you on what assistance you should receive.

My personal opinion would be to do what you can to secure your own PR accommodation.

Rollingstart

Yes some places will accept 4 months rent up front, so definitely ask for that. Do be careful with this though as it's a lot of money to hand over obviously.

hickles69

I offered that at was told guarantor was the only option.

The council days I earn enough to private rent and so there's nothing they can do.

I never thought of shelter.

Thank you.

Guest101

Obvious point not being raised is were you served s21 2 months notice? And even if you were it is likely two months+ before actual eviction. So within your 3 months and 3 weeks timetable

Or rent direct from landlord

hickles69

We were told in November that rental wouldn't be an option beyond March. We have struggled to find somewhere within our budget. This place we found in January.

Guest101

hickles69 wrote: »

We were told in November that rental wouldn't be an option beyond March. We have struggled to find somewhere within our budget. This place we found in January.

And that is meaningless. It has the same effect as me saying you can't jump. Stop it. No jumping.

When u say told, I'm presuming it's not a s21 notice, but something verbal.

Rollingstart

Guest101 wrote: »

And that is meaningless. It has the same effect as me saying you can't jump. Stop it. No jumping.

When u say told, I'm presuming it's not a s21 notice, but something verbal.

Yeah, don't leave the property unless you're being evicted.

My experience with buy to let landlords tells me that it's unlikely to be a section 21 that you received and he may not even have bothered to protect the deposit.

Don't ask him if he has as that'll make it easier for him. Tell us instead. Has he protected the deposit? Did you receive confirmation of this in the form of prescribed information, listing the scheme that it's held in? (presuming you didn't sign the contract before 2008.)

If you didn't receive any of this, he can't issue a section 21 until he protects it. So if hasn't done so yet, when he does issue a section 21 notice, ignore it. If he tries to enforce it, he won't be able to.

[Deleted User]

Whats the big deal with using a guarantor?
Will somebody not do this for you?

If you're planning on paying the rent then the guarantor won't even come into it.

Otherwise there must be a landlord out there that you could chuck 6 months rent to as you both have at least £18000?

Rollingstart

I assume your boyfriend is working and paying the full rent? Only 18k is over the maximum threshold for mean tested benefits.

If he's working, regardless of your boyfriend's financial situation he should have no problem at all getting a place to live, as long as he doesn't go through letting agents as they do credit checks.

I'd search for places on gumtree but beware of scam artists given the amount of money you have available.