Eviction / council housing advice for a tenant

Cakeguts

I don't think that your friend has told you anything like the whole story. Based on this I don't think she told the whole story to the council either.

Councils will generally not rehouse people who have rent arrears because that is what housing benefit is for to pay rent if you are no longer employed so why your friend didn't claim housing benefit for the current property is something that none of us know.

If she had told the council that she had rent arrears not just that she was being evicted I don't think it is likely that they would have said that they would rehouse her.

I think in this situation since she obviously hasn't told you the whole story the best thing would be to not try to help her anymore because she was the one who got herself into this situation and you don't want to be blamed for not being able to help her do anything about it when you don't know all the facts.

sevenhills

nnb wrote: »

She has not been able to work and the money situation still stands.

Homeless People - council duty to re-house

c) You need special help either because you are old, mentally disabled, physically disabled or other special reason.

She needs to hype up her reason for being 'unable' to work.

Balabalabala_and_Volare

This is the best advice you've had so far....

pmlindyloo wrote: »

I suggest that she gathers all her paperwork and either speak/book an appointment with CAB or give Shelter a ring.

Unless your friend has a particular vulnerability, the council only have to provide advice to assist her to secure alternative accommodation. They have no DUTY to PROVIDE alternative accommodation.

That assistance could be simply providing her with a list of local landlords, or even B+B's, and encouraging her to have a bit of a ring-round.

Her entitlement to help with the rent via housing benefit is not at the discretion of the individual council. She is either entitled, or she is not.

What MAY be at the discretion of the council will be help with a bond, or the first months rent, or incentives to rent etc. But i wouldn't want to rely too heavily on that.

I would suggest that your friend gets some professional advice and that you slip away from this problem as quickly as you can.

RiversTam

I don't understand why she hasn't just gotten housing benefit already and found a landlord that is willing to accept her with housing benefits- something the council will be able to help with I imagine.

Balabalabala_and_Volare

RiversTam wrote: »

I don't understand why she hasn't just gotten housing benefit already and found a landlord that is willing to accept her with housing benefits- something the council will be able to help with I imagine.

because she wants social housing and sees eviction as the passport to achieving it?

[Deleted User]

Sometimes with rent arrears, the council will look at income and still accept a duty of care if their assessment shows that the tenant could not help the arrears. They may arrange a Discretionary Housing payment to pay off some of the arrears.

But I'm afraid your friend really really should have applied for HLA as soon as she lost her income. I'm not sure how not applying (or did she apply and use the money to live on?) will affect her case.

But even more importantly, as has been explained, unless she is in a vulnerable group (disability/mental illness/Addiction problems) and or has young children the council are very likely to refuse to help her. Single people tend to be regarded as not in priority need. I know this is hard to hear.

I know you want to help your friend but there is just so little and vague information it is hard to give accurate advice.

Please get her to phone Shelter. As you say, if she has no income, she can't even begin to rent a place.., she really really needs to sort this out. I can't understand why she hasn't, if she hasn't.

FBaby

It sounds like from the moment she was told to stay still and that the council would have to do something when she was made officially homeless, she's done nothing to help herself and just waited for things to happen to her.

She is now finding out that the council will not pick up the pieces for her. They might possibly do something on the day she finds herself on the street, but that's not a guarantee if she does have somewhere to go (family) and she has stopped paying rent all together. Even if they do, it might not be anywhere she would want to be.

Her best bet is to start talking to her friends/family about moving with them temporarily, arrange for her furniture etc... to be stored and start looking at claiming the right benefits or taking on any work she can get.

HampshireH

Sadly it sounds very much like you are missing info as others have said.

There is a comment above which says about her claiming benefit to move elsewhere.

But... my question is why didn't she claim housing benefit to stay put an contribute towards her rent to prevent this situation in the first place.

If she genuinely went to the council to discuss it at all why was there no mention of a current application & why didn't she do this when she stopped work?