Notice on privately rented property and homelessness

MaroonMonday

Good evening,

Any advice or wisdom would be much appreciated.

My partner and our daughter relocated to SE to a privately rented property in 2015 for job opportunities (he works in central London and I was working locally). However after one addition to the family and one on the way we realized we would have a much better standard of living if we moved back towards the North, along with more family and friend support. Partners family kindly agreed we could live in their property to save money and improve our credit rating which had taken severe blows during a period of redundancy. We have handed our notice in with letting agents however now family member has said we can no longer live in the property we were meant to (all in writing via messages). My partner works full time but we have no money saved for a deposit anywhere else, our credit ratings are both shot so wouldn't be approved for one anyway. I am heavily pregnant and worked part time but handed my notice in due to the move. We are three weeks away from the date we need to be out by.

Does anyone have any idea what we can do? I plan on visiting the council tomorrow to apply for homelessness but unsure if we will be classed as 'intentionally homeless'. Our landlord has a new tenant lined up who will also be paying more than us (we can't afford more rent anyway) so doubt he will be receptive to us asking to rescind the notice we have given. Privately renting elsewhere is not an option due to credit files and whilst on paper my partners income is the UK average we are located SE so that just doesn't get very far.

pmlindyloo

Did your partner intend to commute to London? Does he still have a job?

The first thing to do is check that you are receiving any benefits that you may be entitled to. How much does your partner earn?

Having bad credit may not necessarily mean that you cannot rent. Letting agents generally only see CCJs on a credit check. Try looking for a private rental using local newspapers/ shop window adverts, rather than the usual high street letting agents.

You could try to find somewhere near where you are or somewhere nearer your family.

The fact that you have been badly let down by family might mean that they would be willing to loan you some money to cover deposit and first month's rent. You will get your deposit back from your current place and should have the first month's rent anyway so the loan would only be for a reasonably short time.

As regards visiting the council it is certainly worth trying. New legislation means that they should give help and advice. I suspect that they will find you intentionally homeless as you have given in your notice.

Good luck!

MaroonMonday

thank you for the quick reply. Partner does still commute to London yes, has been applying for more local jobs to save train fare but nothing as of yet. Aren't entitled to any benefits (apart from CB), OH is on £32 per annum, but after tax, train fare (annual ticket arranged through work) his monthly take home is £1500 pcm, rent is £1100 (which is an absolute bargain for where we are). I hopefully will be entitled to some maternity allowance but no decision on that yet and my earnings have been minimal for the last two years.

Family not willing to lend any money, but thank you for the heads up on CCJ for letting agents. We currently have lots of defaults, there is an old CCJ on partners file which was satisfied last year so we may have some hope of privately renting if we can find a deposit. I did think the council would view as intentionally homeless or wait for landlord to evict which I am reluctant to do, he has been a good landlord to us and we have been good tenants. Thank you,

Cakeguts

Do you still have connections to the area in the North that you came from? You are more likely to get help with housing in an area where there is less pressure on it. The South East is very short of affordable housing for people on low incomes.

I am going to suggest this. Your partner needs to start applying for jobs back in the area where your support network is so that when you are in need of emergency housing you are in need in the area where you want to live in the future not in the South East where you want to move from. £32k in London is not very much as you now know. It looks good from other parts of the country but housing and travel costs mean that it is not.

zagubov

Another vote for looking for jobs further North. Starting a family on a £32k income in London won't be remotely as comfortable as doing so elsewhere.

FBaby

Good luck OP, what a difficult position to find yourself in. Will you be due your deposit back on this property? Any concern that you might not get the full amount back? If no, do you have no family members at all that would be prepared to loan the deposit amount until you get this back.

Alternatively, is it too late to speak with your current LL and see if he'll agree to you revoking your notice so that at least you've got somewhere to stay for now until your OH gets a job up north?

rachpid

Just wanted to reassure with regards to low credit ratings and rental credit checks. I've had referencing done with one of the apparently toughest companies (Homelet) for two houses since the start of the year and am on a DMP with poor credit and defaults but no CCJs and passed both times. One of the most important factors they look at is affordability, so how much percentage of your wage the rent it. I think as long as your wage is 2.5 times your rent (someone correct me if I'm wrong on this) then you will be ok, which i imagine rent further north would be.

ETA: Also in my most recent house hunting i noticed some letting agents are now doing "no upfront deposit" rentals where you split the amount for the deposit over your tenancy period. So might be an option if you don't have the deposit money?