Council wont let me move into my new home and I’m homeless!

CelineDior

Hi everyone,

This is a bit of a complicated one so please bare with me...
In January I was giving written notice to leave where I was living, so I contacted my local council (Medway) as homechoice had said to me that I’m not urgent enough to get help from then... So back in mid February, after speaking with the council, I found a place which accepted the council’s private rental scheme which basically means they help me put a deposit on a private rented property.
To summarise, I was supposed to have moved in on the 1st of March but my local council are now stopping the landlord from letting me move in! The council have paid the deposit and given the landlord a months rent, but as it is a new build, safety checks had to be done. These were done a month ago almost now, but the guy that did it went on holiday and didn’t do the confirmation before he went! He was back Monday last week but still no certificates has been made up for the flat and I’ve had to leave where I was staying so now I’m sofa surfing!
The council are still saying I can’t move in until they have the certificate but they know my situation and won’t help me at all! Because I’m sofa surfing and not on the streets, they say they can’t put me in a hotel or shelter and they can’t let me move in either as I’ve already said...

I’m at a loss of what to do because I’ve now been told that the certificates can take 4-8 weeks to be drawn up etc!! That means I’m homeless for at least another 4 weeks!

Please could someone give me some advice?..

Norman_Castle

If possible try contacting the landlord or whoever did the checks explaining the situation and ask if they can speed up the process.

agrinnall

I would suggest that you contact your local councillor and get them to put pressure on council officials to help to resolve this.

G_M

Chase the council.
Chase the councillors for the area.
Chase the landlord.
Stop sofa-surfing and become homeless.

CelineDior

Thanks everyone, I’ve conatcted my local MP to put pressure on the council to let me move in

shortcrust

CelineDior wrote: »

Thanks everyone, I’ve conatcted my local MP to put pressure on the council to let me move in

I think your MP might be a bit busy today (and for the foreseeable future - look at the news!;)).

Your councillor would be far more use/help. They are after all part of the council.

[Deleted User]

You could also try phoning Shelter

xylophone

so please bare with me...

Cheeky!

On a serious note, contact your councillor and complain about poor administration.

AlexMac

You can use https://www.writetothem.com/ to email your local Councillors, but they'll be more impressed if you don't use an impersonal intermediary email system, but check their official email address which should be on your local Council website. As will where they hold local "surgeries" - they'll be even more inclined to help if you email them AND say you'll attend one of the Councillors' surgeries whre they make themselves available to meet their electors!

DoaM

AlexMac wrote: »

they'll be even more inclined to help if you email them AND say you'll attend one of the Councillors' surgeries whre they make themselves available to meet their electors!

And even more so if it's their sofa you surf on.

GDB2222

If you get a move on, you can bed down for tonight in the waiting room of the town hall. At chucking out time, you will finally be homeless! Simply refuse to leave, but be very polite about it, and explain your circumstances. I think you'll find that suddenly you'll be rehoused.

Good luck. Be firm, but not belligerent. Explain that they'll have to carry you out, but you won't offer any resistance. It helps if you weigh a lot! It helps even more if you have a friend on hand to film it.