council house problems!!!!/no rebate for rent/ctax (merged)

spankymonkey_2

hi, just to say how sorry i am to hear what your going through, i am in a similar situation, 2 bedroom house ,husband,myself and a girl and boy aged 11 and 5. i have been waiting to move for 5 years now due to children sharing a bedroom. i have contacted my mp twice, once last year and another this year when the elections were on (thinking he night do something if he thinks i will vote for him!) but nothing was to come of it! dont get upset and like most people say pay your rent in full at least you wont be homeless. keep contacting the council, letters are best as they can keep the letter as a reference , but sometimes when i get down i find it better to put my feelings in an email and contact them that way... good luck and hope you get sorted soon xx

krisskross

Not getting at you at all somebodyhasmyuser name but the income figures you give, and I assume the wtc is a weekly amount as the other things you quote are,add up to just under £300, so I would expect that you would be required to pay rent and council tax. I am not envious at all but you do appear to be getting more benefit than the State pension my husband gets after 50 years contributions.

Fran

krisskross wrote:

Not getting at you at all somebodyhasmyuser name but the income figures you give, and I assume the wtc is a weekly amount as the other things you quote are,add up to just under £300, so I would expect that you would be required to pay rent and council tax. I am not envious at all but you do appear to be getting more benefit than the State pension my husband gets after 50 years contributions.

If you read all the thread you will find that someone.. fully expects to pay rent & council tax but is not sure of exact entitlement. The benefits (Child Benefit & Tax Credits) are for 2 adults and a child and both adults are working so your comment about pension wasn't helpful.

Curry_Queen

someonehadmyusername wrote:

i didnt call

im sitting here trying to get the courage to call

i think i have a problem

i am so scared to talk to them

ive gone to jelly
feel sick and hands are shaking!

Hi someone...

I can fully sympathise with this as it's something I also experience whenever I have to call someone, or even if the phone rings I panic and can't answer it. Ironically, I also had to call the Housing Association today about a recent application I made and I felt exactly as you did

It sounds like your suffering anxiety/depression, which is hardly surprising given your current situation, and I wonder if you're getting any help or support from anyone? If not it might be an idea to go and see your GP, which again I know is easier said than done, but it gets harder the longer you leave it, believe me.

Take care (((hugs)))

Savvy_Sue

Personally I think Shelter would be the people to contact as you are in housing which by the council's own admission needs structural repair, you have been in that property for a long time, you also want a transfer, and nothing's happening with that. I am sure they would also be able to tell you if the calculations re: rent and CT were right. No disrespect to CABs, but Shelter are the HOUSING experts and do not just deal with homelessness, also substandard housing.

someonehadmyusername

maybe the ct and rent was right????

we get about £293 a week

but rent and council tax will be about £300 a month

i just didnt think 1/4 of our earnings would all have to go on rent/council tax

oh well

im not a depressed person btw
i am soooooooooooooo happy with my life, job, family, etc etc

but i have to block out all the house stuff coz it really gets me down
i try not to think about it if i can help it
(kinda hard when you live here!)
its so depressing (the house)

its not a home

i havent had a home for over 5 years
its wearing me down

i cant decorate
wont be staying here
i got tons of boxes of new stuff for a new house
we are in limbo

my daughter says 'when we get a new house, can i have a pink bedroom?'

makes me fill up
wish i could wave a magic wand

gonna do some thinking about what to do next week- maybe contact shelter for help/advice

thanku all
xxx

Savvy_Sue

gravitytolls wrote:

We were then offered a suitable house 12 miles away. We refused because it was too far from disabled parents, and childrens school. They offered us another house 12 miles away a few months later. Again we refused, but were told ifwe refused this, we would be offered nothing else.

I wonder if you 'appealed' against either of these offers? Perhaps you weren't told that you could, and it is a bit late for it now, but AFAIK an offer has to be 'reasonable'. When I was in this field - I'm not any more and I wasn't on the front line so I'm quite happy to be corrected, but Kit seems to support me in an earlier post - an offer wasn't 'reasonable' if it was in the wrong area, eg too close to a violent ex, in an area of high drug dealing and the offer made to an ex-addict etc. And yes, if you don't accept the 2nd offer you're left where you are, but if the offer wasn't 'reasonable' then it shouldn't count at all.

Applicants in this city say which areas they were prepared to consider: obvioulsy the more areas you are prepared to consider, the greater your chances of getting an offer. But ticking all areas and then saying "no I can't live there" without a good reason is counter-productive. It got complicated because sometimes people would be prepared to consider part of an area, but another part would be unsuitable because, eg it was too close to the violent ex.

I don't know if that makes sense?

gravitytolls

Yes it was some time ago. I know when I filled in the forms, I specified areas in which we would live. We were not unreasonable, and our choices were fairly varied. The village now live in, wasn't specified and is nowhere near any of our choices, as we had never heard of it.

No we weren't informed that we could appeal, but as you say, it is too late to do anything about it; and nor would we, as we are all settled here now, after some 7 years, and wouldn't uproot the children again.

One last thing; the previous tenants left lots of rubbish both in teh garden and in the house. We asked when it would be cleared, and were told that it would be our responsibility. We asked for a skip, and was told we had to supply our own.

I was 5 months pregnant at teh time, and my husband worked 7 days a week. The rubbish included bikes, fridges, washing machines and the like.

I disposed of what I could manage, bnut the heavy appliances were still there as I approached birth. The parish council complained to the council, who came to visit, requesting we remove it as we were breaking our tenancy agreement by not properly maintaining the property.

I pointed out that I felt this was a little unfair, and the new housing officer agreed. I made him aware of previous history, and he was sympathetic, but still it was down to us. And still we weren't offerd anything else.

Of course, nobody should ever be rude or abusive to anybody for any reason, as we're all trying to do our jobs to the best of ability, whilst applying the rules as fairly as possible.
However, being perceived as a roll over as opposed to someone who could bring about adverse publicity is no more help than a .......... boiled egg soldier

But thanks for responding. It's always worth sharing our experiences, as we never know when something could be of some use to another person.

Savvy_Sue

gravitytolls wrote:

But thanks for responding. It's always worth sharing our experiences, as we never know when something could be of some use to another person.

That was my feeling. Of course you might have appealed and someone might have said it was a 'reasonable' offer, but it didn't sound like one to me ...

I also think that those problems with rubbish left behind were very poorly handled as well! NOT acceptable!

stellagypsy

I work in Housing. We resolved this waiting list issue by having a Choice Based lettings system (I have posted elsewhere about this) but it still has its problems.

One organisation that could help the OP or anyone with housing / benefit issues is CHAS (Catholic Housing) - they are very good. They are a national charity, they should be in the phone book. (you don't have to be Catholic, BTW!) They will check your HBEN entitlement and take it up for you if they feel your benefit has not been calculated correctly. Don't leave it too long as there is a time limit on appeals. if you are close to the limit (?14 or 28 days?) just write a letter of appeal stating you are seeking help from CHAS or similar and that you will forward full details shortly. That should buy you some time. Other organisations that could help are CAP (Christians Against Poverty), CAB, Barnardo's (as you have kids), SureStart. Worth a try.

Also - if you are dealing with a COUNCIL (rather than a Housing Association) you should involve your elected Councillor. They all hold surgeries on a regular basis and you should make an appointment to go to the surgery with ALL the relevant info (write it out beforehand / keep copies of everything) and enlist his / her help. When we were a Council housing dept, we really had to "jump to it" and respond promptly to any enquiry from a Councillor. The main issues as I see it are disrepair and the long wait for rehousing - the effect it is having on your health, etc. You could also try your local MP but I think the Councillor route is the best one to take initially. However - please ensure you have got your rent account up to date first as this could cause problems for you (I know you have outstanding HBEN issues but you should try and reduce the arrears - if HBEN pay out you can always get it back.)

So my advice is go through CHAS for the benefits issue and the councillor to get the rehousing / disrepair issues sorted, then possibly your MP and if all this fails - there is always the Ombudsman................

HTH, Stella

PS - re the principle of witholding rent has been discussed here - no one should ever do this. After 4 weeks the landlord can issue a Notice of Intent to Seek Possession and after 8 weeks the landlord can seek possession of the property though the Court - and I can assure you that they do take these cases to Court. A tenancy agreement is a legally binding contract like any other and anyone signing it agrees to the exchange of rent for accommodation. I have taken these cases to Court myself and the Judge does not accept witholding rent till repair issues are resolved as reasonable. One time I had a case like this and the Judge actualy said to the tenant "Even Her Majesty The Queen does not live rent free, so what makes you think you can, chum?"!!!! Ouch!

As to witholding Council Tax - don't even think about it unless you like prison food! If you are having financial difficulty they will help you if you let them know and again, CHAS or similar can help with benefit applications / appeals, etc.