Need a new home but struggling to find one

wordsfan

I am in a housing association flat at the moment but it’s no longer suitable for my needs. I’m disabled and condition is deteriorating. 

I have been looking for somewhere more suitable for ages through this housing association and others and also private renting and getting nowhere quite honestly 

I have some savings (less than £5k) and my mum thinks that even though I am on benefits because of being disabled, I don’t think this is possible but she thinks it is. 

She has also suggested the possibility of buying a place herself and I rent it from her. Which is incredibly generous but again I’m not sure if that’s something that is possible or even allowed. 

I would never do anything that wasn’t within the rules. But I am getting so frustrated. It’s getting harder and harder to manage living here. 

I try and lookup how it all works online but my maths isn’t good and I struggle to understand some of the information 

can anyone help or advise on what is and isn’t possible or allowed? I’m so confused 

deannagone

I wonder if you should go to your local housing department, and ask for a housing needs assessment, the HA should support you and state how your needs have changed, but check they will first.  

Hopefully, whilst adapted properties are not two a penny, there will be more of them available on the council's bidding list than your HA alone has.

See if you can get an OT assessment as well, if you haven't already. 

JuanBallOfWimbledon

As above, if you’ve not done so already, I would strongly recommend getting support with this. My wife works as part of a diagnostics team for autism and other ND conditions; once a diagnosis has been given, patients are often referred to other professionals for support, which includes housing support. Occupational therapists are well placed to assess your conditions and housing situation, they can then write you a supporting letter, which is often a kick up the backside for the council/HA. I believe that local MP’s can also be very helpful in these situations. 

 I presume you mean can you rent a house from your mum using your housing benefit? I don’t know the ins and outs of this, but I do know it can be a tricky one. I’m sure someone will be along shortly who knows more.

I feel for you, OP. It’s getting harder and harder to find a house to rent, the stock seems to be non-existent (where I am anyway), the prices have gone up astronomically over the past 2 years and LL’s and LA’s are wanting more and more from potential tenants, which many just don’t have. Then there’s the lack of social housing. It feels like an impossible situation, for both renters and first time buyers at the moment. It’s very stressful, and I’m sorry you’re struggling so much. 

wordsfan

My needs have been assessed and I have supporting evidence etc it’s simply that there isn’t available accommodation or rather that there are too many of us needing the same kind of accommodation and there’s not enough to go around 

wilfred30

wordsfan said:

She has also suggested the possibility of buying a place herself and I rent it from her. Which is incredibly generous but again I’m not sure if that’s something that is possible or even allowed. 

If you receive Housing Benefit or the Housing element on UC, that won't work due to it being a 'contrived tenancy'.

theoretica

The other avenue to explore is whether it would be possible to have a grant to adapt your current place, or somewhere that is available, to meet your needs.  Obviously this would depend on what your needs are and whether it would be physically possible to meet them through adaptations to an existing property.

elsien

wilfred30 said:

wordsfan said:

She has also suggested the possibility of buying a place herself and I rent it from her. Which is incredibly generous but again I’m not sure if that’s something that is possible or even allowed. 

If you receive Housing Benefit or the Housing element on UC, that won't work due to it being a 'contrived tenancy'.

That’s not automatically the case, but you would have a lot of convincing to do, you would have to pay full market rent and mum would need to have all the usual landlord obligations in place including being ready to evict you should it come to it.

https://www.housingrights.org.uk/news/universal-credit-contrived-tenancies

wordsfan

Thanks for the replies they’re pretty much as I thought they’d be. Current place cannot be adapted to be suitable as main issue is I’m on the top floor of an old building it’s all the stairs I mainly struggle with. I had an occupational therapy assessment which agrees current home unsuitable the adaptations they would normally recommend aren’t possible due to the age and state of the building 

JuanBallOfWimbledon

wordsfan said:

Thanks for the replies they’re pretty much as I thought they’d be. Current place cannot be adapted to be suitable as main issue is I’m on the top floor of an old building it’s all the stairs I mainly struggle with. I had an occupational therapy assessment which agrees current home unsuitable the adaptations they would normally recommend aren’t possible due to the age and state of the building 

Did you ask them to write you a supporting letter regarding needing suitable accommodation? If you haven’t and you’re still under their care, call and ask for one. You could chance your arm and ask even if you’ve been discharged, you never know. I really would advise you get some form of help from them and write to your MP, it may not work (obviously there’s a lack of social housing, and adapted/accessible SH is even harder to come by) but in Mrs. JuanBall’s experience, these things can help massively. It’s surely worth a shot? Unfortunately with HA’s you have to be proactive - keep on their case, 

wordsfan

Update 

Found a private let to suit. 

Thank you to all who responded

Just to answer that last post yes I had 2 supporting letters and other evidence. Still impossible to get SH.