Home loss payment

ServiceSOS

Can anybody advise if/how to access home loss payment if it isn't actively offered to you?

I am a tenant in council-owned accomodation through my employment, but my particular 'branch' if you like has closed and I was made redundant. We are currently still in the accomodation and no notice served yet but we are receiving occasional contacts from the solicitor asking about our plans. As it happens we have bought a new build so will be off when it's finished, and have advised the solicitor of this. So potentially we won't receive any notice and it will be us that ends the tenancy quietly and easily.

However it did occur to me that if course if the 'branch' hadn't closed then we wouldn't have lost our home, and with it being council owned they potentially would have to pay the home loss if they served notice due to the grounds they would have to rely on (redevelopment I think most likely)?

 Can we make a claim for home loss payment without receiving notice, because they have effectively made us move out without us wanting to, and haven't rehoused or offered it at any point? I believe I am a secure service tenant as my accomodation was a perk rather than a necessity, not everybody that did my job lived on site so it wasn't a requirement in contract or anything like that. I'm still paying the rent of course.

ServiceSOS

I should add that due to various factors we have never had any of the things that would render a private sector section 21 invalid. No deposit so that not an issue but no EPC, EICR, how to rent, and the gas safety certificate is now out of date by coming up to six months although an engineer did look at a minor issue with the boiler in the summer so that was a bit reassuring.

Obviously don't want the hassle of it having to go to court for possession but maybe we'd end up better off if they did? The circumstances around the closure/home loss are pretty disgusting so although I wouldn't normally want public money spending without good grounds, we really genuinely thought we were pretty much here for life if we wanted to be. 

canaldumidi

I've never come across Home Loss Payments but a quick use of duckduckgo found this:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/land-compensation-manual-section-13-loss-payments/part-1-home-loss-payments

Which category (a - e) do you believe you fall into?

If your property is provided by your (ex) employer you are probably a 'service occupier' or 'service tenant', but more detail is needed really.

Shelter Egland has more here:

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/private_renting/accommodation_that_comes_with_your_job

SavingPennies_2

Apologies if I have misunderstood, but it sounds like you are trying to create a problem where there isn't one, in order to receive compensation. You have bought a new home, so presumably this is a positive change in your life, why would you want to push for it to get to repossession? 

ServiceSOS

I believe if we hadn't sorted out moving they would have had to use ground 10/10A to gain possession as no other grounds that I and CAB can see, and that comes under HLP (category e). CAB housing sector confident were a service tenant and the wording in communication from the solicitor (which to be fair has been perfectly friendly so far) supports the idea of an ongoing tenancy in place with the local authority as the landlord.

We wouldn't have been moving/buying any time soon had they not shut down the enterprise, we've bought to avoid uncertainty about our future with the rental market as it is (particularly with pets and kids to consider). We may have moved eventually while carrying on in employment there but it's the sort of workplace that you would ordinarily consider it to be a job for life so we could have bought in our own time instead of struggling to rush a purchase through for the peace of mind. Equally they haven't actively done anything to get us to move (yet) other than asking us what our plans are with the implication that we needed to have one.

canaldumidi

If CAB are advising you they will be best placed to answer your question.

This is not a straight forward type of tenancy and far more information is needed here - from the scant details provided for example I am unconvinced you are a secure tenant (indeed you describe yourself as a service tenant) but CAB doubtless have a better handle on that than I or others here.

Your reference to plans to demolish the building are pure conjecture- what evidence do you have for that? Without such evidence my cursory look at the Home Loss Payment scheme suggests 10a (category e) would not apply.

But if you are serious in your hope to claim, you will need advice from a far more specialised and professional source than a forum like this, and you will need toprovide them with far more background than you've provided here.

MobileSaver

ServiceSOS said:

circumstances around the closure/home loss are pretty disgusting ...

I believe if we hadn't sorted out moving they would have had to use ground 10/10A to gain possession

But you have sorted out moving and they haven't tried to gain possession so there is no Home Loss!

Sheesh, I can't believe you're trying to engineer a situation to get compensation but then accuse them of being "pretty disgusting".

ServiceSOS

Thanks for the input, it is appreciated. I'm sure you'll understand I don't want to go into too much detail on here as it's quite an unusual one to say the least but I also understand that will seriously limit the advice that can be given, I do appreciate the time taken to reply.

We've only bought because we could see no other outcome to the situation, maybe we'd have been better staying put and playing the game of see what happens but that didn't seem sensible. I was just curious as to if it was possible to get HLP because you've moved pre-emptively rather than staying put to find out for sure.

They could have served us notice a long time ago but as it's local authority my understanding is they have to use the set of grounds applicable to them and the only one that applies in our case would be if they got something that would trigger 10/10A criteria- the 'branch' has closed so that they can dispose of the site so that seems to be the one. But equally my suppositions are just that at the moment!

lincroft1710

I cannot see that you qualify in any way for a Home Loss Payment. 


I'm ex VOA and used to come across these from time to time. Basically you would have to be forced out of your home due to it being acquired compulsorily and as yet no such Notice appears to have been served on you.

theartfullodger

https://england.shelter.org.uk/professional_resources/legal/housing_conditions/compensation_for_people_displaced_from_their_home

canaldumidi

ServiceSOS said:

We've only bought because we could see no other outcome to the situation, maybe we'd have been better staying put and playing the game of see what happens but that didn't seem sensible.....

Another possible outcome is to do what millions of others do when looking for a home. Rent.