A question for landlords.

YoungBlueEyes

Thanks @badger09, I try to be  She was there for me when I was going through A Thing and everyone else walked away cos it was too hard but she stuck by me. 

Plus it’s a principle thing. LL was a mutual friend of ours and is doing this cos she knows my friend will hardly be able to rent anywhere else. That’s not right isn’t that. 

YoungBlueEyes

My laptop and I went for coffee this morning. In terms of benefits she says she's quite sure she's getting all she's entitled to because she did a benefit check not long ago with her grand daughter. So she's fine on that score.

The 'bank' did not come to do a valuation. LL arrived with her daughter, who is now a lettings/estate agent. (Daughter has been set up in a few different jobs and failed at all of them, and now she's doing this.) They made it plain they thought the house would be empty and they were not happy I was there. However. They walked around checking things - opening and closing doors, flushed the loo, put the heating on. I changed the locks when we moved in here so I took the barrel and keys with me and left them on the coffee table, they were noticed but not commented on. Turns out they weren't needed cos friend did her locks when she moved in

Lots of whisperings and mumblings while they were upstairs and they were sweetness and light when they came down. We all sat and had coffee and reminisced. LL didn't give a straight answer to any of either my or my friends questions so it's no further forward. 

Things LL said - the bank were able to do a valuation without visiting. You getting a mortgage LL? I have lots of options available to me right now. You selling up LL? You never know what the future will bring going forward. Look, if you're selling up I need as much notice as possible. We aren't considering that yet. Like that. I smiled and kept my gob shut and they left.

(All I could think of when she introduced her daughter as her lettings/estate agent was Artful and his "done any training please?")  

Not much of an update and my friend is no further forward. But LL can't let herself in and her benefits are sorted, which is probably the best you can hope for really.

Thanks again everyone, it is much appreciated.

propertyrental

Well done. You did the right thing being there, and you asked the right questions - even if you didn't get real answers.

And right to change the locks and subtly let them know!

AlexMac

Good luck to your friend; let's hope that she remains in place and in peace for years to come.  

An anecdote from my own personal experience as a LL:#; maybe relevant, maybe not

If her LL ever exercises the "nuclear option" and moves to eviction (and without pretending to the knowledge of the legal implications which other more expert commentators above will advise) I assume that any pretence of friendship with the tenant will have gone?  So your friend will sit tight and force the LL to go through the whole long drawn out Court process?

In which case, she'll be ultimately homeless, so if that ever seems likely (hopefully never), your friend will probably consult Homelessness Charities and the local Council's Housing Action or Housing Advice Centre?  

Now to the anecdote:

A tenant of mine did that (not that I was evicting her), but as my property was a top floor flat, with no lift, and she'd recently had a child, so, as a single parent, not very easy or suitable.  She checked with the Housing Department.  They told her, perhaps cynically, perhaps helpfully, that she would be in with a chance of a Council property, but would not be eligible until she was "homeless".  This was defined as facing a Bailiff eviction notice following Court action.  (then- the rules may have changed)

So, as she'd been a really good tenant, I colluded; perhaps cynically, but actually sympathetically and at her request.  Served her notice, took her to Court, got an eviction notice...   Then rang the Bailiffs and told 'em not to enforce.

It worked; got a really nice rental house with a small garden;, established a relationship and (I hope) 20 years on, she and her family are happy and well housed.   

Sometimes you have to game the system.  And before anyone piles in to accuse me of helping someone to get an undeserved scarce Council house, can I point the finger at politicians who have willfully neglected the need to provide adequate supply of Social Rented homes.  Life chances often depend on luck or circumstance. My first five years were spent in a transient mix of caravan, hostels, B&B's, tied accommodation, Homeless Persons' Units and carp rentals.  My mum's life was changed when she luckily secured a Council Flat in what would now be considered a sink estate.  She was over the moon.  I got stability, schooling, qualifications, a career and now, a fairly prosperous bourgeois lifestyle.  Everyone deserves security of tenure. Many are not so lucky.    

YoungBlueEyes

Thanks propertyrental and alexmac. I like your anecdotes alex, I'm glad it worked out for your single mum, and you. 

I don't know what she'll do if LL wants to sell tbh. The extra £10 pw means she's paying over the odds for what she has, so anything else would be cheaper. But I hardly think she'd get one ahead of working professionals and Bright Young Things. I don't know. Cross that bridge if she comes to it. I don't think she'd game the system and make it difficult for LL (although LL is a twisty sort and would prob deserve it frankly) Council accomodation round here is pretty rough, she could end up in either Brid or Hull, neither are appealing thoughts. She has 2 daughters who may come to her rescue. In our group of friends, some are now... more than comfortable... so that's a possibility. She may end up in my back bedroom ha haa!  

To give a picture of my friend. I don't know if anyone here reads the paper any more... remember when you used to see a full page obit in a broadsheet and when you'd read it you'd think "my god, the life that person has lead!" Well my friend is one of them. She's an astonishing woman and I won't see her rot in some mouldy council shiphole on a Hull sink estate

Anyway, we'll see what transpires, if anything. I'll update if there's any movement. 

Edit - no offence meant to people in council flats or Hullites.

RAS

YBE,

Do get her daughters to check eligibility for social housing in their local areas, if your friend would be prepared to move.

Need to be a little careful but a friend's rellie gave up a tenancy to move a long way to care for their parent, who owned a house.  Unfortunately things got a lot worse a lot more quickly than expected and the parent had to go into care. The Council insisted the house was sold to cover the cost of care because the rellie hadn't been there long enough to count as resident. That meant rellie would be homeless.

The friend checked out the rules for housing in their own home authority and discovered that the family connection was enough to make the rellie eligible for over 55s housing. Not where the rellie expected to live, not a lot of choice on exact location or exact property but better then being homeless. And they do have family in the area, plus a small amount after the sale to fix stuff.  It's proved to be decent accommodation in a smaller community with decent transport and access to local countryside.

YoungBlueEyes

Thank you RAS, that's good info. 

I know she's going to her eldest daughter's for dinner on Sunday, so I'll ring her and pass that on I think over 55's accommodation would be the best answer for her, she's a spritely independent sort who probably wouldn't relish living with family/friends as a permanent solution. But if she can't get over 55's I think she'd take it over the alternative. 

nyermen

"needs to be out" - thats a red light to me.  No valuation agent etc would care about people being in the house (in fact it can help - here's where the fuse box is, yes the boiler was serviced last year, etc etc).
 

Also, would she have been giving keys to a stranger to enter a house, got to wonder where insurance stands on that if things disappear (though maybe its under the category of necessary visits for LL purposes).  Have to wonder if its an estate agent coming with view to sale or new letting, or the LL themselves wanting to look around.

YoungBlueEyes

Yep nyermen, a proper agent would probably be happy to have someone in the house to answer questions, but this ain't that. No idea of LL's intentions cos she gave politicians answers... 

I know LL does go round sometimes, in her 'friend' hat rather than her 'LL' hat. I wondered if she knew she couldn't have got in with her original key....