Council Housing

[Soulgrowth]

Has anyone had any experience of the effect of their finacial situation on their ability to acquire a local authority, council house? I am thinking of declaring myself bankrupt which will cause me to lose my house, this will technically make myself and my three adult children (18yrs, 22yrs, 24yrs) plus my daughter's baby expected in September, homeless. None of the children can afford to rent on their own. Would anyone be able to offer any advice or have any experience to share of what position we would be in to acquire local authority housing with me as a declared bankrupt?

[coco]

Hi Deborah,

I filed for BR in March and have asked for council housing i have told them of my situation and it has not affected my right to apply and therefore i can continue with my application, I am classed as an urgent case because of my children but it will be at least another 6 months before i will be housed. As i have not benificail right to any equity again this is not held against my application.

If you inquire with your local authority and ask questions you dont have do give your name.

I hope this helps.

(I apologise for my keyboards poor spelling and grammar)
http://coco.blogs.iva.co.uk

[MelanieGiles]

Hi again deborah

You need to be careful with this, as voluntarily giving up your property (which I assume that you own) may affect your ability to get assisted housing. What level of equity do you have in the property?

It might be better to just dig in and have the Trustee proceed with possession proceedings - which they are unable to commence for at least a year following the date of the bankruptcy order. Then you will have a Court process to wave in front of the housing officer which could be helpful.

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.

For further details contact me at http://www.melaniegiles.com and view my IVA blog at: http://melaniegiles.blogs.iva.co.uk

[coco]

Hi Melanie,

I think because my children are minors it may be a different case for me, as my home will be taken from me and i have no finicial gain, i explained on my application and spoken to them in person and there is no issue as i will fail all credit checks for renting via estate agents, and private rents are very few. If i have not been offered a home by the time the house is taken then i can be housed as a homeless person temporary until the council home me.

(I apologise for my keyboards poor spelling and grammar)
http://coco.blogs.iva.co.uk

[jane.l]

This was our biggest worry so we have rented a house now while our credit rating was still good and have had to leave our own home for repossession. I have filled a council house application in but they said it takes 6 weeks to process so I do not expect to hear anything from them until at least the end of May. I have been honest on the form and told them all about our situation. I am not sure if they will think we have intentionally made ourselves homeless by leaving our house for repossession, but we had no choice as we cannot sell it and cannot stay and pay all our bills! We were so terrified of ending up in B& B accomadation, our children are aged 11,15 & 17 and we have 2 cats, so we took a chance and got a private rented house. if we waited for eviction, I know you have to apply to the council for emergency accomodation and that would be B&B, I was told! If I do not get enough points to get on the housing list, (and depending on how long that list is!) if we get the chance to stay here and sign up again, I will do!

[gimmewine]

Jane, I think if you have been paying the rent on time and you are careful tenants no landlord is going to object to you signing up again. I would imagine it is normal practice to credit check at the start of a tenancy agreement, but would be very surprised if a further check is carried out for extending the agreement. I hope you will have a long and happy tenancy where you are.

[Lula]

Hi I hope I can help, I work in social housing!
The long and short of it is, if you have given up your home volunarily (you dont like an area had enough/ or you got repossessed due to non payment of mortage rent etc) then you are Intentionally Homelesss, the problem is that given the ages of your children, they are all classed as adults! If they were all under 18 then there is a duty under law as they protected under social services legislation. They could each make independent housing applications in fact!...as long as they can demonstrate a vulnerablity under the Housing Act 1998. In fact they may insist you do this as its easier to find 1 bedroom flats to rehouse people in that 3/4 bedroom houses ! (due to shortages!)

Your financial situation will have a bearing on your application, as the LA will take into account that you can ill affod to rent in the private sector. But it will depend on other factors such as the effect this may have had on the familiys health etc

As such your application will be proceesed, each LA works diff some work on points some work on priorty banding (High priorty to low priorty) after you application is assessed you will be advised where you are on the list - you can challenge this with doctors letters etc. If you are not accepted as being Stat homeless.. you have 28 days to appeal the decision.

You qualify for emergency accomodation, in the event you lost your rented tenancy , It would intially be B&B accomodation and then a temp flat.

To be honest where you are in the country will be a factor, in terms of the avaliablty of social housing! and the demands upon it!

If you want more info in more depth let me know!

I would recommend that whatever the outcome of your applciation you go to CAB for more advice, especially if you have to appeal their decision

[Soulgrowth]

Thanks everyone for some very helpful advice and insights