Hi, my name is sarlou44! My landlord wasn't paying the mortgage, and is now selling the house — Scope | Disability forum
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Hi, my name is sarlou44! My landlord wasn't paying the mortgage, and is now selling the house

sarlou44
sarlou44 Community member Posts: 7 Listener
Hi everyone first time posting and at the end of my tether. I have four children well they are young adults three have disabilities. I am a carer and partner is self employed from February 2020 didn’t see the pandemic coming. We have privately rented for the past 14 years, been in 4 different houses as each time we get settled landlord decides to sell. House we in now is perfect has all we need and is around the corner from our support network. However the landlord doesn’t pay his mortgage which we found out a fortnight after moving in when a repossession notice was posted. Fast forward he has one of these roughly every 6 months then pays the day of the court hearing. This alone has played havoc with my mental health. It’s hard enough coping with three disabled children, finding the rent money over £1000 pm for him to not pay it anyway he’s now decided to sell. I can’t keep going through this every few years it’s unsettling for the kids and hard work trying to find somewhere that is big enough with all our requirements. Been on housing register for 8 years before last move had OT out and housing officer who agreed they have no houses on their books suitable. What can I do, we can’t get a mortgage and I’m not sure how much more I can take. Sorry for long post just need some support. 

Comments

  • Tori_Scope
    Tori_Scope Scope Posts: 12,488 Disability Gamechanger
    Hello and welcome to the community @sarlou44 :) Thanks for joining.

    There's no need to apologise for the long post- it certainly sounds as though you're going through a lot at the moment. Are you worried about becoming homeless? Have you found another house you can stay in? How long do you have before you need to move? I'd encourage you to get in touch with Shelter for expert advice on housing. 

    You mentioned that all the stress has played havoc with your mental health, which is completely understandable. Have you been able to access any professional support for your mental health? Are you able to lean on your support network for emotional support?

    Do you receive enough support at home? I can imagine that looking after your kids takes a lot of work. 
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  • sarlou44
    sarlou44 Community member Posts: 7 Listener
    Hi
    Thanks for your reply, no we don’t have another house as there are no private rentals available within 5 miles that are suitable. The council have no properties either. Yes my support network is good but unfortunately they can’t help house us as my parents live in a three bed house which is no where big enough and we can’t even get the wheelchairs through the door. We’re hoping 6 months but I don’t trust anything the landlord says. Just so run down and stressed with it all. 
  • newborn
    newborn Community member Posts: 832 Pioneering
    Hmm.....If there ever was a case for making an exceptional effort to help with anyone's housing, this is it.  The obviously best solution is to get a champion for your cause, and push for unusual solutions to unusual problems. The M.P. and ward councillors and council housing boss could get together and find a way to purchase the house either from the owner or from his mortgage company.  Who do you know?  Social worker, church, journalist?  You could benefit from publicity, if you could bear it.   This case would make a great documentary or feature, because everyone would have the wish to help three disabled children. ( You can just imagine the Mayor, the Leader of the Council, the M.P, and the mortgage company representative all assembled for a photo opportunity, symbolically handing a 'key to the door' from hand to hand.  )   

    Paradoxically, your problems are also to your advantage, because like all carers, you don't realise how much money the council would need to spend if they let you crack up from lack of help.  They have not got a suitable house in their housing stock, and clearly you need housing and cannot live in the open streets.  Therefore, they need to acquire into their housing stock a suitable house for three disabled children.   

    As it happens, one is coming on the market right now.  Yours. It is suited to your family and, vitally importantly, it is near your support network so there is a good chance you will be able to carry on caring for all the children, instead of breaking under the strain and getting carted off to hospital yourself(!)  Either they buy the one you are already in, or they  pay the cost of putting all your children into residential care suited for their needs,   They probably have not got that, either, but even if they have, it would probably cost them as much as putting the whole family into the Dorchester Hotel.   You and your family have rights to family life, so the council should not split you up. And, clearly, it cannot be in the best interests of disabled children to be upset or deprived of their stable home life.

    By the way, another of your problems which are your advantage is that getting an eviction order is next to impossible, for instance in some places they are setting the earliest possible court hearing dates for landlords way into next year.   Even then, the court would find it difficult to order putting three disabled children on the street.  Standard cases are apparently taking up to two years, so yours would take longer.  And imagine how much their legal fees would be, for a dragged-out case.  As you are blameless prompt rent payers, and as you have such an obviously impossible situation in getting any alternative roof, it would not just be a quick routine rubber-stamp order to have you and your wheelchair-using children all  hurled out into the snow (!)  You will get advice from Shelter and other experts, but they will tell you to be sure to prove you have paid the rent.  You could put into the mix an offer to agree to pay it direct to the mortgage people, if they and the landlord would prefer it.   I've never heard it tried, but these are not usual times and yours is certainly not a usual case.

    Your house can not be sold for the same price as the one next door would, if the owner himself was selling, he would be instantly vacating.  Your house has a virtually eviction-proof tenant meaning the house won't sell easily at all, and for a low price.  Any new owner would have to choose to spend months or years and fortunes in legal fees trying to get you out, or else just give in and agree to be your new landlord.  But for your family, a council landlord would be ideal, because of the security of tenure.  The existing landlord, the mortgage people, and the council should be able to negotiate something reasonable.   Councils can and do get ownership of stray houses here and there for odd reasons.  (My council calls them 'street houses', which always seems a funny term)   Really, get specialist free advice, but I'm sure you don't need to worry.    
  • sarlou44
    sarlou44 Community member Posts: 7 Listener
    Thank you for your reply. I am certainly going to push to have them try and buy this property. I did try many years ago when our other landlord sold and was told they don’t do that sort of thing. But this time I’m going to keep on to them. I have emailed our MP and she is already in touch with council but they aren’t very forthcoming. I have also emailed the housing minister at the welsh assembly to see what they say. We have proof of our rent being paid early every month as we insisted on paying him by faster payment rather than cash. I just want a stable and secure home to bring my family up in, instead of constantly having to move as landlords keep selling after a couple of years after promising that it would be a very long term rent. 
  • newborn
    newborn Community member Posts: 832 Pioneering
    Good.  But don't let them treat you to the bog standard conveyor belt system.  Every other would-be council tenant will be being processed that way, and it won't work for you.  Getting any po    litician or any official to use a non-standard way to achieve a result is next to impossible.  Try really hard to get journalist and other interest.

    About five or more years ago (?) there was a case which reached national news, simply because of a journalist. He lived near a Bournemouth bus shelter, where he noticed a couple in their nineties (one using a wheelchair) were living.    The relentless conveyor belts had meant they had to leave their private rented home (like you, without fault) but they could not get anything from the council (in their case, because they were living on life savings, not private pension, so the official forms meant they were assumed able to nip out and buy a house for a few thousand, or else to easily get a private rental at any moment, impressing the landlord's agents with a zero income and no employment(!))   The fact that the boxes were being ticked and the rules were being followed was the ONLY thing that mattered to officials.  Two ninety year olds being forced to live on the street was "nothing to do with me mate, I followed the rules, so it's not my fault if they soon die of exposure".  If those officials tried to bend the rules, use common sense or compassion, or look for a way to say "yes", instead of saying "computer says no", then they would have risked their own jobs and big fat pensions.  Result : "let 'em die, just not in my office".

    After the couple were shown on national television, and journalists were pestering Ministers, somebody in Bournemouth  council discovered that there was some way to get round the problem, an exceptional way,   a different way, more imaginative than just the standard conveyor belt leading to "computer says no".    All of a sudden their council  could find somewhere for them to live, after all !   

     (I'm  afraid just going to an average M.P will often result in the M.P.'s  office staff going through the routine of sending a standard letter asking the council to look into the case, then the council writes back a standard letter saying  they "regret to hear that this constituent is not satisfied, but following a thorough investigation we can confirm that our staff  did everything correctly  and nothing more can be done".)

    You need to jump off that routine conveyor belt processing in a blaze of fireworks, with a brass band and a camera crew, before you will get a sensible result.

    Very, very best wishes to you.   
  • sarlou44
    sarlou44 Community member Posts: 7 Listener
    Thank you for your support. I have today contacted Shelter Cymru who have taken all the info and is looking into it as they say we are being discriminated against as stated in the Equality Act 2010 as disability is a protected characteristic and just because they are disabled they still need to be treated the same and a house found. So I’ll be going down that road as well. Thankfully we have quite a few good councillors who like a fight with the council so have also got them involved as well as the MP and shall see how we go. 
  • woodbine
    woodbine Community member Posts: 11,519 Disability Gamechanger
    Sadly this is a tale we see so often in the private rented sector, and it doesn't help there isn't much if any vacant social housing.

    I agree that it could take the owner quite some time to sell with a sitting tenant, when if ever does your lease end?

    Sound advice to speak to shelter who are the experts on this.

    Not so sure trying to force the council to purchase the property is going anywhere, councils just don't have the money.

    Hope it all gets sorted for you and good luck.
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  • sarlou44
    sarlou44 Community member Posts: 7 Listener
    Our Landlord is a dodgy as they come unfortunately. We had a 12 month lease then just ongoing as he couldn’t be bothered to do another. Funnily enough he’s also an estate agent. He has quite a large stock of houses and a few have also said about the lack of mortgage payments he makes or doesn’t. Yes the council stated last time they didn’t have the money to purchase properties but I’ve had a response from the housing minister for the Welsh Assembly who have said that my council have to find a property then use funds from the government to make it suitable so hopefully that’s another avenue. 
  • Tori_Scope
    Tori_Scope Scope Posts: 12,488 Disability Gamechanger
    I'm glad Shelter were able to give you some more information and advice @sarlou44 :) It sounds as though you've managed to make some progress, and that there are hopefully a few different options out there for you. Fingers crossed one of them comes through. Please do keep us updated! 
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  • sarlou44
    sarlou44 Community member Posts: 7 Listener
    I will keep you updated. Shelter came back to me today saying I should be under the specialist housing management team so will chase that up. 
  • Charlieniblett
    Charlieniblett Community member Posts: 54 Connected
    Hi,
    I’m in a position not dissimilar to yourself, only the property we are in is unsuitable for a wheelchair user and can’t be modified. After much harassing (I contacted my mom and pretty much every councillor in my local area) and mentioning going to the media, I’ve suddenly been moved from silver banding to gold (the highest) and we are looking to be offered a property in the next few weeks. Unfortunately it seems to be the case of whoever shouts the loudest gets sorted first!! Although this shouldn’t be the way it works, it seems to be this way.
  • Charlieniblett
    Charlieniblett Community member Posts: 54 Connected
    Sorry should say MP, not mom!!
  • sarlou44
    sarlou44 Community member Posts: 7 Listener
    That’s great news fingers crossed you get moved soon. Your right it is whoever shouts the loudest. I’m taking a few days off as it’s our bday weekend but come Tuesday I will be back onto everyone I can think of. 

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