Notice needed if any

Hi Helen, I was living with my ex until she dumped me in late 2023. After I was discharged from a mental health ward I was living in 24 hour support for 3 months, now my ex gave me an ultimatum - either you get your things or I’ll put them in storage and you’ll have to pay! It cost me just short of £400 to move 39 miles from where I’d been living. Then I had to live in an MHO for six months, my local housing sent me an email to say we are closing your application for housing because you’ve made no bids, I was like eh! Rang them and they said what is it you’ve got so I went through everything and they said - you need to bid on housing for someone over 60 - I was mortified as I was only 40 at the time. I bid on a flat advertised as to having a stairlift, got told by my temporary support worker we are going to see that flat, but there is no stairlift as it’s been taken out! She said how are you going to do the stairs, come hell or high water I said I’m getting up those stairs! I had one look around and they said what do think, I said I’m having it! Now to satisfy UC I had to stay in the flat for one night so they paid my monthly rent for that month, before I’d even signed the tenancy agreement, I’d sorted out, gas, water, electric and broadband - a very smug support worker said you can’t do that - I said well I’ve got it sorted. I then had to notify the landlord of the date I was moving out, just having served notice sent me into panic mode. Between me serving my notice and moving into my flat, made me ill, I had a throat infection on week one, week two I had a chest infection, week three I had a another chest infection and on week four I had a viral infection, literally diagnose the morning of left a two night spell at the flat, au was told to rest up - erm I’ve got to go and pack all of my things for moving out tomorrow and deep clean the room I’d been renting! for I told them straight the day before after receiving a message that staff would be around the next morning to collect my keys from me, that under no circumstances are any of his staff to be there while I’m sorting out my things and moving out of the house as it would stress me out, leave me short tempered and I’d be liable to self harm and be popping diazepam. I personally paid for a two man team and a van for just short of two hundred pound to move me three and a half miles across the city. One of the things I did was ask for an advance on my Universal Credit to help me with my move. Having no family or friends to help wasn’t a bad thing, as I like to do things my own way. I’m surprised the council have only given you one week to move, surely they should have given you four weeks to get everything set up for the move, as trying to cram it all together in such a short amount of time is ludicrous. My flat is classed as Supported Living and has adaptations, I’m surprised they haven’t let you visit the property and have a person assess if there are changes that need to be done to make it suitable for your needs and requirements. My place was stood for four months before I spent the first night here after the previous tenant died. Fair to say there were tons of repairs I had to have done from the minute I moved in, alongside having to have extra plug sockets fitted and more recently a new front door. I personally would ring up citizens advice to see if they have any tips on what to do, some utilities take more than a week to switch over, I’d search online to see if there is anyone in your local area that may be able to help you pack your belongings, if your claiming UC try and ask for an advancement and then agree a repayment plan, the only thing I can think as to why they have said one week is because there may be a lot of interest in the property. I would personally ring the housing and actually say, that one week is not a suitable time frame as it’s a lot of stress to take on suddenly which could impact my health, that I need time to raise funds to pay for a removal firm, find someone to help me move, that certain utilities will not be in place for me to be able to have the house up and running within one week, that all of my addresses for bills, benefits, council tax etc all need to be changed, try and ask for a work around of 4 weeks with them, to give you plenty of time to do things at your own pace and give time for all the utilities to be brought in line to make the house habitable.

I hope this small bit of help and advice will help 💚

It's normal to pay rent on two properties while you are in the process of moving. Even when in social housing and on benefits.

You can apply for a Discretionary Housing Payment to see if you can get any help towards the overlap.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/claiming-discretionary-housing-payments/claiming-discretionary-housing-payments