Would I be classed as intentionally homeless?

[NewMummyTurne]

Basically I live in a one bedroom flat with my partner its 100% not suitable for a child, its top floor, mouldy, one bedroom student flat.

Our lease is a fixed term contract which ends in June. Baby is due late April/early May. The landlord has said he's happy for us to have the baby in the flat. But it means lugging her pram up four flights of stairs every time we want to go out, her being woken up by the student parties and noise outside.

We need to stay in this area till 26th May as that's my partners last exam, then my mum has said we can move in with her until we can get a council place but no longer than a month.

If we moved in with my mum we would be in the dining room (mum's said she'll move the table into the garage for now) which means we'd still be sharing a room (me, OH and baby) and we'd be sharing kitchen/bathroom facilities (the kitchen isn't plastered, neither is the lounge but she's getting the lounge sorted for when we get back so we all have a bit more space) it would at least mean we'd be on a ground floor and in the right area (no drunks yelling at 2am and no student parties!).

The problem is if I left the landlords accommodation the month earlier than the lease is for and moved in with my mum would the council see that as making ourselves 'intentionally homeless'?

And if we stayed till the end of the lease but moved in with my mum for a month then would the council even help to house us because we're in a family house?



What would you do?

Grateful for all answers

x thank you

 

[sophxx]

I'm not sure but a month is not long to get a council property I know people who have waited years with children and they even went in temporary accommodation. Could you not private rent with the rent deposit scheme the council has and housing benefit? I'm not sure that you having to share a bathroom and kitchen would matter to the council as you'll still have a roof over your head. And the baby can stay in your room till one or older. X

 

[Dinah93]

I would have thought you'd be non-priority given you were in a private flat, and chose to give it up. A lot of people wait years and years for a council property, and many council's don't consider the baby needs its own room until it's a year old anyway, so I would be very surprised if you were housed within a month - I remember reading the other day that the average wait was 4 years for the top 2 categories of need. Can you not move to a different private flat?

 

[suzib76]

if you are in your parents place you wouldnt be classed as homeless anyway, just overcrowded (if you were that is)

 

[NewMummyTurne]

Hey thanks for your answers I ended up ringing the council and yes I would be classed as intentionally homeless and yes they've said the chances of me getting somewhere are nill for at least a year! So if i move to my mums they wont help me because i'll have deliberately put myself into that situation.

Anyway all in all I'm going to move back to my mums until I cant stand it anymore or until either me or OH gets a job and we can try and get a mortgage somewhere, i'm so reluctant to rent privately (its about £500 pcm) its so much dead money.

Thank for your help.

 

[Dinah93]

Glad to hear you've reached a conclusion. Just something to consider though - have you looked at the cost of a mortgage? We had a 15% deposit, so got a decent rate, but it's £845 a month for our house, this is compared to the £575 the one across the road recently went up for rent for. In addition £760 of that £845 a month is paying interest to the bank - we'd actually be a lot better off to rent than buy as so, so little is actually paying off the balance of the house. For many first time buyers they'd actually be better off renting and paying the extra they'd be spending on a mortgage into savings, however it's so tempting as I well know to feel like you 'own' your own place, even if in reality the bank own it not you.

 

[NewMummyTurne]

Thank you for the heads up, its defiantly a game of sums, something which when we're in a position to (i.e with jobs!) then i'll probably be posting lots of threads about lol! but again defiantly food for thought thanks.

 

[woodr]

Hi

I am a homeless officer and you do have options.

How bad is your current living situation? is there any ASB? is there lots of police call outs? is the flat in poor condition? these are some things that i would be looking at before dissmissing your case.

We would advise you to stay at the flat until the end of the lease.

We have lots of cases who move back in with their parents then for whatever reason they have a family fall out and they are asked to leave- we then have no choice put to complete a homeless assessment- we would still look at intentionallity however if the lease came to an end and you chose not to renew due to to being unsuitable and your parents offered you accommodation we would have to question if you were intentional. these are the investigations the officer would have to make.

Even though there is housing law in place some of the decisions are down to the officer/service so it can vary from one authority to another.

You would be classed as a priority as you are pregnant- doesnt matter if you have made youself homeless or not you are still a priority however this doesnt mean that they need to assist.

At this moment you are not homeless so they wouldnt complete an assessment however Wwe have a prevention service which works with families like yourselves who are at risk of becoming homeless, worth asking if they have similar service?

You would be eligable for a 2 bed property (with our LA) again this could vary. however if you claim housing benefit or plan to you wouldnt be eligable for 2 bed rate until 2 months before baby born.

When we award someone high needs on housing application we hope they will be offered a property within 3-5 months this depends on how open you are to areas, we award high needs for 3 months or 3 offers if you are in our temp accommodation 2 months or 2 offers.

Also we have various temp accommodation this isnt ideal however could be better than your current situation and also the possible situation at your Mums?

Each LA will vary and each homeless service will vary however feel free to message me for further advice and i would be more than happy to help.

If you did have a homeless assessment at somepoint and you were given an intentional decision the CAB can appeal these decisions and ask for a review-just something to bear in mind.

Sorry to give you so much info just wanted to give you a better understanding.
xxxx