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set1077
Starting Member
United Kingdom
34 Posts |
 Posted - 21 January 2010 : 13:29:04
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Richard if you can advise me on this it would b a great help.
I am awaiting repossession, although not a lot happening as yet.
My background is basically a mortgage and secured loan that we can now not afford. Firstly I was made redundant but got a temp job straight away. I have now had a child and have not got a job to go back to thus claiming dole. Our wages income has halved. Having forsen this we stopped paying th mortgage and loan and mostly everything else in the view to going BR.
We have decided it is more secure to gain a council premesis and have therefore applied.
The lady has come to do a home visit today. She basically said that as a home owner / occupier we would have basiv points only but could try to top them up with medical points (stress etc) and social points due to financial dificulties. However she said that beying verything aware Housing options / homelessness would look into whether we intended to make ourselves homeless and didn't pay our priority debts when we could have, if so then they would be under no obligation to house. She advised getting legal advice.
My worry is that even though we cannot afford to keep up payments now, we pre-empted this and stopped paying last June when we still could, solely so that w could save for the inevitable and also a new baby is very expensive and therefore didn't save as much as we hoped anyway. If they request bank statements they will see we stopped paying everything early? what should we do.
Also would it be worth doing the application on another angle for example, if I say there was a relationship breakdown, put an application in my name only and thn he could move in afterwards in the "we've got back together" sinario?
Please help Richard |
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Jane.l
Average Member
511 Posts |
Posted - 21 January 2010 : 14:21:21
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Can I give my opinion, I am no expert, BUT we had exactly the same circumstances as you, and I too worried that the council would say that we had intentionally made ourselves homeless SO, this is what we did:
As soon as we knew that we could not keep the house going, we moved into private rented accomodation
THEN we filled in a council housing application, saying that we had been repossessed, etc. This was not a problem for our housing officer, they did not care
we only got basic points too so we just sat tight and waited, after 18 months in private rented, I wrote to the housing officer again, explaining how stressed we were and were being treated for stress/anxiety/depression, etc and a secure, permanent home would do wonders for our health. A couple of days later, the housing officer rang me up and came for another home visit and said she would try and get us extra points awarded for medical reasons and she did 3 days later, and there was a lovely house all ready and we got it! We have been here just over a year now.
Maybe you should be prepared to be in private rented for a while and then apply, if only as a stopgap as we did |
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RHB
Senior Member
1159 Posts |
Posted - 21 January 2010 : 14:25:16
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| aRE YOU STILL GOING BANKRUPT? |
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Housing
Senior Member
United Kingdom
1399 Posts |
Posted - 21 January 2010 : 16:10:48
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Hi set1077, 
Welcome to the forum today.
Have you approached the Council as being threatened with homelessness? I assume from what you have said, that is the case.
The Council has a duty in law to offer advice and assistance. There are 5 categories of "Priority Need" and from what you have set out, you meet some of the criteria for them to assess your application.
Along with the duty to provide advice, there is also a duty to assist, subject to them not deeming you to be inytentionally homeless. That is also subject for you to challenge if they make such a decision.
It seems to me that you should get to see your G.P. and ask him/her to write to the council housing needs department to say that you and your partner are suffering from depression as a result of your housing situation.
On the question of intentionality, I see that you have tried to maintain payments to your lender(s) and that due to your significant reduction in income you cannot continue to maintain the monthly payments and, accordingly, you will become homeless or are threatened with homeless for no fault of your own and certainly no intentionality.
Therefore, I would go back to the council after you have seen the G.P. and be bullish with the Council. You will be on strong ground, in my view.
Please keep in contact and I wil be happy to guide you through the process. I accept that you will not be feeling strong, but you must be and things will work out house wise.
Best regards, Richard
"Life is generally something that happens elsewhere" (Alan Bennett - author and one of my best heroes!!) |
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fredjn
Starting Member
30 Posts |
Posted - 21 January 2010 : 18:43:41
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Hi we are in a similar position and are planning to get rented accomodation and stop paying the mortgage. Eventually we will go bankrupt. My husband a transplant patient who has had nothing but one procedure after another totalling 6 in the last 11 months and then there is me with a chronic condition who has been told I have retinopothy developing. My husbands job is unlikely to continue for very much longer.We also have a 9 year old daughter.
We are going to do as Jane.l has done and hope eventually to go from private rent to social . That's the plan anyway!
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RHB
Senior Member
1159 Posts |
Posted - 22 January 2010 : 07:37:18
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| I think that sounds sensible, no one gets a house straight away as there aren't a lot, but most people after a period of time seem to end up in social housing if they want to. |
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A queststion for Housing, Richard, or anyone else
