Accepted As a homeless Person July / 03 / 2008

[Donel261]

Have the authority accepted that you are 'homeless' or 'threatened with homelessness'? (you will need to read you letter)

 

If they have accepted that you are 'threatened with homelessness' then they are duty bound to ensure that accommodation does not cease to become available to you. They normally do this by mediating with excluders/landlords, resolving housing benefit issues, looking at income maximisation and discretionary rent payments to get your landlord to agree another term of residence. As you say, your S.21 is yet to expire and the authority have adeqate time to try and resolve the situation, albeit most don't bother and just let the tenancy run its course in the hope that they can secure you an offer of accomodation before you become roofless.

 

If they have accepted you as 'homeless' then they are accepting that it is not reasonable for you to continue to occupy your current accommodation. You may want to stay there but technically you don't have too and they are duty bound to provide you with temporary accommodation NOW until a permanent offer is made. This has been covered in the court of appeal, it also applies to ALL councils - see link here ---> ://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2008/48.html - if the authority force you to stay at the property until an eviction warrant is served you should be warned that you are likely to incur the costs - the council cannot insist on this being done, if they are, they are acting unlawfully as per the above caselaw and I would seek the advice of a local law firm quoting the aweys judgement.

 

I would certainly be clarifying whether the council are going to pay the court costs on your behalf?

 

There is an article on it here :Housed: Adding a Local Authority as a party to costs.

 

I know this doesnt answer how long you will be waiting for an offer but thought you should know. Good luck!

[Donel261]

Here is the homeless code of guidance that all UK councils should be working too - it is effectively the rule book in plain english for housing officers to follow:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/pdf/152056.pdf

 

The problem with housing officers, especially is small boroughs is that they are not up to date with current legislation and case law. They tend to make decisions, like, 'you need to stay at the property until evicted' because that is what they have always done it and not been challenged.

 

I would strongly advise you NOT to give notice or surrender the property back to the landlord as the housing officer may try and use some sort of lame intentionallity arguement to shun the councils duties. I would however have an open and frank discussion regarding your options and what the authority propose to do. Explain that they are effectively forcing the landlord to go to court and get a warrant against you, which will force you to leave and leave you incurring costs (around 150 pound) and that decision is unlawful (the aweys case is relatively new so they may not be aware of it, if they don't that is not your issue - all councils have a legal services department they can call on for advice.) The question is why should you pay the court costs when the council have accepted a full S.193 duty to you as a homeless person? by doing so they have accepted you as homeless and put that decision in writting so technically they have also accepted that whilst you may have accommodation, it is not reasonable for you to continue to reside there for one more day (if they thought it was, they would have accepted the lesser S.195 'threatened with homelessness' duty), which you say they have not.

 

In terms of temporary accommodation, councils often harp on that they have limited resources. Irrespective of that, it is a duty of every authority to comply with the law and ensure your legal right to temporary accommodation is honoured. What arrangements are you making for your furniture when the bailiffs come knocking to kick you out? has the housing officer discussed his/her duty to ensure that arrangements are made to protect your belongings?

 

It all seems very lame to me, they may be a small council but they are still obliged to follow the same law as the biggest - they cannot say sod off to Newcastle as we have no properties or force you to stay in a property pending the bailiffs turning up to turf you out - not only is it unlawful but it is plain wrong to treat vulnerable people in this way.

 

Read the code of guidance (above) Chapter 7, Chapter 14 (the difference between being threatened with homeless or accepted as homeless) and Chapter 17 - you will know more than the housing officer by the time you meet them, they should already know it.

 

If they mess you around, know your rights, contact shelter or a solicitor specialising in homelessness/housing/public law:

 

The Law Society - Find a solicitor

[Donel261]

Sorry, forgot to mention. It does not matter that the council have transferred their stock to a housing association - the housing association still accept the duty to re-house you using that stock, the council retains nomination rights on all registered social landlord properties. I.e. you will get re-housed by the housing association.

[Donel261]

Its not particularly complex, don't worry - I have ranted on a bit but thats just my irritation with local authorities trying to shun their duties until the person is actually roofless. They have accepted a full duty to you, thats the hard part over - they now need to make you an offer which takes into consideration your needs, support networks etc. You need to be realistic with the offer you receive, they can't give you something they haven't got - they can also assist you find another private sector rental but they cannot discharge their duty to you (as its an assured shorthold tenancy) unless you agree to it. If they offer you temporary accommodation, or you want it - then take it. Don't make any spur of the moment decisions, think things through first. I see so many people refusing offers, which is after all accommodation of last resort, as they don't like them and then they end up with nothing following the review as the council have done everything they are supposed to do.

 

I wish you well, read the code of guidance - all will be explained. Who would have thought you have to go through this just to ensure you know your rights. I am no expert but do work in the field, you always have shelter on your side if you are unsure of anything.