Parents homeless as council says there is no where

[fiyah]

Bear with me on this one as its a bit long winded.

 

My parents were farmers until the end of march when they both retired, my dads 67 and my mums 62.

 

They retired for a couple of reasons,

firstly neither of my parents are in very good health and

secondly they are tenant farmers (they rent a farm off the council,

some people ive spoken to dont know what a tenant farmer is,

dont mean to sound patronising)

 

and have been sort of pushed into retiring due to the council "preffering" their tenants to be younger than 65.

 

As a tenant farmer my dad, 28 years ago when he moved to the farm, signed a tenancy agreement

and part of that tenancy agreement states, and i quote

"upon cease of tenancy, we (warwickshire county council) will find the outgoing tenants suitable accomodation"

 

Since the 30th March at 2pm my parents have been living in an old ford campervan in any layby they can find...

....because the council says there is no council acommodation for them that is suitable for them to live in,

my dad has one leg,

needs a knee replacement

and hip replacement

and my mum has had both knees replaced

and needs an operation on her back,

so they need a bungalow or a groundfloor maisonette/flat.

 

The local council involved (Rugby) accepted my parents application regarding their pending homelessness before christmas last year,

but cannot do anything until 28 days before the date of homelessness which was 2nd march.

 

The council are now saying they have fulfilled their duty of care regarding their homelessness situation

and because they rejected a property that they offered them then they are no longer involved in finding acommodation...

.....i shall elaborate on their "offer"

 

My mum had been phoning the council every wednesday when the new vacant properties came onto the councils system.....

..you used to be able to bid online for them but that finished in october last year.

 

Everytime she phoned someone said they would be intouch soon

but nothing ever happened until

 

one day they got a phone call from their housing case worker asking if they had considered a small village not far from where they were

as there would be a property coming empty soon,

 

it was a ground floor maisonette in a quiet cul de sac.......that was all the information he gave her.

 

my mum spoke to my dad and that night they went a drive to the village in question

and as its not very big they found the cul de sac and the maisonettes and one was empty but looked like it was being decorated..

 

....they had a nosy thru the window and saw it was very small with space for only a 3/4 size bed in the bedroom and a 2 seater sofa in the living room,

they havent been living in a huge farmhouse with loads of space and were put off by the thought of downsizing,

it just was very small, more of a single persons flat.

 

The next day my mum phoned back the council and said they had been and looked at the maisonettes there and they were just too small.

They are now being told that was the one and only "offer" which they had to accept so now they wont help them anymore.

 

I dont know what i can do to help them,

they wont have the grandchildren come see them as the campervan is no place for kids,

my mums so depressed and my dads so angry it upsets me so much at the way they have been treated,

after 28 years of hard slog being a "model tenant" they have been abandoned.....

 

..their tenancy agreement means nothing,

they foolishly believed they would be housed to enjoy their retirement

and spend time doing what they wanted when they wanted for the first time in 39 years

(this was my dads second farm with a council and only moved for a bigger farm)

 

Anyone have any ideas?

have the council breached their tenancy agreement?

[i hate bailiffs]

....because the council says there is no council acommodation.......

 

....they had a nosy thru the window and saw it was very small with space for only a 3/4 size bed in the bedroom and a 2 seater sofa in the living room,

they havent been living in a huge farmhouse with loads of space and were put off by the thought of downsizing,

it just was very small, more of a single persons flat.

 

The next day my mum phoned back the council and said they had been and looked at the maisonettes there and they were just too small.

They are now being told that was the one and only "offer" which they had to accept so now they wont help them anymore.

 

I dont know what i can do to help them, perhaps they should accept what is on offer it may not be ideal but could be a temporally arrangement

.

 

.

 

Anyone have any ideas?

 

By all means make a formall complaint to the council but if every property is too small or not the ideal one I doubt the council can do any more to help

[stu007]

Hi fiyah

 

The issue they may have now (as they were probably unaware) if they are on the homelessness list and the Council have offered them said property (bear in mind you pointed out they didn't know address nor actually viewed the property with a council rep that they had offered), as the Council have offered a property and they have refused the Council are now probably classing them as Intentionally Homeless as they have fulfilled there duty.

 

Now when they were place on the homeless list did they fill in a Medical Assessment form.

 

Pleazse have a chat to Shelter about this also: https://www.shelter.org.uk/

 

Also have a chat with Age UK: http://www.ageuk.org.uk/

 

Were they ever a member of the Tenant Farmers Association? http://www.tfa.org.uk/