UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi all,

I desperately need to move into social housing based on a medical need. In the meantime, I have had to sign a new 1 year tenancy agreement. The tenancy agreement has a 6 month break clause, but I feel I need to move urgently, and unfortunately my Council isn't going to put an offer of a social home on hold until such time as I can engage the 6 month break clause etc.

I understand, according the information provided on Shelter's website, I can end the tenancy agreement early provided that I have a good reason. It seems. however, that there is no way to enforce that in any way e.g. via an Ombudsman, so I am essentially reliant on the compassion of my landlord?

Any advice would be immensely appreciated.

I am sorry to be the person to break this to you but I think you should not rush to do anything in a hurry because there is no social housing available, the spaces that do become available only do so when someone dies, moves to a bigger home or is evicted due to extreme antisocial behaviour.

I have clients who have been in tiny tiny studios's in what would normally be called an HMO, some of those clients are terminally ill, some have extreme conditions and could not even manage to put a post up.

I have had clients with grade 4 cancer and the Council approach was to wait for them to die.

Where there are new properties being built some of them are being used to transfer Tenants from unsafe accommodation that needs to be demolished.

Shelter is a good place to start, not on how quickly you can get out of your contract but of the process of obtaining social housing.  I guarantee that you will remain in temporary accommodation for more than 13 months and maybe a lot longer.  It all comes down to priority need and no matter how bad your medical condition is, a property will not be available.  Do you think we would be keeping people in hotels while we process their asylum cases if there were properties available?  In fact, the lack of properties available is why we don't process their cases until we absolutely have to.

The first duty of the Council is to prevent you being made homeless and if you leave of your own accord they will deem you intentionally homeless and discharge their housing duty to you.

You will need a local connection and if you abandon the property you are in (which they will pay the rent for) then they will leave you for six months street homeless before they reconsider you.

If you do not have a local connection (from 2 to 5 years) then they will refer you to the Council in an area where you used to have such a connection, by work or residence.

You would have been better off to sofa surf and live on the street if you had wanted a faster track to gaining accommodation, but that would always start with an assessment, they can stick you in a grotty b&b with some undesirable people while they try to figure out how to get rid of you, sorry I mean meet your need.

Then they will create a Personal Housing Plan for you, it will list a bunch of things you need to do to obtain accommodation in the private sector via "partner" Landlords and others.  If you fail to show evidence of applying and viewing such properties or if you reject a property they deem would do, then they discharge their housing duty to you.

If you fail to obtain private accommodation (that will be awful compared to what you have now) they "might" put you in temporary place that they use for emergency accommodation, in these places your post and food or anything you do not lock down is stolen.  If you use a kitchen your plates and cups may be stolen if you are dumb enough to leave them for 10 minutes. There can be a lot of bullying in such places as they rarely have security and if there is CCTV then nobody monitors it.  I have had to pull Tenants out of such places in horrific circumstances, of course it varies around the country but it is very common and almost the norm because the best places are being used for families with children and even they are full.

If you manage to stay for the time they stick you in such a place then once their legal obligations kick in (after a year or two) they do some activity to show they tried, often at this point they ask neighbouring Councils if they have any places.  If you refuse without incredibly good reason then they discharge their housing duty to you and evict you from the temporary housing.

If you do as you are told and are in temporary accommodation you will be asked to bid on properties, unless it is a shithole it is unlikely you will be in the top 50 bids for a year because the computer algorithm takes the time they have been bidding into account.  If you decline a shithole without good reason the Council may discharge it's duty and evict you. You will know you are near the top when you start to regularly be in the top 20 bids for the properties you bid on, it can take about six weeks to get from 50-100 to 20-50 band and you can be in the 10-20 band for another six weeks, then it comes down to who top 5, at this point you get to view the property and are expected to make a decision on the spot, if you reject the offer without good reason they may discharge their housing duty and evict you.  You might have a medical reason for example to request a ground floor property or an adapted property if you become disabled.

Bear in mind if you are too ill then they will work with adult social care and try to put you in sheltered accommodation or a hospice.  These places vary a lot, some are for recovering alcoholics and druggies, while others are for elderly and disabled, some get better and go from there to a social housing flat. 

With regard to you exercising the break clause or leaving early (against advice), I suggest you and any Landlords read the post below.

https://www.propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk/blog/your-tenant-wants-leave-early/

The reality is that you can abandon a property and return the keys, the Landlord must mitigate any loss they intend to hold you responsible for.  In these days when an ad on Open Rent will produce 30 applicants by lunchtime it is hard to justify not taking on another Tenant within 7 days.

If they take you to Court then sure they might get a CCJ but if your condition is so bad that you can't work and rely on benefits then the best they will get is £1 a week and even that can be disposed of by a Debt Relief Order which is now free and wipes all your debts.  That is why the post below says you should just let them go and get a new Tenant.

Now it is entirely possible that you have a great Council who are very sympathetic, the people you have spoken to may not be on the front line in the housing department, most Councils prioritise obeying their own duties to prevent homelessness all of the above is documented in the myriad of links on the Shelter website.  Start at the link below and follow every link.

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/homelessness/get_help_from_the_council

Quote from: Heisenberg on December 01, 2024, 10:01:06 PMHi all,

I desperately need to move into social housing based on a medical need. In the meantime, I have had to sign a new 1 year tenancy agreement. The tenancy agreement has a 6 month break clause, but I feel I need to move urgently, and unfortunately my Council isn't going to put an offer of a social home on hold until such time as I can engage the 6 month break clause etc.

I understand, according the information provided on Shelter's website, I can end the tenancy agreement early provided that I have a good reason. It seems. however, that there is no way to enforce that in any way e.g. via an Ombudsman, so I am essentially reliant on the compassion of my landlord?

Any advice would be immensely appreciated.