Renting: 3 House Hunting Strategies for Single Mums on a Budget
Where do you want to live?
- London
- Rest of UK
London, is a popular place for many reasons, probably for some of the same reasons which are keeping me (and most likely you) here. The cold hard truth is that these days council flats are few and far between even for those who qualify and are entitled to one.
Elsewhere in UK, I am less familiar with but I have heard that it is much easier. Keep in mind that many rural communities have excellent connection with inner city London. It can be a fresh start if you feel that you will be able to connect with the community there.
Before you continue reading it is important that you stop to consider what would feel right for you;
- Stay in the same city moving to a different part; still keep your existing support networks and hustle and the hustle and bustle of the big city.
- Or start a fresh in a smaller town, better air quality, more open space, different community.
Ok! So if you are receiving housing benefit or earning less than 30K, I know of 3 methods to find a new home:
Method 1 — Wait for a council flat
You are clearly in a transition period if you are looking for a new home. If, for example you are planning to leave partner and find temporary accommodation such as a women’s refuge you will have 6 months to apply to a borough of your choice. They all have different rules. Some (ie. Borough of Camden) require the applicant to move into a council run hostel for 8 weeks (deeply miserable places as I have heard).
The main downside, is the uncertainty and the length of waiting time. It is common to wait around 1 year to then be offered temporary accommodation. Which means waiting a further year and half for a permanent place to be offered; adding up to 2.5 years of uncertainty — making it tricky to plan for the future, chose schools in walking distance, and generally building a life.
Do keep in mind that when you are offered accommodation whether temporary or permanent you will have to accept the accommodation they offer. There are a few criteria that they have to fulfil — such as no overcrowding but often as mothers often there are other criteria which seem much more important to us, which they may not have the resources to even pay attention to.
If you choose this route you will have 1–2.5 years of uncertainty and instability but this should pay off in a permanent place to call home for the future.
Top Tip: If you have lived in a borough consecutively for 5 or more years: call them before you move you move from the address and see if you can have your points awarded. These can make it much easier for you to gain a council flat and (if you have the points already allocated to you) these may be able to be transferred between boroughs.
Method 2 — Find it yourself
I am going to be straight with you… Here is the bad news:
Shelter’s 2016 report found that….’nearly two thirds of landlords surveyed would prefer not to let to individuals claiming Housing Benefit (63%, 42% have an outright bar, 21% occasionally let to them, but prefer not to).
Further still, four in ten landlords surveyed, agreed that ‘It’s natural that stereotypes and prejudices come into it when I decide who to let to’.
For these and other reasons it is not easy to find a place yourself.
I have found that real estate agencies fall into 3 categories:
- Will not work with with anyone who is in receipt of full or partial Housing Benefit. These agencies will commonly require you to be in work and earning 30 times the monthly rent just to pass their credit check.
- If-you-have-a-guarantor-we-may-be-able-to-find-something agency:
Who can be a guarantor you ask?
There are at least 3 criteria a guarantor must fulfil:
Own property in UK
Earn enough to be able to cover your rent out of their surplus income
Be willing to turn up with their passport at the drop of a hat for you and sign on the dotted line.
…if you know someone like this, you can use this method, easily. You should have quite a few decent options. - Already works with the Home Finder’s team at one of the local councils (this may be a borough other than in which they are based and is simply based on which housing team bothered to contact them and to build a working relationship).
IMPORTANT: It is crucial that you keep checking your budget for every
property that you look at using their postcode. Here you are able to check the housing benefit allowance by postcode and number of bedrooms that you are entitled to. Which leads me to some good news! This took me ages to understand…
If you have children, you will qualify for a certain number of bedrooms (ie. mum and baby qualifies for 2 bedrooms, mum with 2 children of different sexes may qualify for 3 bedrooms). You can call your housing officer or just the housing department to check what their policy is. Most councils will allow you to claim the pound amount for the bedrooms you qualify for while renting a home with 1 bedroom less, why is this good? In many cases this is what you need to meet the market rate, it can also mean you can look at better quality of accommodation in a more positive and uplifted neighbourhoods.
Note about Universal Credit: Be mindful of your future budget: over the next 1–2 years authorities are switching to Universal Credit system, this will make it easier to do a little work while still receiving benefits but this will mean that there is a cap on the overall help you will receive, in particular this will affect families with 2 or more children. You can check the caps here.
While I was looking, I developed a initial-inquiry template to which I got quite a few responses. If you are interested drop me a line and I can give you my blueprint.
Method 3 — Use the Council to find a Private Landlord
Some boroughs are using schemes such as ‘Home Finders’ as alternatives to providing council housing — this special team within the council finds private landlords and convinces them to let to those who qualify for council’s help.
They offer an ‘incentive’ in place of a deposit, and effectively act in place of a guarantor in assuring timely payment of rent to the landlord. If you are not on Universal Credit yet, your rent will go directly to your landlord, which will give peace of mind to those landlords who have been burnt by other non-paying tenants in the past.
The homes that they find are not just in their own borough, they can be anywhere, you can even bring a landlord in yourself. If the landlord is open to it, you could have one of the council’s letting team call and explain the terms and incentives. So all you really need is a council who is responsive, because when you are trying to sign an agreement for a property that you like before someone else does, you need a council department who is easy to get hold of and is not ‘losing applications right left and centre’ you need things to move quickly.
It took me a while to understand why there is so much variation in how councils process housing claims. Until I found out that some councils (such as Barnet) have outsourced their departments to private companies. These tend to have more efficient processes and process new applications faster.
The benefits of renting privately (methods 2 and 3) include; having control of the exact area where you live as there is so much variation within each borough and moving into something that could end up being reasonably long term within 6 months. As well as the ease of communication with the landlord — if there is a leak you know exactly who to call rather than an entire department. If they don’t respond you could threaten to complain to the housing department…
The downside; you are at the whim of the landlord, if they decide to sell in 3 years time, they can chose not to renew your contract and give you notice instead. There may also be price increases when a contract is renewed. These are possibilities.
Note: there is nothing from you trying all 3 methods all at once. The only thing that may be tricky to change is the borough to which you submit the application to.
That’s it!
I am actually writing this amongst moving boxes, having moved out of the refuge and into a flat ‘all of my own’. It is probably not a surprise to you that I used ‘Method 3’ along with a huge helping of luck.
I think there are a few things I did that I think helped me to increase my odds, you can read my tips in House Viewings: 5 Steps to a Home you Love.
Remember, we can do this.
xo
