Housing help needed PLEASE!

hi peeps. rather a sad situation here at Punkyville. i havn't been getting on well with my family for a while now, for various reasons which i won't go into. tonight, following a fight with my brother, who instigated it, i have been asked to leave home. i have a month to find somewhere else to live and move out of here. mom is giving it me in writing tomorrow. i am so shook up by this.

BUT...

i now need assistance in rebuilding my life, namely the 'housing' aspect of it. i need as much info as possible on moving out for the 1st time, Do's and Don'ts, tips n tricks, stuff i can blag from the government etc..

i know i'm asking a lot, but please help. i don't normally ask for much...please?
(not wanting to sound like a Big Issue seller)

peace.

o man thats a crock o the brown stuff :( if i had any info for ya matey i wud deffo give it ya but im a home liver atm and dont really know about it.

hope sommat comes up soon matey, best wishes and take care

That's a bit f*****g harsh mate. Blimey, stay strong.

If you rent private accomodation, if you pay cheap, you'll probably only be able to afford a bedsit. Somewhere decent will cost a small fortune in rent.

Best bet is to go STRAIGHT AWAY to the Council and declare yourself homeless. Then keep bothering them. Every day, get on to them.

If you're in with your Doctor (GP) tell him you're having a nervous breakdown because of the situation and ask him to write a letter to the council and you need housing urgently or they will have a death on their hands.

Lie, bullrubbishrubbishrubbishrubbish, cajole.

If you do get a council place, you're probably be quite happy there.

Parents are weird (I know, I'm one myself now :D ) but I was kicked out when I was 18 as well for generally being an unsociable and unstable little git, so I know how you feel.

I actually spent about a week sleeping rough before I managed to sort myself out.

Do you think your parents really mean it? Or maybe it's just an act to get you and your bruv to not ruck anymore? How come he ain't getting the boot then? Did you instigate the fight? Is there a lot of tension at home?

I think lay low for a few days then try and make the peace with your family and ask to stay there. Say sorry a lot, even if you don't mean it.

You're better off at home for now, believe me.

Good luck :(

trust me mate, they mean it this time. i've had similar incidents, like after i was arrested that time, but it was never as serious as this.
good idea about the doc, i'll talk to my psychology tutor about how to fake a nervous breakdown. i do intend to blag as much as possible from the council and education authority for this one too, as i don't see how i can possibly complete my A-levels this summer and work a full-time job at the same time. looks like i will be working full-time when i finish tho, so there goes the modern apprenticeship plan. it doesn't pay enough so i guess i cant do it, which is a bastard.
cheers for support.
peace

The council will basically pay pretty much all your rent if you're unemployed, as far as I can tell, even if you rent from a private landlord. If you have some income but not much they'll pay part of it. Unfortunately my wife and I earn just too much to qualify, we're poor, but not that poor:rolleyes:. Anyway, walk into your local council's housing office (usually at the town hall) as soon as you can, preferably tomorrow, and they'll explain exactly what you need to do to sort yourself out with accomodation. Give them the sob story by all means, but straight out lying to get yourself accomodation is inadvisable, you can get yourself into some trouble that way, to say the least.

I can't see why you wouldn't get enough housing benefit to live on if you were doing a modern apprenticeship; there wouldn't be much point to them if the only people who could do them were living with their parents.

Rich :¬)

Harsh man :(

ever need somewhere to crash my living rooms yours dude.

punky i'd strongly advise seeing if one of your mates parents can help out till you finish school. if you explain the situation to them, and offer to help with rent etc in return for a couch/spare bed then i think they'd understand - i know all my mates parents would if i were in a similar situation

just ring the council, explain your situation, and what area you would idealy like to live in. they'll sort you out, there nice people really.

Yeah Russ is right, they should help you out. :)

In the mean time sleeping at a friend's house isn't a bad idea. I know my parents wouldn't think twice about letting one of my mates stay here if there were problems.

I recommend going to the Citizens Advise Bureau, they provide legal advice and help with exactly this kind of problem and its free.

Citizens Advice Link

They have helped me before with various things.

If you have to pay for accommodation a house share is the cheapest option. Checkout local newsagents and local papers.

I went to the What? centre in Stourbridge earlier, its kinda like a young people's help center and advice place. they've given me a list of a few private rent properties around here, and also ordered me forms to apply for income support and to be put on the council's books for housing. i can get £43 a week to help cover rent, plus whatever else i can get from blagging vigorously. college will also give me more money for studying, and i can get benefits even when doin a modern apprenticeship like i planned. just gotto find a flat now.
cheers for the offer Knoxeh, hope i aint in the position to take u up on it tho :S
cheers for advice
peace.

dude thats harsh, u know if u need to talk about anything i'm around alot, or give me a call if u need... just ask.

Unfortunatly i can't give you any advice as i still live with the 'rents. But i do plan to move out in August / September time...

Ben

i seem to recall you were in a similar stitched up situation where you got caught by police smoking some wacky-tobaccy...damn, not having the best of times are you? what was the incident provoked by? and why will your parents not listen you a voice of reason? is there a mutual friend you can talk to that will talk to your parents on your behalf, as from personal experience my rentals seem to 'listen' to my younger bro all the time and never myself. example; he could literally run up to them and say I've been annoying him, cue an endless barrage of shouting and general ear-bashing...its not until a mate of my older bro's said it was kind of weird how they have very little simpathy for myself and older bro whne compared to younger...its not his fault but he knows hpw to play them, and so he does, not all the time but he certainly does some of the time.
I suggested they see a psychologist about their rather blatent favouritism, clearly they didn't like it when I said that but it shut them up. its more a case of that they 'expect' myself and older bro to act in a certain way [even though we don't] and so they act (rather than re-act) in certain situations thus making any kind of conversation rather pointless anyway. therefore perhaps a mutual friend might help to explain that you're - not victimised, wrong word; too strong, but more than simply unluck - and you need their help for school etc.
i sincerely hope that you get to finish school as that would be the most important thing right now, correct? I doubt you're parents would dispute that. once thats done then you can do more with your life and, if you so wish, get yourself as far from your parents, and brother, and make a living elsewhere. but it will mean pulling yourself together [no drugs], acting responsibly and all the other stuff you probably hear lots of and proving you're not a lost cause. knowing you on the forum can say you appear to be reasonably intelligent and that given the right environment could be extremely successful. are you dyslexic? i only ask as it could be - seeing things differently - parents not being totally acceptable to the things you do. my older bro WAS like that, to some extent still is but he's more mature and gets by very well...just a thought anyway.
hope you can sort things out, take it easy

well, just talked to mom for 1st time since last nite, and she seemed a bit shocked that i'd started to make all these arrangements. she asked me if moving out was what i wanted, and i said yes. tbh, i'm uncomfortable living here any more, too much tension, pressure etc.. i think getting my own place will help me sort out my life too. gotto see how it all goes.
peace.

fair do's. good luck to ya man.

not going to judge whats happened as noone of us know what has but g/l getting it sorted.

As rave said theres no point in lieing to the counsil as they will be trying to help you. Try to get yourself a part time job like just weekends and one night in the week (shouldnt interfere with your a-levels), do about 8-18 hours max. Assuming your 18 you shouldnt have any problems finding a job paying £5-6/hour or more a week.

My brother is at uni in plymouth which is a very different situation becuase he has loans etc.. to fall back on, but I think his rent was something like £40-80 a week depending on where he was (3rd year now I think). For food you could probably manage at £10-25 a week.
Some housing may include heating and electricity bills while others may not, something to look out for..

i've got a part-time job atm mate, i get about £40 a week at the mo. i spose i could increase shifts. i aint gonna lie to the council, cos i'll just get found out.
cherers for support. peace

Hello mate. I work for a Council doing Housing Benefits, so I may be of some assistance to you! I presume you are under 25, which means your Housing Benefit will be restricted to a 'Single Room Rent', which basically means that they will pay you as little as possible(about £40, depending on the property). You will however get all your Council Tax paid for you, unless you are under 18, in which case you should be exempt from paying it anyway.

I don't know where abouts you live, but round here(Leicestershire) it is tricky getting privately rented accommodation for around the £40 a week bracket. Add to that your Gas, Electric, Water, TV licence, internet etc etc and you're not left with much cash.

Anyway, if you want to ask anything about benefits then do so, I will try and help as much as I can.

That seriously sucks goat nads. This is where we wish the world would be kinder on the people who have problems.

I wouldn't know how that works because in Guernsey, there's a home for everyone since it's such a small place (that probably sounds really harsh on you :()

I hope you can really sort things out, sorry to hear that bud.

Without going into the 'it happened to me too' bit...

Another suggestion for you, look to be a lodger somewhere, cheaper rent and bills split then.

i gotttoo go to sorrt out beenegfitss claims 2moz. gonna be blaaggin. offereed rooms at a couplle placess from m8s.
sorrry forr typing, beeen drinkinn heavillty! i thank theee stellla!

Hope you like filling in forms though, try to claim anything from the government and theres about 10 forms to do. Its like that to put you off cliaming for it, unfortunatly most of the time it works (well im lazy...) Also goto your local job center as you might be able to get job sekers allowance if youve only got part time job (about 300 pages to fill in though - the reson i didnt bother...). I think with that though you cant be in education but working part time is fine. You can get upto £50/week from them iirc. Also with that you cant claim one of the other benifits at the same time, forgot which one though but its something to do with education (my parents got £15/week from that)

[QUOTE=|SilentDeath|]Hope you like filling in forms though, try to claim anything from the government and theres about 10 forms to do.QUOTE]

i'm having mine filled in for me by the help centre :)

The forms actually aren't like that to put you off claiming! They are like that because there is a lot of information required to enable a benefit claim to be assessed. Obviously some of the form won't apply to everyone, but it does apply to some people, and unfortunately they can't be indivdually tailored for every single person who claims benefit! If you take the form into the office you are claiming from, they will help you fill it in. Well, I know I do here anyway!

It sounded like more of a threat tbh. The fact your mum was surprised and asked you if this is what you wanted shows she wasn't serious about it.

Why not just stick it out at home through your A levels? (it'll only be about another 3 months now I presume) then get a full time job and get your own place, it'll be much easier and will probably work out better for everyone.

I think Slick has the right idea mate. After the easter hols there is only 6 weeks left of college. At least try and make it work at home until then. If you can it should mean you have less pressure on you come exam time.

To start with try to get a better paid job; I do about 12 hours a week (2 shifts) behind a bar and still get more than £40 a week. I don't know what work you're doing but it sounds like you're getting scummed.

Charlotte and I thought we might have difficulty finding a flat mate when ours moved out suddenly - we used easyroommate.com and had quite a few replies from people looking for somewhere to live. Should be worth a try and it is worth shelling out the £15 so you can read the messages people send you (and they can read yours). Just make sure you get the uk site and not the US one.

result! i've been offered a room in a shared house in Wolverhampton with some older friends. may be a bit of hassle to get to college, but it'll only be for a couple of months. plus if i can blag my scooter to take with me (dad uses it too) then i'll be sorted for transport. and only £100 a month rent, which my benefits will more than cover, thus leaving cash for lager. sorted.
mom is calming down a bit and i do think it was just a threat, but the way i see it, i gotto move out sometime anyway and tensions are making things unconfortable here. plus it may teach me a degree of resposibility (haha, yeh rite...) and budgeting (Asda smart price here i come :P).
thanks a lot for all the suggestions and support people, its all more than appreciated.
peace.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Punky

and only £100 a month rent, which my benefits will more than cover, thus leaving cash for lager. sorted.

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I feel for you, I really do, having been in that situation myself very recently (only still at home coz my parents know I'm now finally saving for my own place) but why make comments like that? That's our tax money we pay out of our pockets you know...

(I'm not turning this into another arguement like last time can't be arsed to argue anymore)

i was only jokin mate. all the money i have will end up goin towards bills, food etc.. i somehow doubt i will be able to drink for a while. sorry for that one..

I was just gonna say, even if you did get £40 a week and your rent was only £100 a month, you probably still wouldn't have enough left to pay for food and bills, let alone beer!! :P

yeh man, i'm gonna have to start some home-brew off. last time we made it, it put Tennants Super to shame, so we'll have to see :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Big_Al

I feel for you, I really do, having been in that situation myself very recently (only still at home coz my parents know I'm now finally saving for my own place) but why make comments like that? That's our tax money we pay out of our pockets you know...

(I'm not turning this into another arguement like last time can't be arsed to argue anymore)

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At the end of the day, housing benefit will only pay for what his rent is, not over that amount. Bloody hell, i've worked in benefits too long!!! :D

i was told i will get £43 a week for rent. is that a set amount, or do i get whatever the rent is? this is gettin confusing, haha.
peace

You will probably get up to £43. So if your rent is only £30 for instance, then that is what you will get.

well punky, I was ina similar situation to yourself when I was younger, I was told to move out on a few occasions, told I was a burden was ranted at for not paying board (was only a student working part time in the TA). In the end I couldnt take living with my mother anymore she really was an evil bitch tbh. she was well shocked when I just mentioned, oh yeah by the way im moving out on monday, I found a rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbish pit of a room for £50 a week across the road from my mates and living with 4 other pople. I ran up debts dropped out of uni and all kinds but in the end Ive done alright. basicaly mate if you HAVE to make it work you will make it work. If you see what I mean, I litteraly lived off nothing for a couple of years and it was all worth it because I am much happier as a result. another irritating thing is that my mam bought my sister a fecking horse and now even tho she works full time and is a fair bit older than I was when I left home they still dont ask for board and she talks to my dad like he is rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbish or sommat. Really hated living there and tbh sounds like your in a similar situation. All I can say is just do it! you will learn fast how to support yourself belive me. this place your moving to sounds perfect, even if you have no cash at all the social side of things will be great and you will forget about all that crap at home.

yeh mate, i see what ur sayin. i know all this will help me mature and become more responsible, even if i am gonna be skint for a while. its just one of those things i spose.
peace