Hello!
My son and I live in a Council house. I am disabled and receive the ESA support group. My son is 21 and he is also disabled. I’m his primary carer. He is autistic due to brain injury at birth. He receives the ESA support group and PIP, he is also a full time student.
Recently, I went to my Council with a request to change my tenancy from sole tenancy to joint tenancy, by adding my son’s name to the tenancy. They said that they could do it, if I cancel my current tenancy and my son will register himself as homeless on the Council Home website. Then they may look into my request. They have also advised me to visit a solicitor.
The bit about the solicitor concerned me and when I visited them I understood that my worries were valid. The solicitor told me to never take this option because they have every right not to give me the same house and they could move me to one, they think is more suitable. That they could say that they have lots of working families looking for a home in our area but neither of us work. And they would probably rather give this house to one of those families instead of ours. The solicitor advised me to ask the Council to add my son’s name to the tenancy without canceling the current tenancy.
When I contacted the Council again with this request I got a hard “NO”. They told me that there is no law that would allow me to add my son to the tenancy without cancelling it first.
My question is could they really evict us from our home, if I chose the cancellation route? Even if they know that our goal with this cancellation is just to add my son’s name to the tenancy and keep living there?
I would like to mention that this house was long-waited. Before we move there, we lived in a house next to the motorway for 7 years. It was also a Council house. The house was build out of reinforced concrete and was falling to pieces. It also means it was uninsulated against sound and heat. It was cold even during the summer. We both suffered there.
Recently we’ve finally moved houses. Our current house is built out of brick, and even though it is two times smaller than our previous one, we are both happy with it. We don’t mind it because it is warm and in a quiet place.
It would be really sad, if we lost this house just because I wanted to add my son to the tenancy. Is there anything we can do to prevent the Council from evicting us like that?
If you can give me any advice on this situation, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!