Not if I want to eat! That's why we can't afford another 6 months. It's also way overpriced now, houses this size are going for at least a hundren pound less now. The agent are already sending people round to look at it. I've not had a section 21...if I had it would make life easier!

Oh great even worse now. Apparently as we get partial housing benefit top up we cannot rent, they all want guarantors. So we are homeless in 3 weeks, council won't help as it's our fault apparently. We can afford the rent. It's just hopeless.

Thank you! I am a worrier though, had so much bad luck I expect the worse. So frustrating as we've struggle on one income for so long and we almost there, at the finishing line, finally I can work again and this happens! I'm working on finding a private landlord, not sure any exist in my town. I'm trying gumtree but I just get spammers. There are so few 3 bed properties available (just 3 at the moment) they can afford to picky unfortunately. I'll talk to my husband about this insurance. If anything it might show we are prepared. That our past hiccup that ruined our history has taught us a lesson in preparing for such things. Thank you!

Ahh thank you. I had look around and found Tenants - Lifestyle Protection Insurance for Tenants | iProtect do you think something like this could help persuade a landlord/agency to taking us on?

Thanks, I know all about PPI...we were missold ours on the mortgage..hence the arrears! But I was thinking more of an insurance that would guarantee my landlord gets paid. Perhaps if I offer to pay for rent guarantee insurance like Homelet do for him. I know I am panicking, but one friend who has rented lots said just having a default on your record will ruin things. It's the last minuteness of this. The fact I won't know until the last minute what is going on, I don't like the uncertainty of it a month before Christmas when I have 3 children! I can't apply for a credit check now as I don't know which agency I'll find a house with.

Just wondering what relevance the list of medical conditions is with regards to housing? Just that I have 2 on their list.

We are paid up until November, after that we have to be credit checked. We will fail because my husband lost his job a few years ago and it ruined things. We also want something cheaper, we ended up in a house a bit too expensive because we sold our house and had to find one immediately. It was the only place (apart from a ridiculous mansion and a studio flat) around that week.My father in law is unable to be guarantor with this much notice (he can in a few months though).

I've found somekind of of insurance called Rent guarantee, but it's only for landlords. Does anyone know of one for tenants?

Surely not everyone with a bad credit record go homeless! There must be some way round it.

it's amazing how 5 months out of work can bu**er up your entire life! My husband lost his job 3 years ago for a few months. Long enough for us to get suspended repossession...we sold up before they took the house. Because the job loss gave us a bad credit when we started renting we paid up front with money from the house. Plan was we would replace it with wages. But after a couple of month husband's wages were cut by 2/3rds (retail, credit crunch etc). can't get much benefit as £300 of his wages goes on the train ticket (they won't move him nearer home, he can't quit so stuck with it) and benefits don't acknowledge that. So we've been living off savings. His wages are now finally back up to normal. Where I live for me to work I'd be no better off as we have 3 children, although I'm trying to start a business where I'd need no childcare to pay for. But I can only do that if I have somewhere to live and internet. Anyway savings are all gone now. We paid up until November. We won't pass credit check I'm sure (they use Homelet), no ccj's but I imagine the mortgage arrears we used to have will look awful. There are no private landlords here, if there are they hide blimming well. The one person in our family who could be guarantor can't be because he has somekind of agreement with his mortgage. We can just about afford to rent a smaller house (this is a bit big because we had one weekend to find a house after exchanging contracts, this was the only one in our town), just can't get passed this credit thing. All the council and shelter tell us is to stay put until forced out. I don't want to add more black marks to my name by annoying a landlord who doesn't deserve this. Then we'll get rehomed miles away in another town away from my childrens' school and where I do volunteer work. So frustrating, in a few months time I'll be making in a day what my monthly rent is! Is there anyway around this credit thing when you can't get a guarantor?

Thanks, I'll get on to that right now

My husband is deferred with his student loan, yet Mackenzie hall keep calling (even at 1am) to say we owe them. They are very rude. My husband works long hours (leaves about 6am, back at 10pm) so he's hardly here to speak to them when they ring. Student loan company say Mackenzie hall don't have his account, that it's still with them. Mackenzie hall say the opposite. Now they are threatening doorstep collection, claiming no contact has been made despite emails and phonecalls from me. They are so rude and nasty too. What can we do? Can they put marks on our credit record even though they have no right to pursue this debt? It's not even theirs to chase!

About 4 years old I think. We were ok with paying until last winter when my husband was out of work for a few months. That buggered up our finances good and proper (so annoying just a few months ruin everything!) so we've being doing the £1 a month thing since.

Today we received a letter from halifax saying if we pay off 60% of the amount we owe on the credit card by the 28th the rest will be written off! Funnily enough on Friday we move house and as soon as we get the money from the house sale we can pay this. I'm however feeling wary about this. Am I right to be suspicious?

Apart from hearing dodgy things about these kind of companies we have desperately needed to move for years now. The shared ownership people class as overcrowded, we have 3 children in a 2 up 2 down and it has been unbearable. Plus once the equity we are going to rent with runs out I need to work (which is when my youngest starts school) and there is no work where I live.