Mum works full-time but 'could be made homeless'

But what about those we don’t see? Or those who, thanks to the precarious rental market, teeter on the brink of homelessness?

People like Maria Blunden, a customer services worker with upmarket paint firm, Farrow & Ball, who last week contacted the Echo because she fears that, for the first-time ever, she and her family could end up on the streets and paying hefty fees to put their possessions in storage.

“I’m not complaining about my landlord but the situation - we really need to change the law,” she says.

Maria, 56, started renting property privately with her four children 15 years ago, after her marriage broke ended.

“I’ve always been in full-time employment and have four children now aged 29, 21, and twins aged 20,” she says.

“I know I have been the model tenant but normally we have to leave because the landlord either wants to sell or move back.

"In 14 years we have moved nine times through no fault of our own.”

This happened again around eight weeks ago when she was told her landlord wanted to move back into his Winton property. “I was told he needs to move here because he’s renting and has had to leave his place,” she says.

Maria started looking but has been unable to find something suitable for her family, who all work and pay towards the rent.

“It’s getting worse,” she said. “It’s the first time I’ve been unable to locate a suitable property and if I can’t, I’ll be homeless. I have always paid my rent, I’ve explained to the landlord and estate agent that I have been unable to find a suitable property and then they explained that the landlord wants to move back in and rent the rooms privately.”

These plain facts don’t really explain, however, the emotional and mental effects of knowing you could lose your home at any time, says Maria.

It’s a small thing but: “Most boys in their 20s will want to have posters in their rooms but we can’t do that because we have to leave the property in good order. We don’t have that freedom as if it were our own home and every time we move we downsize in stuff.

“Things the children had, things you take for granted such as toys from when they were younger have gone, we literally travel as light as possible.”

She has had to take two weeks' holiday to search for a property and says she hasn’t had time to even grieve over the recent death of her mother because finding a new home must take priority.

Among the properties she has looked over are a student house which is £250 a month more than she’s paying now. She won't consider six month lets because: “It means that when you move in it takes around two months to get it homely, then another two months to pack up, it’s awful.

“The council say they can’t help; I called Shelter and they couldn’t really do anything and it’s my opinion that no one really cares about situations like this. All we want is somewhere to shut the door and have peace of mind.”

Maria’s letting agents, Johnson Birr said it was unable to speak about specific cases because of data protection laws but said that generally, it believed there was a dearth of appropriate rental property and laid the blame at the door of the government which brought in sweeping changes in June this year.

Speaking about the rental sector generally, Philip Birr said: “I do feel for anyone in this situation and there is often genuine reasons where perhaps a landlord needs to sell a property or to move back in. Unfortunately, with renting, there is no guarantee that someone could stay in a house indefinitely.”

He believes there is a lack of available rental housing which, he says has “surely got something to do with the extra taxes on landlords".

He said his firm has noticed a ‘massive decrease’ in people buying-to-let. “I’ve been here 11 years and when we first started we regularly got calls from people saying ‘I’m thinking of buying a house in whatever road and can you tell me how much could I rent it out for?’ We don’t get those calls anymore and I think it’s because the big thing is the stamp duty.

“I do strongly think that the government should revisit the taxes on landlords and the surcharges on stamp duty for buy to let," he says.

"If your property is worth £250,000 that’s an extra £7,500 a landlord has to find.

"From 2020 you can’t offset all your mortgage interest if you’re a higher-rate tax earner which means some landlords will be paying to rent their property out in that effect. Financially it makes no sense at all.

“With less supply it can only push prices one way and I can’t see demand for rental accommodation slacking off."