We received a phonecall yesterday morning from the landlord to say somebody who viewed the house when it was for sale has contacted him to say that they can now afford to buy it and he wants to sell it! I can't even tell you how worried I am about this. We were given 5 months last time and it's looking likely to be 2 months this time.
I will tell you our complete story from the beginning and give you a bit of an insight into why we are a tough case.
Back in 2008 we started up a business making desserts, business took off but much slower than we thought. This became a problem when the house bills started to get behind and we begun the vicious circle of chasing our tails. We would pay large amounts off as we were chased which would then in turn leave us with no money to pay other bills which would then get behind. It came to a head in 2010 when we could no longer do it and we lost our home and had to declare bankruptcy. We found a house to rent and started to rebuild our lives. On doing the last books we saw a healthy profit had been made and we knew that for everything that had happened our business had been working and that when the time came we would start again.
Over the next couple of years we begun to buy bits of equipment where we could and storing it away.
In 2013 the time was right for us to start again so we got a premises and because of the product and service we provided the first time our customers all began to use us again meaning we were making money straight away. Business was booming.
Just before Christmas of that year we got a letter from our landlady to say she was putting the house on the market and we were given 5 months to find somewhere else to live. We couldn't have foreseen the hell we would then go through to house our family. Estate agents wouldn't even talk to us. 7 children, self employed and an old bankruptcy and we were treated like criminals by one or two of the larger estate agents. Our local council don't have houses big enough for us all and even shelter couldn't help us. Now before I go on and one or two of you think to yourselves "well they shouldn't have so many children then" we NEVER had a large family with the intention of needing council help. We have always fended for ourselves and what you must understand this time is that we are not only paying tax for ourselves but we employ four other people and pay their tax too so we are more than giving into the system. I will never be regretful of our choice to have so many children. God knows they have made us smile through some dreadful times through the years.
Anyway we eventually got a break when someone very special agreed to sign as a guarantor for us and we found a willing landlord. We pushed it for time and it was creeping very close to our move out date. It took us 4 months to get into somewhere else. We've never been as happy in a home as we are now and then the phonecall of yesterday!
I can't even begin to contemplate having to go through this again. Why is it always us? We are good people, we work hard and yet here we are with homelessness looming over us again. So again I call on all of our friends to look out for houses around Stockport and to ask around if anyone knows a landlord who has a house available for us or anyone else who knows of a way to help us out again. I'm struggling to feel positive about this. I know I need to shake myself, give myself the drop dead Fred treatment of a spade to the head and a kick in the shins but all I want to do is crawl into a dark corner and stay there. I just feel sad!
