How Can I Help?

No ideas I'm afraid, but lots of sympathy. The same thing happened to a friend of mine, twice, when her daughters were still living at home in their teens - the second time they were given notice they were unable to find anywhere else to rent locally so the girls left home and my friend moved in with her mum.
Your daughter can visit the council and ask to be put on the waiting list, but there are very, very few large council properties to rent.

How worrying for you all. Do they have an agreement that might give them some time to look for something else? The property might take some time to sell. Their agreement might mean that the Landlord must sell with them as tenants.

Have they taken professional advice? Is there no way they can live in something smaller, that type of propert might be more available?

Sorry for so many questions, I do hope something turns up soon. x

The landlord is happy for them to continue living there while the sale process is ongoing.
The rental agreement is renewed six monthly but when they moved in the landlord was not planning to sell the property. Apparently his circumstances have changed, and he feels he must sell the property.
They have four children with perhaps a fifth on the way! The boys have ASD's and find sleeping difficult, one especially needs his own room. The other two share and my DGD had her own room so they need four bedrooms at least. If they ask the council about social housing they would probably have to move to the greater Glasgow area, which would not be ideal.

Is there anyway they can register with local housing associations as emergency tenants they may have to move area slightly but that would be better than nothing,I can't see very many 4/5 bed properties being available so sharing would have to be the answer whilst they possibly gain more points to qualify for a larger property,find out if The Local Council have shared ownership schemes where a smaller deposit is possiblenot everybodies choice but a way to get onto the property ladder.try not to worry too much (I know its hard not to) but I'm sure things will turn out for them.

As one of the children has ASD and you indicate another has specific needs, can SS help?

You may not wish their involvement, but in the children's interests there seems to be a good case for specific help.

Again, try not to worry too much x

Just to mention, Scotland does have a fair amount of rural social housing and HA properties, due to a lot of work being in farming etc.

I know of a couple of small town/ villages in Scotland that have recently had new HA rental properties built. Unfortunately too far away from your DD.
x

Hilda - you say "longterm rental" . They should look at the contract they signed to see if this gives them any rights to stay. Usually it's 6 month contracts, which gives the landlord more rights.
It would be worthwhile getting some legal advice. either a solicitor or the CAB. Certainly in France the landlord wouldn't be able to make them leave so quickly, with children, if he wanted to sell.
We were wanting to sell our house (UK) at one point, the tenant had 6 months contract, and we would have had to wait to the end of the 6 months for them to leave.

Is there no chance of their negotiating to buy the property they are in? If they are on good terms with the landlord, might there be a way round the lack of deposit?
You must feel so helpless, I hope something turns up for your family.

That's very unsettling for your daughter and her family but I would have thought that with five children they would be entitled to social housing, particularly as they're not intentionally homeless. Very worrying for you.

No wonder we are a nation that prefers to buy rather than rent.

shysal I initially thought along those lines. I know there are some reputable schemes whereby the deposit is paid by taking a charge on a parent's property.

hildajenniJ I can see why you are worried for them. We can't stop worrying about our children when they are in stressful situations.

J52 in my experience the SS would not touch this situation. It's the housing dept who have to sort out any such request.

The family should certainly make contact with the housing dept straight away. The chances of getting a bigger house just because a child in the family has ASD is pretty remote.

A certain government introduced a bedroom tax.

It is very nice being able to live in country villages but if you can't afford to buy a house then probably the choice of rental properties is greater in a city.

Can't help but feel that, if the landlord wanted the rental to be a 6 month one he always had it in his mind to sell at a uture date [if not, you'd think a long term rental would have suited him better ]. I know when my daughter rented a property that they couldn't sell they had 6 month contracts so they could put it back on the market at some point [which they did and it sold]. I know someone that has a holiday rental property on the market that has just sold and it annoys us incredibly because people have booked time off work to stay there....it appears that the new owner is planning to rent it out anyway, but, if they hadn't, he would have still sold it to them. Bad karma imo .

Update to OP. DD and SiL are going to view a three bed house to rent in the village. It is a lot smaller than where they are now but DD says that if they can manage to cram themselves and most of their furniture into it, they will probably take it, until something bigger in the area comes up.
PS. She is not pregnant. ( sigh of relief).

That is good news, at least they won't be homeless.

Hope it works out. Fingers crossed. x

I sympathise with you and DD. My DD and family had this happen to them twice after the initial 6mth contracts were up despite both landlords telling them the contracts were renewable for years to come.

They were fortunate that DH and I could help. It must be awful, for you and them. It does sound as if a solution has been found. I hope it works out for all concerned.

hilda I'm just wondering if it still might be a good idea for DD to apply for social housing - you never know, there could be something rural available. They could at least get on a waiting list.

Private rental is never secure and she could find history repeating itself in the future.

It may be worth them putting an advert for 'Rental property wanted' in the local village shop, newsletter etc. Most people, i am sure, would prefer to rent to a family they know of who are already enjoying the village. I hope they find something.

I would just echo what Riverwalk has just said about rental properties never being secure.

I have forwarded all your suggestions to DD. It is up to her now. They are viewing a house on Monday in the same village which has apparently been vacant for a while. It is through the same agent as the flat they are currently renting, so that may help. Fingers crossed.
When my husband retires next year, we are going to sell our house and all of us are going to look for a property to buy together. In the area she lives in there are numerous properties for sale which could be divided to make a granny flat.
We'll just have to wait and see.

Here is a link to Shelter Scotland, about being given notice to leave at the end of a tenancy:
scotland.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/advice_topics/eviction/eviction_of_private_tenants/eviction_of_short_assured_tenants/eviction_at_the_end_of_your_tenancy

If the landlord wants the tenant(s) to leave at the end of the tenancy, two months' notice has to be given.

Hoping things work out with finding somewhere else, hildajj.