Friends or family have asked you to leave

If you are aged 16 or 17 years and being asked to leave the home of family or friends and have nowhere to stay, you can contact Essex County Council Children’s Services or our Housing Options and Advice team and we will work together to help prevent you becoming homeless.

If your friends or family own the property you live in and there is no contract between you and the owner, you will most probably not have any rights to the property.

This means if the owner of the property asks you to leave, you will need to try and resolve the issue, or you will have to find accommodation elsewhere.

You can ask the owner of the property for reasonable notice of 28 days to give you time to look for alternative accommodation.

You could try to resolve the issue by offering to:

• pay more rent, if you can afford it
• help with housework

If you need helping finding somewhere else to live, you can read our advice on finding accommodation