A family of five are facing the prospect of homelessness after finding it 'impossible' to secure private rented accommodation in the Wellington area.

Full-time mum Laura Kayley, 40, lives in West Buckland with her three children, ages 16, 8, and 17 months, her partner Dan, 39, Boots the dog and two cats.

Laura says she has a good relationship with her landlords, and has never missed a rent payment. But now the landlords need to return to the property, so the family has to leave in March and she has struggled to find a new home.

Laura said: "we thought it would be easy because in the past when I’ve rented you go out and you look for somewhere and then you might have a couple of other people interested and they let you know.

"This time it’s been a case of there are 15 or 20 other applicants and the ones with a dog get quickly put at the bottom of the pile and we’ve just had no luck, we’ve looked at so many houses.

I’ve lost count of how many we looked at. We’ve had all sorts of excuses like ‘oh we think that property is too small for you.’ One of them was a four bedroom and they said it was too small for us."

The family can't look too far afield for a new home, because they need to stay connected to the area. Dan works at a business in Rockwell Green, the children attend local schools, and Laura's mother lives nearby.

Laura says she has been on the council house waiting list since November last year, but feels there is "no hope" of securing a council house.

She said: "We are not ranking very highly obviously so at the moment we’ve got no hope. I think that might change once we are officially homeless but I don’t want to be homeless, who does? It’s scary for my children."

The family are looking to re-home their pets to improve their chances of finding a property. Boots the 14-year old dog is set to go and live with Laura's mother, while cats Reuben and Gali may have to be taken to a rescue centre.

The deadline for eviction is March 4. Without alternative arrangements the family will be made homeless. Laura says she has contacted the council and they advised her not to obey the notice to quit.

Laura said: "I’ve cried a lot. It’s scary, the council say 'stay here don’t go anywhere, just wait and they’ll call the bailiffs on you.' Dan goes to work and I’m here and if some big heavies turn up on the door trying to take stuff, I don’t know how I’d deal with that, I don’t know if I could cope with it really."

The family are hoping a landlord will take them in before it comes to that. Laura said: "We’re good tenants, we’re clean people we keep our house nice, our landlord is happy with us, we are good people and we’re just looking for a home."

A spokesperson for Somerset West and Taunton Council said: "It is not our policy to advise tenants to defy eviction notices."