Haven’t paid rent in months!

Don't panic, you can apply for a discretionary housing payment to pay off the arrears. Also offer to pay your rent and and extra £20 or so every time while you wait for it. If you are on benefits can't you ask to have your rent paid directly to your landlord?

@OneSparklyHelper
You sound lovely !
Such unhelpful comments are best kept to yourself 🙄

While that legislation is still being debated, it’s The Equality Act that could be used. I assume because women and disabled people are most likely to be on benefits and therefore affected?

It is more tricky if it is a private landlord and not a letting agency. The new bill covers both I believe.

Unfortunately the OP has spent it all without realising too 🤣

Why am I not surprised? So you have spent thousands of pounds without realising it. Really? Sorry to be harsh, but managing your bank account is a basic part of life. Your guarantor won't be happy.

So if you haven't paid loads of bills for months, the money will be there and you can simply pay all that you owe. Easy.

Perhaps you should keep up with recent renting laws. The renters right bill is not law, it's being debated in Parliament.

Reforms for renters - Shelter England

A blanket refusal to rent to anyone on UC is unlawful. However people get around that by filtering criteria etc is up to them, it doesn’t mean that it’s legal.

The person I was referring to posted online that they would not rent to people on benefits - I would say that’s openly stating a fact.

Agree it may be hard to enforce, but it remains unlawful.

Best advice: be honest with him.
Don't make excuses - just be honest with the fact that you set up a standing order and it was only his text that made you check. Say you're very sorry, pay what you can now (even if it's just fifty quid) and make an appointment with Citizens Advice or a similar organisation to talk about what you can do to sort out your debt and finances (there's an evangelical church around my way who do amazing work helping people with debt and finances regardless of their faith).

You'll obviously have to make some sort of arrangement to pay. But it happens. Try not to worry - it's a lot more common than you think.

The most important thing is to deal with this asap, be frank to Citizens Advice or whoever and be prepared to make some changes. It's crucial now to not fall further behind.

Fair enough @Allofthelightsss. I don't really want to deal with the benefits guys even if it can be paid directly. I want to keep my life simple.

She is 100% not breaking the law.
It's only illegal to openly exclude people on benefits. It's not illegal to have eligibility criteria based on income, credit rating, references etc.

Unless she openly states she's not renting to people because they are on benefits she's not doing anything against the law. This legislation is pointless and not enforceable in real life.

There are a fair few court cases from 2020 onwards that would disagree with you.

“The col has absolutely crippled me.”

I find it hard to believe you haven’t checked your bank account in 6 months especially as you say you’re feeling the col. Would you not be regularly checking how much money you have available, check your benefits have gone in? If you are struggling with bills etc but not paying rent wouldn’t the bills come out because there’s money in the account which should of gone for rent? Either that or you would of had a build up of rent money but how do you spend all that without noticing each month, spending hundreds extra every month on food or whatever wouldn’t that prompt you to check your bank?

Exactly. Landlords are under no obligation to rent their home to the poorest out of some sort of charity.

They should, and will, rent it to exactly who they wish for whatever reason they wish.

@JaneFondue you asked for someone to show you the change in law, which I did.

Being on benefits doesn’t mean you can’t pay your rent. Many people on UC are working full time and receive a UC top up for example. The housing element of UC can be paid directly to the landlord, which to me seems a safer bet than just hoping your tenant pays the rent each month. Not everyone on UC is out to swindle landlords. I work full time, with a UC top up, and pay my rent early every month. It’s the luck of the draw I suppose, and you don’t know if you have a good tenant who will pay on time until they’re already in your property, but that applies regardless of whether your tenant is on UC or not. It comes down to character, and I bet there’s some landlords who have been burned by young professionals or families too.

Anyway, I was showing you the information that you asked for. It makes not a jot of difference to me who you choose to rent to.

Exactly the same as hiring people. You can always find a reason not to while still staying on the right side of the law.

Are you sure your benefit claim isn't set up as a "direct payment to landlord?"
Maybe you did this and have forgotten due to your mental health?
I'm sure they'd have been in to you before now if you'd not paid it for 6 months OP
Hope you get it sorted.

And it’s a sensible decision to choose tenants who are less likely to default on their rent or trash the place. I wouldn’t rent to benefit claimants either when there are plenty of professional people looking to rent. It’s common sense and impossible to prove.

You can. I didn't know my housing benefit had stopped as it was getting paid directly to housing association - couldn't then go back on ESA and Housing benefit so had to apply for UC. Have been getting UC since June and the 1st thing I did was arrange for the rent part to go straight to HA. Think I had to tell/authorise HA to speak to UC and it got arranged that way...

Oh well. I dont really have the time to mess around with MH and people who want to dress their kids in Next when my own kids were dressed in supermarket clothes.
I rented for years and my credit score was thoroughly checked, especially since I have a foreign name and am not white.

I don’t understand this mentality.

Someone on benefits has more of a regular income, than someone who is working and could lose their job or have time off sick, for maternity, dip in hours etc which would lead to a dip in income.

It used to always be the case that the benefit money would go straight to the LL and the tenant wouldn’t see it at all.
You can still request this now.

Any unpaid rent would be taken straight out of their benefit money and they wouldn’t have a chance not to pay.
You wouldn’t even have to contact them, you go straight through the benefits people.

You can rent to whoever you choose to but someone getting money from benefits is just as likely/unlikely to hand it over than someone who isn’t.

It’s never gonna happen, honey. Most landlords will do it, and you can’t prove it.

I hope someone does sue you one day, landlords like you make my stomach churn.

Ok. As pp said above, landlords are allowed to filter on ability to pay rent, so I will continue to do that and take the chance that people sue.
I would rather do that than be short.

Get on to your local citizens advice and get an appt asap, they'll help you...
I had similar when I missed a housing benefit form last November due to MH, they only wanted to check my circumstances hadn't changed but didn't know for 4 months, by that time they'd stopped my claim and I got into 1000s of rent arrears. Had to then claim UC instead so more delays getting rent paid again. CA helped me sort it including making all the phone calls to stop proceedings get people off my back and get the benefit claims in.
Good luck x