Private landlord giving flats to the council for temporary accommodation

[Housingproblem22]

Hi, just wondered if anyone had any experience with this situation and what to expect. I’ve rented my flat for over 4 years now. All private tenants. It’s a building with around 60 flats and a large communal garden positioned in the middle. I’ve always loved living here, it’s a great location and always felt safe as a single woman.
Last year we were informed that the landlord was selling the flats to another landlord. Within a few months of the sale occurring, people from the council being housed in temporary accommodation were moving in. I’m not at all trying to shame anyone in that situation because I appreciate how hard it must be, however the majority of these tenants have caused major issues for everyone else. What used to be a quiet, peaceful and safe building now feels otherwise.
Some examples:
•Drug users and drug dealers coming here
•Lots of cussing and arguments
•Domestics etc
All of these issues have meant that I often see police here now whereas before I’d never seen them not even once.
Out of the 60 flats, only around 5/6 are being used to house people in temporary accommodation. But I’m worried this will increase. Has anyone who’s rented privately had experience of this? Will the landlord keep giving more empty flats to the council when people move out? Or is there a chance they will return them to all private? I am considering moving now but I don’t want to make a rash decision in case things improve.
I’m paying nearly 2k a month to live here, which makes these issues even more infuriating.

I would be interested to know whether the flats are for people (men?) released from prison, on parole, or halfway houses. Sorry, I don't want to cause alarm but it's concerning. Sorry this is happening to you. There are lots where I live.

Not a renter but the house attached to mine was owned by a LL who housed people in temporary accommodation for the council. The house become very derelict as short term tennants didn't bother with any cleaning, inside or out. It git so bad I made complaints and eventually the council stopped using it as it was uninhabitable. It was awful to live next door and very stressful, never knew who was going to be there from one week to the next.

I used to work in council housing, hate to say this but most will be prison leavers and/or moved away from other areas due to being chased out by their local community e.g sex offenders.

Assuming the owner is leasing the property to the council rather than the council actually owning it themselves, it's a win win for the owner as the council are guaranteed to pay the rent and make good any damage when the lease ends.

The rent and repairs will be guaranteed by the council so a better bet for the landlord after all the recent changes giving tenants the rights - if a private tenant stops paying the rent now it’ll be well over a year until you can evict them, and virtually no chance of getting any damage or back rent paid. If the landlord is a corporation or an individual who doesn’t live near they won’t care about antisocial behaviour just the ROI.
I’d imagine it’ll carry on for a good few years until the building gets tired enough that it needs a complete renovation.
I’d be quietly looking for something else OP. Sorry you’re in this position.

It’s a bit of a mix, they’re not all men. There’s 1 care leaver, a girl just turned 18. She has multiple different people coming and going, one man was stood outside my window recently doing balloons. It’s not just the tenants themselves that are causing issues, it’s often the people they associate with that they are bringing here. There’s also been a drug addict, who caused lots of issues earlier in the year but left in an ambulance a few months ago and hasn’t returned so I’m not sure what happened to her. And there’s one man who clearly has some kind of mental health issues, he stole my shopping as I was unpacking it within a week of moving in.
Then the others are single mums, which have been the least problematic.

OP: Out of the 60 flats, only around 5/6 are being used to house people in temporary accommodation.

user9764875954: if a private tenant stops paying the rent now it’ll be well over a year until you can evict them, and virtually no chance of getting any damage or back rent paid.

If 90% of his tenants get together and did a 'rent strike', I wonder what he'd do.

Yeah I totally get from a financial view the landlord will prefer council tenants now, which is such a shame for all of us who have lived here for several years.
The landlord definitely isn’t local so I’m sure couldn’t care less about us, I believe they are based in Israel so not even in the UK! I guess the only silver lining is I can leave with short notice now.

In the short term, you need to keep on reporting the antisocial behaviour to the council and be a squeaky enough wheel that they’re forced to take note. You could form a tenants and residents group of everyone in the building with the same concerns for lobbying power. In the longer term, I doubt it’s going to get better, so I’d think about moving on yourself. I don’t think anyone can predict what the landlord will do: for as long as their existing tenants choose to remain the property, they can’t lease them to the council, so it’s going to depend on the level of tenant turnover.

It’s an uncomfortable reality that there are people who live within our society who need to be housed, even if their lifestyles are problematic, and that nobody really wants to live near them even if they have a pro-social welfare stance. Until there’s greater investment in social and supported housing, councils are just desperate to discharge their duty in any type of housing they can.

Private-temporary accommodation gives the landlord alot of money. My council was giving my temporary accommodation landlord 700 a week. Based in a 3 bed. That was 10 years ago so its probably 900-1000+ a week now. And from my experience the landlord does not look after the property's mine were in really run down condition. Damp mould manky flooring. Vermin. Etc.

If it is people just left prison/halfway house type thing is likely to be quite horrible for people neighbours etc with the police turning up regularly it does sound like they may be antisocial type people.

I think families are probably different. Of course you get families that don't care antisocial Behaviour etc. But people in temporary accommodation do not have a secure tenancy. Its called non secured tenancy meaning its easier for the council to leave if the tenant breaks any rules. And also council can end their duty to house/help the tenants. So the tenant has to be very careful.

The actual owner may not care. Because they are getting alot 9f money and have to do minimal.

Since right to buy and very little housing stock being built by the council anymore it is completely reliant on the private rentals. Very little you can do but treat it as you would any other ant--social behaviour you are witnessing, keep log books, continually report behavior etc. If they are recent prison leavers or care leavers they should have key workers so maybe report to them

Social services/ council really shouldn't have put a vulnerable care leaver there ☹️

What you say makes sense though the people taking drugs won't be thinking about rules abd housing etc they ate just thinking how they get their next fix.

And the single mums risk loosing temporary accommodation if they cause problems and council end their duty. Its not worth the risk

A former colleague owned a flat and a landlord in his building did this. They had one particularly bad tenant who had severe mental health issues, set his flat on fire, was cuckooed by drug dealers and had addicts and prostitutes coming in and out of the building.

The other owners complained repeatedly every time something happened , and eventually the landlord ended the arrangement and returned to renting privately.

Yes, I had exactly this in my last flat. We were in a small block of four, one was then changed to this arrangement after a private tenant left.

Honestly, it was a nightmare. All but two were single men. We had one young woman with a baby, and one single dad with a young son. The others? Police repeatedly at the door for different tenants. Lots of mental health issues. I lived directly below and frequently heard screaming and throwing furniture around while they were alone up there.

I passed one in the communal hall once and just said hello, nothing else. He then started knocking quietly on my door in the middle of the night (I worked nights, but from home) which I ignored. One morning around 6am I heard this godawful thumping, but I thought it was the main door, or maybe a few doors down. Suddenly my own flat front door burst open and he's kicked it in, swaying, off his face. He screamed I was doing his head in and to get out of his head. I hadn't made a sound - didn't even have the TV on. Then he came to and he just... left, and my lock and doorframe was broken. He later told my other neighbour that I reminded him of someone and that's why he did it.

I was really angry at the time. The same landlord owns all four flats and I was of the view that a new arrangement like this materially changed the terms of the other tenancy agreements - would we still have moved in had we known? We weren't even informed, the letting agent happened to let it slip to me months after it had started.

I moved. My other neighbour is still there, and constantly has updates of the latest drama. People may try and dress it up as a NIMBY thing and everyone needs a place to sleep but this is far worse. I was a woman living alone having my door kicked in because I resembled someone else, and neither the landlord nor the letting agent gave a shiny shit.

Made friends with a lady who lived over the road, she was a perfect tenant in a small block of flats (just 4) and had been there 3 years. Landlord put her rent up £400 overnight and she was forced to move out. I think it was exactly what the landlord wanted because he then rented it to the council for emergency housing - I presume gets paid a lot more.

The once quiet block of flats is noisy. Very noisy. There's been 8 sets of tenants now, a couple nice, the others less so, keeping others awake, drug dealing etc.

We had a single dad with 2 little girls, he was dealing

About 20 years ago I was the dreaded temporary accommodation tenant. We had been put out of our privately rented home (purely racist incident) and had to be housed by the borough immediately as we were under threat. We were professionals with 3 young DC and paying for the temporary accommodation, but I won't forget the cats bum faces the neighbours made at us. Back then the cost of the flat was about 50% above the market rate, so it was very lucrative for the landlord. It was 'emergency' temp accommodation, so was fully furnished right down to forks and spoons. Some people stayed a few weeks but we were there for three years. A man delivered a registered letter to me one day and it turned out that the 'landlord' was actually renting the flats and subletting them to the LA, but not paying the rent to the LL.