To think that private sector landlords should not be allowed to charge exhorbitant rents to those on benefits

[therehastobemore]

Just watching the news about benefit caps and i have to voice this.

The cost of private rental in this area is astronomical. FWIW we don't rent we own our house but we are struggling and have considered selling up and renting but couldn't afford the rental. I am not talking about our situation here.

My husband is a builder and the other week went to price a job for a landlord, he wanted his house "toshed over" and brought up to standard as cheaply as possible. His long term tennant was moving out. Single mother with six children, she was on benefits (this is not an assumption, my husband chatted to her). DP said the place was in a poor state or repair and that no way would he want to pay the £900, yes, £900 a month that this woman was being charged. This woman said she struggled to get the landlord to make repairs. I have been in that situation years back and the rental is always over and above what woudl be charged otherwise.

The point being that no way could this land lord have rented this out to folk who were paying out of their own pockets, but because this woman was on benefits and needed somewhere to live he could pretty much charge what he liked so long as a minimum standard is met.

This is a massive drain on the tax payer. Inscrupulous landlords charging maximum rents for properties and the tax payer is paying for it. Never mind that people on benefits through no fault of their own are having to live in substandard conditions.

Just how much is being payed out in housing benefits where the properties are not worth the rent that is being paid???

They mostly don't tbh though do they?

"If it's such an easy way to get rich, why are you all not becoming a landlord instead of moaning about these greedy landlords charging the earth?
"
Well, as I said earlier, it's not an easy way to make money, at least not anymore.
Many people thought it would be, and found out different.
Also, can I get a mortgage as a single person with no savings earning way less than the average salary?
Thought not.

Also would like to point out that it is very difficult to even find somewhere to live if you are HB-most landlords won't accept it.

Repairs? You have to maintain any building/get the boiler checked etc. Its basic maintenence.
I never lived anywhere where they did more than that.

In my last house I decorated the whole place (it hadn't been painted in about 6 years) had the carpets cleaned, planted the garden (after clearing up bags of rubbish from it).
I still got £100 taken off my deposit because to hang the new blinds I had had made to measure to the old ones, which were a bit grotty.

But it's always like that. You rent, you lose money everytime you move.
That in addition to knowing that you could lose your home (and it is our home) at a moments notice.

When you own a place it is increasing in value over the years. In the long run (and being a LL should be a long term investment not a get rich quick sheme) you will make money. You certainly wont lose it.

What I would like to see is a massive crackdown on letting agents and the fact that there is no regulatory body to prevent them leeching off people and ripping them off in any way they feel like.

When a letting agent took my holding deposit on a flat and then decided I needed a garuntor and would not return my money, they got away with it.
I was 6 months pregnant, with nowhere to live, and £360 lighter.
They also charge landlords exhorbitant fees, which get passed onto the tenant in the form of jacked up rents.
When you are a tenant it really is lose/lose, so yes, if I could buy a place, I would. Unfortunately that may never, ever happen.

didnt have time to hang the blinds I mean, when I was moving.