To not mind about tenants being DSS

[starkadder]

We have a flat we rent out in London. Tenant just moved out and we are looking for a new one. A couple of prospectives haves asked about it saying "do you accept DSS?". As far as I'm concerned, it isn't an issue - after all, if someone is on housing benefit surely they are more likely to pay their rent, not less? But I know lots of landlords do have an issue. Am I missing something? Or are landlords who have an issue with DSS being unreasonable and unfairly discriminatory?

Joyful, what is the Housing benefit cap in your area, just curious?

Is HB and dss different then?

Judgejodie I used to get hb but nothing from dss. People who are working can get hb. That's paid by council not dss.

I use a letting agent that will manage the tenancy and make sure rent is paid direct to landlord. There are good and bad tenants, regardless of whether claiming HB or not.

The cap here (N.I) is about £360 pcm for a family regardless of property size, single people only get the price of a room regardless of the size of their home. HB is paid out by the NIHE and not the council as there are no council houses as such, all public housing is controlled and paid for the NIHE including private/HT buildings as regards benefits, its a pretty good system which keeps rental prices down to a realistic and affordable level.

Our current tenants are on HB and are fine. I have don't voluntary work in court for people facing eviction for rent arrears and HB payment problems were a real issue. At one point he District Judges in some parts of London would not consider council house rent arrears evictions if the arrears were due to the same council cocking up the HB.

sorry have done not have don't

My mum rented to DSS and her experience means I never will. Rent wasn't paid, and they did a midnight flit after stripping the house of everything - curtains, fixtures, fittings, electrical appliance... literally everything. She lost £1000s and it took months to completely refurbish the property before she could re-let.

The problem with DSS is that lots of tenants now opt for their Housing Benefit to be paid direct to them, and it is then up to the tenant to pay the landlord. And it seems that many of them don't seem to want to give their landlord the money

I speak from experience btw, I manage some rental properties for some friends who live overseas.

We had a rental with HB tenants and didn't have any problem.
In some areas HB can be paid directly to the landlord - you could always stipulate this to avoid hassles should any arise
If you decide to do it, I would call up your local council and ask if they do pay that way.

Judgejodie the Department of Social Security (DSS) has not existed for more than 10 years. People cling to the term but really mean housing benefit (though DSS dealt with unemployment benefit too, so there is a wider sense of 'claimant' whereas in fact many people claiming HB are in low paid work).

Joyful, you sound like a lovely tenant. I find it very unfair that 'the system' disadvantages HB tenants by making them less appealing to private landlords than private tenants. As a landlord though I see things primarily from a business perspective, so if I can get tenants with the required deposit, who pay rent monthly in advance, I will.

I did look into this once when a prospective tenant approached me about a scheme she was signed up with that offered a 'bond' in place of a deposit. Good idea but it did not cover both the rent and damage aspects of a deposit, and rent would still have been paid in arrears. My house would have to have been inspected and much form-filling too (really aimed at large landlords). If such a scheme could put HB recipients on an equal footing with private ones they'd have a much wider choice of housing.

joyful In our area, the tenants can choose.

And I know because I have been on HB myself in the past.

Want to pick up on eurochicks point that if tenant makes an improper claim it's the landlord that has to repay. For me this is the biggest reason to exclude hb tenants.

YANBU - there are good and bad people regardless of how they pay the rent. OP, you might like this song :)

Agree though that councils can be insanely slow to pay HB, which does mean that if, for example, you need a lodger to help pay the mortgage right now then taking on someone who will be claiming HB can be a bit of a nightmare - though no fault of the tenant of course.

It can take ages to process a claim so you may end up waiting. If at anytime it is decided that they were not entitled to the housing benefit, often because a partner has moved in, the money can be claimed from the landlord. This can be done up to 9 years after the payment.

This bond thing was a promise from the housing office, not something the tenant had to pay. Potentially a good idea, if done a bit better.

There are good and bad tenants whether DSS or not.

The only.problematic things I've heard is from a friend who is a housing lawyer. A lot of her clients in financial difficulty were pocketing the housing benefit money and not paying all the rent. It's a possibility.

Wow, thanks for all the replies and sorry for disappearing - couldn't log on last night for some reason and then was at work. Really appreciate all the advice. The main worry to me is what people are using about HB being crap at paying out - which I can totally believe and which would make a difference. It seems so unfair to refuse to let to people on benefits but we'll be up the creek if payments are late because of the mortgage etc - already out f pocket with it being empty at the moment....thanks again!!

I have two issues, neither my mortgage nor my insurance company will let me accept them.

I would ask around in your area - I think speed of processing claims varies by council and it may be that yours is absolutely fine (where I live now they're very quick, where I used to live it could be months literally).