To be a bit shocked at the landlord who is evicting 200 families because they are on housing benefit

[wetaugust]

Heard this and 'Wow' - I was shocked.

He's being interviewed on C4 News.

He'd rather rent them to Eatern Europeans who are working.

He said that if house prices go up then rents should go up.

He said he's not the only landlord doing this.

Wow!

So some local authority will have to find new housing for all these people.

Where will this end?

I am stunned.

saucyjack I really doubt LL are totally to blame for high house prices. It's a basic supply and demand issue. And maybe if foreign investors weren't buying tens of flats at a time from new developments the average joe would have a chance. Not that they'd be able to save a deposit with the high rents in London.

I agree with the LL and also understand the plight of the tenant. It's really unfortunate that all tenants are tarred with the same brush but given that profit margins are so small I'd always go for someone who was employed than not. Not worth the risk IMHO. I have two properties that only just pay for themselves, if my tenants didnt pay their rent then we'd be pretty screwed very quickly.

Can you please explain this term quite a few of you have used i.e. that the properties 'only just pay for themselves'.

To me that presumes a breakeven situation.

I can't undertsand that. For instance if a house is renting for £400 pcm that's £4800. The interest on the mortgage can be offset against the profit and you have the wear and tear allowance.

So surely quite a chunk of that £4800 is still going back to the owner who uses it to pay a mortgage on the house thus enriching themselves.

That's not 'break even' as I understand it.

No, why? He is in business, if he has a good business ground for his decision, up to him.
You would do the same in his position. As a good businesswoman. Do you want to lose money on an investment?*

When you are in the business of providing something as fundamental as shelter, I don't think its appropriate for you to just see the money. These are peoples lives he is messing with. Being a LL carries a social responsibility whether we like it or not. And if one doesn't like it, and can't act in a well balanced manner, then one should sell up and find some other way of making a mint.

House prices have fallen recently. If a LL's rent is not more than the mortgage and repairs, and the house is worth less, they are not making money.

I agree 100% with Saucyjack

Is it solely because theyre on benefits though, or is it because theyre in arrears? Maybe he has spoken to the tennants and theyve said they cant pay it? If they need a council house they stand more chance of getting one if he evicts them than if they leave willingly.

Either way though i feel sorry for the god landlords and hb tennants. A few give them a bad name.

My landlord and agent are amazing. The young girl at the agency put up with my pregnant hirmonal crying and ranting and really bent over backwards to get us in as we were in the shit due to a benefits cock up.

Oh and the only people that benefit from hb is claimants" thing is rubbish. My old landlord rents his house for £320 pcm if you work. If you claim hb he tells them its £400 pcmHe doesnt charge a bond though etc. But he is benefitting from that. And plenty do the same.

I also agree with saucyjack. Yes we need a small number of rental properties for young people who are not ready to settle/ people to move but in general landlords are greedy and feeding off the misery of others. Few people choose rentals with one month notice for long term living.

Of course its the landlords who benefit dizzy, it imposes a minimum rent

The real problem here is the chronic lack of social housing.

We need to build large numbers of social houses again (which councils can't currently do).

These need to be rented at affordable prices (which might vary across the country).

We also need to bring back secure long-term tenancies (with provision for bad tenants of course), rather than this ridiculous 6 month/year renewal system (which involves gross profiteering though 'admin' fees).

in general landlords are greedy and feeding off the misery of others

there's nothing like reasoned argument, without generalisations and backed by evidence. And this is nothing like it.

FFS. Making money from property is not a crime. EVERY human need makes money for someone - food, clothing, shelter, medicine, education.

yes, I'm a landlord. Because that way I get a whopping 4% on my money. IF all goes well.

It's totally changing society.

When the young have nothing to aspire to they may as well just go out and get drunk (or, if you believe that report last week, they feel suicidal).

You can hate Mrs T as much as you like but one of her tenets was widespread home-ownership. What;s forgotten is that, in addition to selling the council houses to their occupiers, she introduced help for first time buyers.

Trouble is that help for first time buyers now would only fuel the situation of house price increases.

"We also need to bring back secure long-term tenancies (with provision for bad tenants of course), rather than this ridiculous 6 month/year renewal system (which involves gross profiteering though 'admin' fees)."
I know a few landlords and they tend to let the tenancies run one once the first Assured Shorthold Tenancy ends (as long as the tenants are good),

wet august the next stage could well be some of them feeling homicidal

brettgirl It's not just the young who are not ready to settle for whom we need private landlords. DH and I actively choose to rent because, in the area in which we live, it makes more economic sense than buying.

So, yes, our landlord is really feeding off our misery

YANBU housing should be primarily somewhere to live with enough for all and not a mass business. Disgusting that all the cheaper housing is bought up and rented out by people with hordes already. So selfish but sadly reflects our me me me competitive society.

Peeking yes, agencies are useful to find tenants but not for much thereafter!

I would bet any money you like (admittedly I don't have a lot) that what this shyster is doing is turning family homes into HMOs because there is more money in that. So he will rent to four single Europeans because they take up one room each, rather than to a family of say five comprised of two adults and three kids where it would only be classed as a two-bedroomed place despite there being four rooms. If he's anything like the landlords round this way, it would mean even more than four people to collect rent from, if they sleep in shifts and there is someone there in the day and a different person there in the night.

Marzipanned you are the minority.

So nothing to do with UK people being workshy and not paying their way and everything to do with milking every penny he can from a transient population who will put up with shit living standards in the short term because the money they can make will buy them a home back in their own country after a couple of years of slumming it here.

Is it solely because theyre on benefits though, or is it because theyre in arrears?

It's because he wants to be able to put his rents up every year in line with the rise in house prices (just through sheer greed) and due to to the recent benefit caps/LHA tenants who rely on housing benefit can no longer get their full rent paid, leading them to fall into rent arrears- through no fault of their own.

There has been absolutely no suggestion from anyone- LEAST of all him (if you read the interview in The Guardian) that the tenants are in arrears because they are spending their housing ben. on drink or drugs.

So, instead of doing what anybody with a micro ounce of decency- or even business sense- would do, and just keep his rents in line with what the local council deems a "fair" rent, he has instead elected to through 200 "single mothers" (as he calls them) and their children onto the street, and overcrowd his properties instead with the poor bloody Poles.

It's utterly, completely and absolutely indefensible and anyone who thinks it's OK because it's only "business" needs to take a look at themselves in the mirror.

Well as he says in mitigation 'rents have headed north'

throw, not through