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.

"We tried this on the sale of our parents home, we'd had enough and just wanted out. there is no way the agents would let us lower the price to less than they suggested as it would change the market locally."

Is that not a cartel?

higgle I can't believe you find it hard to get people to do those hours at that wage, are you in the north? I know loads of people who would love to do that, any job in fact.

We looked at buying a rental property and letting to a HB tenant but the mortgage companies we looked at specifically ruled this out.

I would only ever have considered it if the rent were coming to me directly but after hearing horror stories on here of the money being claimed back from the landlord due to overpayment decided it wasnt worth the risk.

I definately wouldnt trust a HB tenant to pay me - I personally know way too many for whom paying the rent is way down their list of priorities.

Ultimately it is a business so whilst I dont agree with him linking rent to the present price of the property - I can understand him evicting tenants who are not paying.

I do think something will need to be done about landlords who own large amounts of property though, this is making it very hard to people who want to buy smaller properties for themselves to get a look in.

Yes I agree, people shouldn't be able to monopolise the housing market.

ah, Wallison, one of our many knee-jerk landlord-haters. No-one says a house must be like a hospital ward, specious argument.

'if the tenant can't pay the rent, they bleat about their own financial well-being'

go look up 'mortgage', and what happens if you don't pay it.

security of tenure - tenants can sign up for as long as they like, six months is the minimum. Specious argument.

go on, make my day and let's have a sensible argument why making money from property should be a crime.

ethelb

What is a cartel?

We, (my dsis) and I were selling our parents home, they died.
The market was unpredictable and seemed like prices were dropping, it was 2008. It took for ever and we'd had enough and were prepared to drop the price to just get rid. The EA wouldn't have any of it and would only allow us to drop to what they would allow. We were still there several months later.

I do find there are a lot of people on MN who dont seem to realise its a business With any business you have to fix your price taking every eventuality into consideration.

We decided it was a no go - we couldnt afford to support a non paying tenant and its very easy for "profit" to be swallowed up by "maintenance" if you are the kind of person who would not expect a tenant to live in lower standards than you would consider acceptable.

Our neighbours owned a house which was completely ruined by the tenant - crayoning on all carpets and walls, every kitchen door hanging off, water damage due to sinks over flowing. It was something we would have liked to do but just too much of a risk as we are OK rather than flush financially.

I do know of a few people locally who have been looking for properties to downsize into but are struggling to get a look in as the landlords just walk in money in hand with no properties to sell and get first dibs/gazump them.

they bleat about their own financial well-being

Why shouldn't they? They have mortgages and bills to pay too y'know.

And why shouldn't they expect it to be left in a clean state as it was when they moved in?

I'm a tenant, not a landlord, and really don't take issue with the fact it is a business and I should have to take good care of their property.

I mean it is a non-competitive practice. it would only be a cartel if other estate agents in the area were knowingly doing similar things.

If they refused to drop the price to the one you wanted they were not strictly speaking supporting a free market.

Which is ironic as many people have defended house prices in this country as the product of a free market.

more than - could you not have gone to a different EA? Its not up to them who buys your property or the price *you are willing to accept - it all sounds a bit dodgy to me.

Locally some of the less ethical EAs have property developer mates who they would always give priorty to in exchange for cash

Interestingly I rented with a mate when we were single - now I expect a lot of landlords would have gone 2 single party girls, no i'd much rather rent to a nice young professional family The kitchen was a horrible mess (all peeling paintwork) I got permission rubbed it all down and painted it, we looked after it as though we owned it and left it better than when we arrived.

The other house (with the crayonned walls and carpets) was rented by a nice young professional family the bill to put right ran into thousands, not to mention the arrears on rent as they couldnt just be chucked out with young children.

I think there are ethical landlords and hideously unscrupulous ones, same way there are good and bad tenants.

Wrong Wallison.

I don't expect my property to be like new. I do expect there not to have been a fire. Not for the floor to have massive holes in it. Not for the carpet to have been vomited/defecate/pissed on and not cleaned up. Not for the floor in the bathroom to have been ripped up and I can only presume binned.

And financial well-being. Can you let me have your list of people who ARE allowed to complain about it, just so I know for future reference?

DoYouLikeMyBaubles - Home care work, nice area, lovely service users. I struggle to find staff who will work these shifts, they all say they need to have a social life. As most of my staff are on 25 - 28 hour a week contracts and get every other weekend entirely free I don't consider them very reasonable.

Why should the government patronise tenants by paying their rent direct to LL? I'd be so indignant if that were me. The money should be paid to the tenants and if they are then irresponsible with it then that's their own fault!

Its not patronizing. Its ensuring taxpayers investment is going where it was intended - to rent. Its a fine theory that the irresponsible will just have to tough it out because 'its their own fault', but in reality a lot of irresponsible people still have children who suffer the consequences. There are people on benefits who have MH issues, drug/alcohol issues etc, etc.

When you don't have basic necessities their acquisition takes all your focus - not resolving deep set personal issues that could elevate you to a more contributing member of society. It benefits everyone for everyone to have decent housing.

Paying benefits recipients directly is a disaster.

I thought that one reason for paying housing benefit direct to tenants was so that the landlord didnt have to know that the tenant was claiming HB?

Translated to Prole I'm sure some will take this to mean - I stamp on the poor and count my money whilst laughing maniacally.

If you do, please go and shout at a pigeon, and hit an immigrant with the daily mail.

Get over yourself. A joke? How funny.

This is exactly the kind of thing I am talking about - a lot of small-time landlords are permanently teetering on the edge of financial disaster - can't afford tenants who won't pay, can't afford void periods etc. These type of people should not be in the business of providing housing - it's just too precarious, and it makes them into over-entitled arseholes simply because they haven't got the resources to deal with, for example in the case of StrainingWaistband, dirty toilets. Over on the continent where big institutions are in the business - and that is business in the proper sense, not in the small-time typical UK shyster landlord sense - of providing housing, they can cope of someone doesn't pay their rent on time. They can cope with doing repairs, or cleaning toilets. It doesn't matter to them personally, and they factor those costs into their business plans. The situation we have in this country is not fit for purpose, and that is largely because a lot of landlords shouldn't be being landlords at all.

Totally agree Wallison.

We actually have to chase our LL to pay him the top up. It takes about three calls before he will arrange to get it. We have offered to take it to him but he always says he's going past, he will call in, and then a week later he appears. (We are not messy, so he's not trying to catch us at anything, we always welcome him in etc.) More than once it has ran into the next month. He has 8 houses, I think. He is aware of how shitty the HB system is, and never puts pressure on.

Previous LL was up to all sorts, raising the rent without notice at the same time he was telling us how he had three weddings to go to in that month! We always paid but got out of there sharpish. That house has now been repossessed and is going for half the market value.

Another LL was so attached to the house she used to drive past it everyday, slowly, looking in. That's illegal. But she did it. And if the rent was due on a monday, she would ask for it on the sunday "as she hadn't budgetted properly" and then get arsey if we said we couldn't get it until the monday when the bank opened. Just bizarre.

Yes, that's exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about. These people are not fit to be providing housing.

One place I was living in got repossessed due to the landlord not paying the mortgage - the first we heard about it was when the notice got slapped on the door. I think we had 48 hours to get out or something - can't remember the details now as it happened years ago. That sort of antic would be unthinkable somewhere like Germany, for example.

I saw this report today on C4 and was sickened by the man, his wife and their whole foul justification. He owns entire housing estates bought off plan more cheaply than most normal people could get them & this controls housing in these areas. People in his houses were too scared to speak on camera & his wife was talking about evicting people who "came to her attention". Vile bullies the pair of them & I'm shocked so many think its ok because that's just "business". Agree totally with what bettercallsaul & saucyjack said further up. It will be bloody workhouses next.

The government gave back folk on housing benefit the responsibility for paying their own rent, rather than having it paid directly to landlords as they felt this latter was "demeaning". The benefit was paid to them to pass on - the amount is the same. Guess what? Loads are now defaulting - no surprise there then! Can't believe HMG was that stupid - actually I can - bunch of idiots!