to wonder how many are exploiting housing benefit like this

[AgaPanthers]

This man:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2246973/Slum-landlord-David-McCabe-left-tenants-Dickensian-squalor-faces-letting-ban-Britains-property-rental-ASBO.html

has been a landlord of 30 years. He makes his money by renting out squalid, uninhabitable wrecks to men on housing benefit.

He ignored orders to fix the properties, appealed, and the sentences has been confirmed.

www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Rogue-landlord-rented-rooms-squalid-houses-court/story-20789663-detail/story.html

Some of the 'Benefits Streets' houses were owned by similar landlords who did nothing to maintain conditions fit for human habitation but still sponged off state benefits paid to their tenants. There must be hundreds of thousands of these places up and down the country left in this mess.

Landlords generally tend to be greedy and reluctant to do maintenance, but at least those renting out more expensive places have to do them up to get tenants in in the first place.

It is pure greed, tenants in these circumstances don't necessarily keep good care of properties, but that's the choice you as a landlord make when you choose to enter the business - don't like it, sell up.

Prison sentences surely the next step?

Shop lifting is illegal and you can be prosecuted.

If you got drunk and smashed a pub up you would be prosecuted.

Both shit tennants and shit landlords should face repercussions.

I've only had one landlord who was reluctant to do maintenance and she was the one who ended up losing out in the end. I knew her in real life where she was also a thoroughly greedy cow in the extreme.

Each other landlord has had nice properties and are quick to do any repairs. I am genuinely grateful to them for allowing me to live in their house given I am on HB AND have dog and cats!

Paying my rent is my utmost priority and it has always gone straight to the landlord.

There are asshole, greedy and selfish landlords who expect tenants to reside in slums but these are the minority in my experience.

I am not justifying tenants trashing houses, just saying that is a business risk for landlords. I think there are too many private landlords now, and they don't seem to be prepared for these issues. One landlord we had tried to hike our rent by 50%, we moved it out, it eventually ended up being rent out to (undeclared!) gangsters who turned it into a cannabis farm. The nextdoor neighbour got broken into, and now the house is an HMO. The landlord didnt do the marijuana farming (though he didnt pay tax on the rent), but it was his decision to be a shamateur landlord that ultimately caused the mess.

My parents are landlords of four properties. Dad is a self employed builder. The properties are their pension. They take tenants from the council, who are homeless or close to it, and yes they get paid housing benefit. They take tenants who can't get housed into housing association. They are NOT greedy. They reduce rents to HB levels. They repair and maintain the properties.

If tenants are living in squalid conditions they need to contact housing standards at the council and go through the proper channels.

Also - the Daily Mail is not known for its balanced views on such topics.

It is a business risk being a landlord.

Same as it's a health risk when I get in my car to drive to work because some people out there will drive when drunk.

But not all motorists get called greedy.

Why do you have such a problem with all landlords just because a few are shits?

I know of two men in my city who have made a lot of money by splitting run down old houses into bedsits and charging mostly vulnerable tenants the £55 per week they know they will get for HB claimants (single, under 35s or shared room rate) One of them owns almost 30 properties. They are not places anyone would want to live but are marginally better than being on the streets I suppose.

Tenants will not go down the Public Protection route because they are terrified of being made homeless. In my city a single, healthy person is not a priority for housing and could very well end up in the streets. It is difficult to find rentals when you claim HB, especially if you have a habit or are vulnerable in some way.

More shit landlords than shit tenants IME. 3 out of 4 of our previous landlords were utter cunts. Refusing to do repairs (boiler/gas leak/water leak), coming round unannounced, telling our neighbours our business etc.

All properties given back in better condition than they were rented out and we were 'HB folk' (top up) too.

One was a very 'naice' middle class landlady (boden cups and oven glove left on the filthy oven in the kitchen!) who assured me she wanted long term tenants then served us with a section 21 after 4 months, after we'd repainted all the bedrooms (neutrally) which she said she had not got round to but we could do if we liked, and sanded down and revarnished the wooden floorboards downstairs.

She had decided to sell up apparently no matter that she was putting a family with 3 DC out in the street after such a short time.

We were such idiots that we allowed numerous viewings with me making sure the house was immaculate each time so she got an offer very quickly. She then tried to take £100 off the deposit for 'missing' pebbles from the garden and a blind that was already broken and listed as such on the inventory. I was ready to punch her as I'd just spent hours scrubbing the house from top to bottom for us leaving . We had already been through the stress of trying to find another £1500 deposit as we had to wait 2 weeks (and she left it until the last day) for our original complete deposit back.

Kind of coloured my view of landlords that. Bastards most the lot of them.

Housing should not be treated as a commodity IMO. It is a basic need.

Shelter are reporting nearly a quarter of a million revenge evictions each year:

england.shelter.org.uk/news/march_2014/shelter_exposes_true_scale_of_revenge_evictions

And many more afraid that they will be subject to this, so they don't say anything.

The private rental sector is far too large. It's a national disgrace.

DrMaybe, eviction is the default with ASTs. If they say 'I am not renewing the lease', then you are out. It doesn't have to be a formal eviction process.

There's nothing wrong with not renewing a lease. Tenants do it regularly too oddly enough.

Totally incorrect. aga. An AST has to be brought to an end formally whether the fixed term has expired or not. That is two months notice under section 21, application to court, notice of eviction, another application to the court, bailiffs warrant.

I'm a LL who is in it for the money. The difference us, I know that monthly income is never going to make me rich and my m

...money will be made when I sell.

I don't go for bottom end of the market and prefer to rent out family homes where I can make more from renting well maintained, nicely decorated.

That way I hang into my tenants which limits the time the properties are empty plus I attract tenants that are more likely to want to look after their homes because they are paying more. The cost of running this property type compared to the loss of rent from poorly decorated/maintained makes my business model more profitable for me.

When you are have few morals, vulnerable tenants and a bit of weight to throw around, illegal evictions are not hard to arrange. People are easily intimidated into leaving and there seems to be little comeback once the person is already out of the property.

I'm also a landlord too by the way but I only have one property which is rented to family. Has it's own set of problems but avoids a lot of this.

i blame all this crap daytime property programmes that make people think buying property splashing magnolia paint everywhere and putting laminate flooring everywhere will make you a landlord and rich

one programme","homes under the hammer" i think very rarely sells to make a home to the buyer its always landlords snapping them up.

i blame all the BTL landlords for pushing up prices and price ing out people that would like to buy but because of the BTL landlords and rich parents buying for the DC's pushing the prices up joe bloggs just cant afford to buy themselves

I'm a ll tomorrow, yeah.
I accept hb as the house is owned out right so have no restrictions. many can't do this for insurance/mortgage reasons.
I am going to be fair and maintain my house that I don't want to loose value through lack of proper maintenance.
I will not allow a tenant to take the piss, but I'm not expecting them to.
It works both ways.

DietCoke, that's true, but it works both ways. There is very little comeback once a person is out of a property having left the place damaged and the rent unpaid.

My landlord is lovely, owns a lot of houses and was the only LL in our entire town that would accept me being under 21 and on HB.

Saying that, out first LL left us with no hot water for 11 months. Council were not bothered, had to get an MP involved to get it fixed. I left it 10 months before doing involving the mp, as she kept saying she was sending someone out.. I was 18 and too scared to rock the boat too much (daft I know).

I feel so angry when I see LL's taking advantage of the vulnerable, or HB tenants not paying rent (making it harder for everyone else!).

Nottalotta, it's normal to issue a section 21 notice at the start of a tenancy.

But anyway what I meant by default was that it's not difficult to end a tenant's right to stay. Within an AST either wait to the end, or exercise break clause, or if periodic, then just give the two month's notice.

These are a form of 'eviction' that would result in the vast majority of tenants leaving the home. Only a minority would wait for actual formal court eviction proceedings.

It's a nightmare trying to find a place to rent that accepts housing benefit. I'm homeless after running away from an abusive partner and am finding it nearly impossible to find a suitable place which I can afford and which would accept me. Partially due to being disabled, so having a specific need for a ground floor flat or bungalow, and also because my finances are very low and can't afford more than one bedroom. I am just hoping my homelessness application is accepted by the council in the area I am in currently, it's been transferred from another council who accepted me but was too far from the children.

Plenty of people wait for the formal eviction proceedings because that's the best way to get themselves housed by the council in many areas.

I've seen people being advised to wait until the last minute possible loads of times on this site.