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?

Landlords generally tend to be greedy and reluctant to do maintenance,
I'm a ll as I couldn't sell my house when I needed to move area. I find that remark offensive.
FYI I've not put up my rent for 4 years and all repairs are done asap.
Can I ask where you get that informed opinion from?

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.
The most professional ll can be taken in by marijuana farmers.
How do you know he didn't pay tax? are you his accountant.
Sounds like you have a maasive chip on your shoulder re. landlords and you're talking stroppy bollocks

I'm a landlord too. Doing it for the money and because any pension payments we've made have turned out to be worth shit.
I plan to support myself in my old age this way. Would it be better if I relied on the state?
My houses are lovely. Lived in one of them myself for years and plan to retire to the other one.
Currently renting myself, as we had to relocate. My landlord is lovely.

I'm a LL because I couldn't sell but needed to relocate. So I am also a tenant in my new area.
The rent I get doesn't cover my mortgage, it's about £200 short. We're not all in it for the money, some of us are struggling.

Oh and my tenants are in arrears on their rent which is making paying my mortgage really really stressful. I could give them notice but that would mean potentially neverrrecouping the money, having an empty house, finding new tenants etc. Current tenants are trying their best and look after the place so it seems better to let them stay on but trust me, being a LL is not all rosey and not always by choice.

'How can you protect LL from bad tenants? It's true that private tenants have to pay a deposit and can be charged for damage/cleaning up, but what about HB tenants?

Well, most private rentals to HB tenants still ask for a deposit.

But also- a lot of cases are just more fluid than that. An awful lot of people start out self paying then something happens and they need HB (often just part HB, as many working people get). That happened to us, and it doesn't change the fact we paid a large deposit!

personally I believe most landlords and most tenants are good people. There should be laws to protect the other victims on both sides.

I'd also like to see and end to the clause in some leases that HB means you are evicted: I fully believe that as home owners people are entitled to rent to whomever they choose, but a good tenant doesn't become a bad one overnight just because something happens and they claim (possibly a small amount) in HB. I get that would mean enforcing it on insurers as well, as often they impose that rule, and yet risk factors won't rise with the same tenant, however when someone has hit a short term blip making them homeless DOES feed the scummier landlords that feed off desperation. That in turn can create a cycle where people find it harder to get off benefits.

I recall a severely disabled mate with disabled DCs whose LL didn't want to pay to get the heating fixed, so just turned it off permanently. At risk to one child's life. There are no legit excuses for that level of nastiness.

Yabu. I think you'll find that a lot of landlords won't rent to those on hb, I'm not going to tar all those on hb with the same brush but it seems that on average they're less desirable tenants than private tenants. I know when I looked into letting property, when I phoned about mortgages they didn't want dss tenants, insurers specifically asked about it and my friends flat is not allowed to be rented to dss due to block rules...

Of course properties should be clean and habitable, but I think it goes both ways and when I walk past council blocks which were built recently and already you can see doors broken, gardens overgrown and litter strewn I can see why hb tenants aren't necessarily the best bet, though I'm sure a lot are decent.

I have a lovely landlord. We rent privately and we pay £250 a month for one room in a 2-bed flat. We're allowed pets (we have two house cats), and we've been allowed to decorate as well.

Our flat is small, hence the low rent, but it's clean and well-maintained, and whenever we've had any problems (busted lights, whatever) our landlord has sorted it within 24 hours.

Of course he's in it to make some money, but it pays for him to keep us happy because it means he has trustworthy tenants who pay on time (Hence a regular income) and it means he doesn't have to fuss around looking for new tenants and dealing with deposits and all that on a regulr basis.

I'm an accidental landlord.

It costs me money each year for my tenants to live in my house.

It is in good repair. I fix things.

I don't however fix things that aren't broken just not the way they want them - they don't like the electric shower - it is the same one I lived with for several years, same model several of my friends have. It wasn't a cheap shower and is a highest energy rating one but it does still have some limitations ie. You can't have unlimited high pressure hot water but can have very hot water at a reasonable pressure or hot water at high pressure.

The current tenants basically want a power shower with pump etc. two different plumbers have confirmed to them that the existing one isn't broken. No one else has found it an issue (tenants or guests when it was my house) so quite frankly if they want a different shower then they need to move! The shower works.

I've also had to pay twice for a plumber to tell them it wasn't broken.