Benefits Tenants

[CrazyTypeOfIndifference]

SoI caught a bit of this on C4 +1. It's mainly about the state some of the houses are in when the tenants are evicted.

So far I've seen the lady who owed £5k and part of the kitchen ceiling had fallen in due to a leak, and the couple where the mum is disabled and they're talking about getting a skip in to clear the house.

Is it just me thinking that the state of the houses isn't that bad? Especially the lady with the fallen-in ceiling.

I mean, yes, they're a grubby. But in the fallen-in-ceiling womans house, there was no junk or clutter, all the surfaces in the kitchen looked clean enough, but the landlord was wringing his hands in despair and the camera was doing close ups of mud on the floor and dust on the windowsills. Not like there's shit everywhere or anything. A couple of hours with some flash and a hoover would have put it right from what I saw (to a basic standard anyway)

The second house was full of 'stuff' and the kitchen did look pretty rank...but again, take a bit of flash to it, box up the junk and scrub the floors, you could probably have it looking decentish in an hour or two.

So AIBU to think they're making a bit of a meal out of the state of a couple of the houses?

The kitchen thing. Maybe if the landlord had sorted out the leak, the ceiling would not have fallen in. Maybe, just maybe the arrears were because the tenant refused to pay rent until repairs had been done.

A lot of these shows are edited to make things look worse. They are filmed for entertainments purposes. Although should point out not seen this program.

The disabled couple had dogshit throughout the house including their dds bedroom......I hate the way these programmes exploit people but do hope the couple are getting support, for their daughters sake at least.

landlord was wringing his hands in despair so would I be. most landlords have mortgages to pay. he also said he had an emotional attachment to the home. The leak seemed to have been caused by her flooding the bathroom as no one could find a cause for it and he was going to have to pay out shed loads of money for it
And if you think the places weren't that bad than you have an even more relaxed attitude to mess than me ( and that's saying something!) as I would be more than a little peeved to find dog shit all over the floor of my house

I once let my house to a family with five children, although the youngest was subsequently put into foster care, and the state it was left in was disgusting. I couldn't believe children were expected to live like that. The frustrating thing was that they weren't short of money and could easily have paid for a cleaner!

Only caught a bit of it , did the couple with the toddler have a learning disability or mh problems? There seemed to be little explanation as to why it was in such a state within a short time.

The landlord with the leak was not very nice. The fact he hadn't dealt with the leak and the fact that he went on and on about how emotionally involved he was made me glad he wasn't my landlord.

Liz she had a physical disability

Poor people are not entertainment.

I hate shows like this. So exploitative

It's not solely benefits tenants that can be awful - 2 doors up from me was let to a family where both parents are surgeons at the local hospital.

They were only there for a year and EVERYTHING was trashed and indescribably filthy. They had a toddler and if SS had seen the state the child was living in they would have had just cause to remove the child.

The house had been completely refurbished when they moved in. The LL (who also works at the hospital) was sobbing in front of the house when she saw the state of it. Unbelievable.

I think the media feeds a stigma against people on benefits.. I mean look at benefits street and alike, looking at areas where there are just a few families that choose to be on benefits and this one sounds no better especially as one person was severely disabled you will never know the full story maybe the one person was on at her landlord for weeks due to leaky pipes which eventually came straight down (due to being weakened), or the disabled woman with dog poo in her house had asked for home assistance through benefits as she was unable to clean her home herself. picking up dog poo might be easy for us but for A disabled woman it may not be these shows never put out the full story so we shouldnt buy into them.

random the disabled person had a partner living with her who looked more than capable of picking up dog shit.
if you really are that disabled that you can't clear up after a pet then don't have a pet.
Some people simply live like disgusting lazy slobs and I never quite get this MN thing of always trying to find wriggle room for them.
Why did the partner not pick up the shit?
Why have a dog in the first place if you can't pick up its shit?

I was leaning more toward her being moderately effected by her disability then something happening like a minor bump or knock to make it alot worse, I was commenting on the shows in general but i agree her partner should have taken over cleaning up after the dog

Programmes like this are partly why I can't find anyone to rent to us as we claim partial housing benefit (even though dh is working full time).

I thought the hole in the ceiling was malicious - it appeared after they were told they were being evicted and no one could find any cause for the leak? And hadn't the family made the life of the neighbours hell?

And the woman in question had been receiving HB but not paying her rent. The landlord said he would be going after her for non payment and I don't blame him.

I wouldn't watch a programme called Benefit tenants.

Talk about whipping up hatred for benefit claimants.

The kitchen thing. Maybe if the landlord had sorted out the leak, the ceiling would not have fallen in. Maybe, just maybe the arrears were because the tenant refused to pay rent until repairs had been done.

sometimes tenants don't tell the landlord.

I had once viewed a place before renting (private landlord, private tenant, different country) and the bathroom tap was leaking like it was turned on (i.e. you didn't need to turn it on any more to wash your hands properly). The current tenant let me in to see the place as the landlord was out of town. I moved in a month later and this time the landlord let me in and I told him about the taps and how they were leaking for a month. He was shocked the tenant just never told him. The landlord was paying for the water.

some people have no respect for other people's money and property.

I agree it was unfair Usual, I had foolishly thought it would be about the effect of universal credit and the impact of HB now going to the tenants and not the LL. I think that has caused good tenants many problems and was a remarkably stupid idea.

However, the woman concerned was a very bad example of a tenant and I don't think should be readily excused. It is tenants like that which give others a bad name imo.

The arrears were because she was fraudulently and illegally keeping the HB paid to her. The leak wasn't fixed because she didn't report it. She stood there and said she was offended that he said it wasn't clean, it was FILTHY.

This thread will be full of people saying how dare they, its stigmatising those on benefits....etc etc, but the fact is this stuff happens. The majority of people on benfits are not like this, and people who don't claim benefits can be and are just as bad. I claim and I don't feel stigmatised at all by this, because I'm nothing like that.
But lets not pretend it doesn't happen. Lets not pretend that some people are just assholes, benefits or not.

I didn't watch the programme, but having worked as a Housing Benefit assessor, nothing surprises me any more. I have lost count of the number of landlords who have complained to the council about the state their tenant/s have left the property in, and provided photos of the appalling damage that has been done. Unfortunately, their complaints were misdirected, as there is nothing the council can do.

I've been renting privately for four years and the house next door to my first rental was rented out to a Vietnamese man, who turned it into a cannabis farm. The weirdest thing was that we had absolutely no idea whatsoever - hadn't heard any renovations going on, no odd comings-and-goings, nothing. The first we knew was what sounded like a truck being driven through the back of the house, which was the police raiding it. The whole property was ruined and needed extensive renovations before it could be rented out again.

When we viewed our current house, we mentioned to our new landlord that the house we were leaving was up for sale. He asked if he could come and have a quick look at it - ostensibly with a view to buying it, but I think a part of it was also to see what sort of condition we were leaving it in.

Hear Hear PastorOfMuppets

That was VERY well said.

I am looking for a tenancy.
I am disabled and will be on benefits.

I have just had a landlady break a signed and witnessed Short Assured Tenancy Contract at 72 hours notice because she suddenly 'felt uncomfortable about benefits'. Apparently she had 'seen those tv programmes'.

I had arranged a place for my SEN child at a suitable school which he will now not be able to take up.

Thanks, C4. Your ratings, my life.

Perhaps you should go in with 'a couple of hours, a bottle of Flash and a hoover' and see how far you get?

New tenants expect/demand a good level of cleanliness.

As a landlord myself I know it isn't just surface dust. It's things like:

irreparable damage to carpets

marks, burns and stains on floors and worktops

chipped tiles

doors, locks and window latches that have been forced and broken

curtain poles pulled out of the wall

grease all over the kitchen where cooker hoods filters are never cleaned

smashed plug sockets

boilers, meters and radiators that have been tampered with

mould and mildew around windows where no-one has opened a curtain or aired the place in over a year

rust on the radiators where people have draped wet washing for months on end, (this corrodes the radiators and they have to be replaced which is very expensive with labour costs)

built up grime and limescale and revolting scum in the bathroom that would take a deep industrial clean to put right

appliances that are so dirty/misused they cease to work properly

thick yellow nicotine staining over everything

doors pulled off hinges

mucky handprints up walls etc., that mean only a full redecoration will suffice

children's scribblings on the walls

a totally overgrown garden strewn with rubbish.

furnishings removed/dismantled/broken or otherwise unaccounted for

These are the very common realities faced by landlords every day, or at least the ones who are brave enough to let to certain categories of tenant (not always, but often.)

All that does not come cheap and it takes a bit more than 'a couple of hours with a hoover' to put right. Reality is, you could probably spend a minimum of a couple of hours in each room at the very least, and then there is the expense of all the damage and wear and tear that needs putting right.

If you are dependent on benefits and you get fed up at having such a limited pool of lacklustre properties to choose from, just bear in mind it's because so many landlords have learnt the hard way that to offer anything other than the most basic standard of decor and fixtures and fittings is futile, as they will not get their money back if and when it is trashed.