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?

Just to redress the balance....last time I had to leave a rented property (making me and 16-month-old DS officially homeless because the LL decided to offer the property to a mate of hers on a whim instead ) I left it immaculate, even spending ages mixing up just the right shade of magnolia to touch any marks on the walls up with, scrubbing skirting boards, etc.etc. And in our new house I always pay the rent a day before it's due, so conscious am I of having to be the perfect tenant. Just saying....

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.

That's lovely that you don't feel stigmatised, grockle. You bloody will when a landlord refuses to let you though.

All for TV innit.

I was a rent allowance tenant for 18 months and during that time I was a dream tenant. They were lucky to have me. That doesn't make for good TV I guess!

Hb isn't paid directly to the LL as in most cases it doesn't cover all the rent, even if you are claiming full hb.

In a lot of areas there is a large discrepancy between the local housing allowance rates and private rents.

In my area, the monthly total for a two bed you would receive on full housing benefit is £1100 per month. The cheapest two bed shit hole you can rent here is £1300 per month.

I asked if my HB could be paid direct to the landlady.
I was told that I would have to complete a form saying that I was 'irresponsible with money'. I looked a bit 'confused' at the HB lady.
She said: 'ah yes that will be hard with 20 years of solid mortgage repayments behind you and a spotless credit record wont it?'

The benefits system would not allow me to pay direct.
I had the £1200 deposit and the Guarantor and the school places and the removal van booked but, no, the LL was 'going with her gut' about having a 'benefits tenant' despite the fact she had known this since the Tenancy was first discussed in February.

The HB in the area I wished to rent in was £465 (that was full HB for a 3 bed property)
The rent was £595.
I would have made up the difference.
Just for info.

I don't like these programs they make me uneasy. At least with the likes of benefit street you know there is more pain going to be inflicted by the government coming and they need people not to care but what's this one for?

The tenants were awful.

it's cheap TV and putting the word 'benefits' in the title pulls in extra viewers.

As others have said private tenants trash properties too. There have been plenty of cases of wealthy tenants totally destroying multi million pound properties in London.

Pausing I didn't say I avoid foreigners, indeed the very opposite is true - the majority of my tenants so far have not been British.

I said that I am developing a preference to not have a specific nationality, based on the several experiences I have had with them so far. I've nothing against tham personally but they are turning out to be a little too labour intensive for my liking!

I also did not say that I avoid benefits claimants. I have also had experience of an asylum seeker tenant from a troubled part of the world just as Chaz said, and it was a very positive experience - I had no complaints whatsoever.

I think we need to look at it in reverse. It's not that people who claim benefits will be awful tenants, it's that awful tenants (and they can be 'awful' from a LL's point of view for any number of complex reasons) are often/usually benefits dependent.

The simple fact is that very 'vulnerable' or 'troubled' people who are seemingly incapable of taking responsibility for themselves never mind for taking good care of someone elses's property) are often the very people who are going to give you massive headaches as a LL and no-one dares take on. And who can blame them, quite honestly?

I am about to acquire another property and it will be mortgage free for a year or two at least, which means I can take HB tenants if I so wish as I am not bound by the rules of the mortgage company.

I would not hesitate to take tenants in receipt of HB. But they would need to satisify me that they would be the 'right' kind of tenant ie., the sort who will be clean and tidy, well behaved, pay the rent on time, give me no grief, and return the property in a decent condition. I don't really care whose money pays the rent as long as I get it!

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.

It's the LLs who have suffered by it. If your tenant is living on benefits and runs into difficulties paying the rent will not be the first priority when you know it will take months to evict you.

The only advantage of HB tenants was direct payment. Now that it has been abolished why would anyone let to an HB tenant if there is an earning tenant to choose instead?

Did the couple with the toddler have a learning disability or mh problems?

And if so? Why should the LL bear the consequences?

'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.'

Yes, also true. I visited one of my properties for the first time in almost a year recently. (I have a managing agent to sort out any urgent issues.) I noticed that there was a problem with the outside overflow pipe coming from the roofline, so obviously an issue with the tank in the loft. There was a constant trickle of water coming down the brickwork, causing damp and and algae, and making a slimy stain on the driveway. It must have been going on for months but because it was outside and not affecting the tenants especially, they hadn't bothered to report it. It would have taken one quick phone call.

actually with regards the kitchen ceiling my moms fell down we didn't even know we had a leak we just shut the dog in one night and woke up to half a ceiling and a very shook up dog because half a ceiling had landed in his basket in the night

I have to admit it made me feel seriously ill, especially with a young daughter in the house the filth of the couple with the disability house. The Disability was an excuse I know ppl with more severe disability's that have lovely clean houses. A wash a day keeps the smells away, Dishes bins and laundry. Simple. I also do not think this is exclusive to HE Tenants there are ppl with money private renting just as lazy and filthy. You are either a dirty person or not regardless of financial situations. Also do not flame me for this but the ladys with the Rottweiler dogs, There is no way in hell I would want to live beside someone that has such large dogs with the potential of them getting into my garden to my child. I thought they had a neck and picky as to who lives next door to them considering they sat about smoking roll ups threatening with very large dogs obviously for protection.

Did the couple with the toddler have a learning disability or mh problems?

And if so? Why should the LL bear the consequences?

Exactly, Andrew. It is sad when 'vulnerable' or 'troubled' people have issues with accessing housing, or when they need support in order to keep their homes in a reasonable state, but some people do seem to struggle to grasp the fact that LLs are businessmen, not charities!

Successive governments have known these people exist and need providing for, yet they do little to make any provision, preferring to leave the responsibility to private LLs.

Private LLs will do what they can, within reason, all the while it works for them, but when things get problematic, with little or no financial return to compensate for the headaches then who can blame them if they err on the side of caution and so 'No' to certain categories of tenant? Insurance companies get to pick and choose who they will and won't insure based on collective data, even if that individual in question is as low risk as they come, it makes no difference.

I am a tenant and receive some HB even tho DH works full time. We went through a private landlord who is great, charges us hardly anything above the mortgage and is happy for us to treat the place as our own, re-decorating, changing the garden etc.

In return we treat the property with complete respect. The carpets are cleaned every 6 months, if we damage something eg blinds,bath seal comes away etc we fix it from our own pockets, we don't have to, landlord is happy to but if we can do it cheaply and easily (very good at small DIY ) then why bother him? It suits us all this way.

I was very worried when we had to sell our small flat as I have lots of pets and DS was a toddler at the time. A lot of landlords wouldn't even consider pets or children, even though my house is much cleaner and in a better state of repair than an awful lot of others I have seen, both rented and owned.

IMO people are people and it makes no difference whether you are on benefits or not, you are either respectful of property and keep a nice home, or you are a bit lax or in some cases downright filthy. I don't see how being on benefits has anything to do with it.

Have they ever done a programme about shit landlords? I'm not sure if they have but if not they really need to. That would make for some eye opening TV. Bashing tenants that leave the place in a total mess is one thing, how about the LL's who refuse to fix anything? Or the LL's who don't bother to decorate or modernise the house for years on end in the hope tenants will do it themselves probably.

God I am bitter. We've had nothing but trouble with landlords. Last house the kitchen light stopped working and every month we would ask LL when he was going to get it fixed because you know it was winter, got dark early and we had to cook with only a lamp for a light etc. Took him six months to get someone round to fix that. Sink had a leak underneath that was there for the entirety of our tenancy (three bloody years), we gave up asking after the first year and had to deal with a big Tupperware container to collect the stagnant water. Toilet was leaking badly at the back, told him a year before we moved out and it still was broke when we moved out. He left us without a boiler for almost a week once because he refused to have anyone other than his plumber friend fix it so he could get mates rates ... That was a fun week in winter with no hot water or heating let me tell you. When we moved in the oven was broken, he fixed that after a week and bought a new hob and extractor fan at the same time which he said his plumber friend would be around to fit (the extractor fan that was there didn't work and two rings on the hob also didn't work.) That new hob and extractor fan sat in their boxes for the three years. House was a shithole when we moved in anyway, carpets were ruined by previous tenants and he hadn't bothered to fix them- just cleaned them which was pointless. Kitchen and bathroom were ancient, walls hadn't been painted for years etc.

When we did finally find somewhere decent else so we could move out we gave him our months notice and he threatened to kick us out two weeks before we were due to move out anyway. He threatened us, said he'd throw our possessions and us (with our three young DC!) out on the streets. He became defensive when we asked about where our bond was protected because we'd never received paperwork, that's why he was threatening us. turned out he illegally hadn't protected it so we had to hire a solicitor in the end to get it back off him, he obviously refused to give us it back when we moved out .

C4 fancy chasing these twats up and making a programme about them eh? I have no doubt good landlords get shat on from great heights by bad tenants of course but it works the other way around a lot as well. C4 has gone all daily mail in the past couple of years anyway, completely lost respect for the channel.

Is this programme seriously called Benefits Tenants?

I'm gobsmacked as to how television channels are getting away with this sort of hate-mongering.

Shame on anyone who chooses to watch these things, honestly just go read or a book or knit something.

poolo if it's the programme I am thinking of they look at bad landlords and bad tenants.

So it's about bad landlords but called just "Benefit Tenants"?

YY Pooloo

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2141496-GAS-SAFETY-CHECK-to-think-it-shouldnt-be-this-hard-for-them-to-provide-a-decent-service

can we just remember that most Housing Benefit claimants ARE in work, just that private rentals in this country are so ridiculously expensive that for many the benefits are needed to afford them.

I HATE this demonisation of those of us that are trying to make ends meet.

for every shitty tenant, i can show you an equal number of shitty landlords.

I don't think it's HB that's the problem for LLs specifically Hissy it's people who are totally benefits dependent.

I agree with you about most HB recipients working.

I think the problem would be massively improved if payments of HB could be made directly to LLs, they would be FAR FAR more likely to take tenants on benefits if they could guarantee than the majority of the rent would get paid without any issues.

I was horrified to see the state of the house that was left with dog shit over the floors and in the child's bedroom. One parent had a physical disability but the other didn't. The sister lived locally and was a guarantor, I thought the landlord was very generous not to have billed her for the cleanup, considering the amount of time and chasing it took for the tenant to do it (lost rent?).

I felt really sorry for the child being brought up in such filth, it was very sad and depressing to see.

Sorry maybe I am not thinking of the same programme actually, I mean the one with Matt Allright.

But just because the programme is called Benefits Tenants doesn't mean it is only about the bad tenants, surely? It could just as well be highlighting the plight of good benefits tenants stuck with lousy landlords?

If it was called Nightmare Benefits Tenants I'd agree with you.