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?

People who have to claim HB will be refused more and more as result of this vile demonisation of claimants.

that is discriminatory and unacceptable.

And is the programme called "Benefits Tenants" highlighting the plight of good tenants stuck with lousy landlords?

Genuine Q - I'd never heard of it till this thread. Which only seems to mention bad tenants.

BTW, it's still misleading to do a 50/50 on something that isn't 50/50. C4 could make a series called "Rapists and Rescuers" about men, or "Curers or Killers" about GPs, showing 50/50 of each stereotype: it would be misleading because it shows as equally likely something that's quite rare.

My DP daughter rented out her house a few years ago, not out of choice, the sale fell through and she was moving to a new build. The house was left like a pigsty. They didn't have a vac, had a large dog and two kids. The cooker was wrecked, the door wouldn't close as the hinges were bent and it would have needed cleaning with a blow torch. Two doors had holes in. The kitchen drawers were all broken along with a cupboard. The washer was missing. Wallpaper ripped off, carpets stained and stunk to high heaven. They hadn't payed their gas and electric bills so had ended up with prepayment meters in. It had been a nice little house before these people moved in, it was a total disgrace when they were evicted through not paying rent and they were on HB. Too many normal people who end up renting out their houses get taken for a fortune and these tenants know the system inside out.

You know, most people claiming housing benefit are "normal people", too.

Sadly the people in her house were not what I'd think of as being normal, kicking in a bedroom door, not cleaning up tea/coffee or whatever it was on the bedroom wall, brown marks on the bathroom wall just above the loo roll holder, yuk.! And carpets that stunk of pee, whether that be dog it human. I know how much effort and money it took to put it right as it was DP and myself that put it right as his daughter had young children and wasn't in a position to sort it out. I'm sure most HB tenants are normal but if I needed to rent out a property now I wouldn't choose HB. Same old story, a few spoil it for the rest.

I remember in the first minute of the programme one woman from the letting agency remarking that her role was half being a letting-agent and half a social worker. Having watched the programme I agreed with her. The steps they were taking to help their tenants to become housed and to continue to pay their rent was remarkable.

The problem wasn't tenants being dependent on benefits per se, it was that some or most of them in the programme lived totally chaotic lives. But even people who do live chaotic lives need to be housed somehow. Some might say they don't deserve to be. Families like that need to be in a structured and supported environment but there aren't any.

The one person in the programme I felt most sorry for was the London woman who visited her vacated property to find it stripped and daylight visible through the roof with not enough funds to have it repaired and refurbed and put back on the market. But what optimist would buy a BTL property in Easington Colliery in the first place?

I got the impression that she didn't know the area very well.

Must be gutting when you've tried to help people and they wreck the place.

I think in Britain, a lot of people have this attitude that their home " is only rented" so this gives them the right to not take care of it. I say a lot, but I know many people who rent and take tremendous care of their properties.
Where I live I'd say more than half are rental.
A good many are decent people who have pride in their homes.
Alas it seems they are in the minority now.
I know there are some decent landlords and some terrible ones.
I know a lot of landlords who have used letting agents; they have not vetted tenants and have not contacted landlords when repairs are needed; preferring to ignore concerns and telling tenants that the landlords are unwilling to cooperate.
I can give a few examples of this:
Young couple, moved south for work. Used an agent ( due to logistics) to let house. Every single tenant has damaged the property and stolen fixed items such as washer, cooker, dining table. Not one of these were unemployed yet they made demands for removal of cooker/washer.
On leaving they stole these "unwanted" items.
A lot of houses are up for sale as the landlords simply cannot afford the repairs required to re let only to be left out of pocket yet again.
Quite a number of drug farms too, ( 8 to my knowledge) Houses gutted, tenants seem so amiable, neighbours oblivious but wondering why landlords are not responding to their requests for the fence to be fixed, drain to be cleaned..' cause the tenant isn't passing on their letters.
A lovely old chap who had a couple of houses decided to only let to working people. He informed them that in this country we need to open windows from time to time or houses will develop damp problems. This went ignored. ( He's Indian by the way) He was forever getting improvements made to his house but decided it was futile as his tenants yet again ignored his advice.
He comes over every few weeks to cut the hedge, prune bushes and so forth but still cant sell this house.
I am desperate to sell my house but it has 2 bedrooms and not what dodgy landlords want to buy for the rapid influx of Latvian community..

I wasn't going to watch then saw that it was in my area, so played a game of "spot the children's playground." :o

I think a common theme was vulnerability. The alcoholic guy had lost all sense of how to behave. The disabled couple clearly needed a lot more handholding - more than the woman's sister was able to do. The shouty woman struck me as being particularly chaotic and possibly in a DV situation. I wouldn't be surprised if the cycles of constant fighting coincided with having a partner around or not. Her comment that "doesn't everyone have domestics?" tells me that she's not accustomed to stable, calm relationships typified by effective communication.

The agency has a couple of houses in our street. Previously, they've had tenants who were an utter nightmare. They've been replaced by civilised families, now. In one particular house, broken windows have been replaced by flowers and jars of oil and herbs on windowsills. It's a refreshing contrast.

And there are many families on benefits in our village. The majority are fine. It doesn't take many to make life unpleasant for the rest, though

It may be bad TV but it is reality I do think it is a huge problem, If there were proper penalties properly enforced so that the tenant could not wrecked the place leave rubbish dirt and move on to a new home each time - Also penalties towards lazy landlord who cannot just ignore the tenants requests for repairs also with the attitude sure I can get another tenant, There are bad on both side of the coin.

But what optimist would buy a BTL property in Easington Colliery in the first place?

I expect people from other areas are tempted by how cheap it is to buy a house, there. The sting comes when repairs are needed to a quarter of the value of the house, or more. eg
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-45915110.html

ouryve that's exactly right, I saw the programme a while ago and found it very depressing, vulnerable people who were struggling to take care of themselves.
The couple with the young child living in squalor was heartbreaking, they kept falling into rent arrears as their money is no longer paid directly to the LL, and were having to keep moving. They really could do with being in some sort of supported living arrangement, particularly for the welfare of the child.
The programme had nothing to do with being on benefits, it should've been called "Let's gawp at the feeble minded living like pigs".

The problem is, if tenants who aren't claiming HB (like the surgeons featured upthread, presumably) wreck a property, they've been "nightmare tenants".

If tenants who are claiming HB wreck a property, they've been "nightmare benefit claimant tenants".

I was going to add- the day I hear a LL going "The last tenants I had were in well paid, full time employment and they wrecked the place, so I'm never going to let a house to people in well paid, full time employment again" I will bare my arse on the town hall steps.

It's like all women being held accountable for the actions of one woman, or all Indian/ Chinese/ Latvians being held accountable for the actions of one of their number (oh wait, that's happening on this thread too ).

@Sunny67 I hope your daughter had a large deposit and kept it all.

Before recently buying, i have never had my deposit withheld on leaving. part of the reason is that i am a nice person, but the other part is I don't want to give an LL an excuse to keep my deposit. aren't these people worried about losing a deposit? Or getting sued?

i guess if they have no money that won't help.

stubbornstains Tue 16-Sep-14 19:20:44
I was going to add- the day I hear a LL going "The last tenants I had were in well paid, full time employment and they wrecked the place, so I'm never going to let a house to people in well paid, full time employment again" I will bare my arse on the town hall steps

And i will fucking join you!

Written, no she didn't, she knew this woman slightly from the school gate and very very foolishly felt sorry for the sob story she heard.
You can't get blood from a stone and there's no point trying. These people did pretty much the same from the next house they moved into.
Some people know the system well and how to use it to their advantage, keep HB, run up bills, get eviction notice and move just before bailiffs due etc. it's a way of life for some.

I rent on benefit. On the ground floor and have been flooded at least four times, with everything wrecked and not covered by insurance by tenants who were professionals as was I when I moved in.

Why not covered? Twice they left the tap running in the bathroom all day, as you do , having gone to work, came back never told anyone and their reason for that and I quote was 'the water went away'. Seriously. One time was the handyman turning the water for the building off to work on water pipes above my flat, turned the water back on and that ended up in my flat. The worst and final one was a someone who 'installed' (and I use the term loosely) a washing machine. They didn't bother to connect the waste pipe. I was away and came back to a stinking filthy flat because the tenant stated 'the water was gone what was the problem?'

All were professionals. The last one, with the washing machine is a very prominent man in the local community - head teacher at the secondary school and ideal renting material. I wouldn't put him in charge of a paper bag never mind anything else and never ever would I rent to him.

My insurance didn't cover any of it as none of it was relevant. Neither did the landlord. It was my problem.

I treat the place like it is owned by me - I know it's not, it just means if something breaks I replace it, if there's a problem I report it etc. But I know others are nowhere near so considerate. I've heard so many times why do you care it isn't yours and perhaps that's part of the problem. When I struggle with my rent I let the LL know and do everything I can to get as much money as I can.

I've not seen the programme but get the general idea about what it's about. I did read the thread though.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who spotted that the benefits have nothing to do with bad tenants. It would be quite possible to collect all the stories of bad tenants who also happened to be Jewish if you were that way inclined.

all sorts of tenants are good and bad. My mortgage will not let me tenant people on benefits...just a clause.

Two doctors- let their kid scribble all over the wall paper. Had to be redecorated completely.
Two Bulgarians- had wild parties and used drugs and pretended they spoke no English when complaints were made or police turned up.
Tenant (who I later found was fiddling benefits- working, but claiming as single parent/failed to tell that she was married and had new child)- wanted a new kitchen, which we agreed to do. Then her husband threatened mine because he had not managed to finish the while kitchen in 4 days...tenants told us they would be away a fortnight. Her husband tried to punch mine. We had them evicted.

Most tenants have been lovely- these were just the arses.

I think the mortgage thing is why a lot of people won't allow those on benefits and can make it hard to find somewhere to then rent. Obviously not the fault of any LL, I'm just making the point! Also I want to point out not all councils are that great at paying HB on time/regularly. I've had some really haphazard payments made since being on it (even LHA is the same) so I guess the non regular income could also be an issue with mortgages.

It's totally true you cannot judge someone based on if they claim benefits.

It's like all women being held accountable for the actions of one woman, or all Indian/ Chinese/ Latvians being held accountable for the actions of one of their number (oh wait, that's happening on this thread too hmm).

I thought I'd made it clear that it was more than one experience with more than one set of tenants. Did you miss that? and I haven't written them all off yet by any means, I have just said that if it continues happening I will have to start thinking twice about it, and would take a different nationality as a preference.

I honestly don't give a stuff how it appears to you - it's my house, I pay the mortgage, I am the one who is out of pocket and highly inconvenienced if the damage done exceeds the amount of deposit I can withhold (I have insurance obviously, but claiming just comes back to bite you in other ways, so short of the house burning to the ground or the whole roof blowing off, I prefer not to) so I am the one who can decide who I will and won't let to in future.

I honestly don't give a stuff how it appears to you - it's my house, I pay the mortgage, I am the one who is out of pocket and highly inconvenienced if the damage done exceeds the amount of deposit I can withhold (I have insurance obviously, but claiming just comes back to bite you in other ways, so short of the house burning to the ground or the whole roof blowing off, I prefer not to) so I am the one who can decide who I will and won't let to in future.

I understand the need to get good tenants, but I don't think nationality is a good filter. My guess is that will lead to bad decisions.

the one thing that appears to be the case from the stories above, is that there are good and bad tenants in both the benefits and non-benefits categories. The one plus with a tenant with lots of money/means/a job is that they may have a reputation to uphold (head teacher above: by the way Becca, why didn't you go after the tenants), but further if something does go wrong it may be worthwhile trying to sue them.

In any case, it sounds like a deposit is key.

I would say that benefit claimants also have a reputation to uphold; if I ever have to move, references from my present LL (and the previous one) will be very important in this prejudiced lettings market.