LP on HB AIBU to want to be treated with a bit of respect?

[MoreThanAWoman]

Are we the scum of the earth? Starting to slowly but surely feel like this. Very disheartened and wondering if there is even any point in continuing to look.

Little bit of background - I am looking to relocate for personal reasons and hopefully start Uni. I have been looking and enquiring about properties for rent for a few weeks now. I keep getting resounding no's. It's like banging your head off a brick wall.

I have sent emails, texts or left answer phone messages for properties as soon as they have appeared on line. Generally the landlords have not even bothered replying to them or I've had a couple of one worded NO texts.

Spoke to an estate agent on Friday regarding a property all was going well she was very pleasant, giving details about the property asking when would be suitable for me to view etc. I said I was a housing benefit tenant immediate change in voice tone "oh, well your not suitable tenant, we will only deal with people in full time employment. There are other estate agents that will deal with you and consider you for the houses aren't as easy to get rented out" She told me there was no point in looking at any of their other properties and I was not the type of tenant their clients looked for.

I have found a few that say DSS welcome on the ads and the houses are awful, really awful.

So because I am a lone parent on housing benefit I have to live in a less than desirable area, in a house that is not fit for a dog to live in?

My current private rent is due to end and I have got to find somewhere to go, starting to panic.

I know some landlords due to their insurance cant' accept housing benefit tenants and that some have also had bad experiences in the past. I totally understand that.

I'm just asking please not judge everyone as being the same and that Miss Sooty Pants takes the stick out that's firmly stuck up her arse. Sorry bottom.

If the ad said they accept DSS, then it's lack of employment that is holding you back. You can keep trying, but the pickings are probably going to be slim and desirable areas are not going to be an option due to LHA caps. So perhaps stay put until you get another place or get a job or accepted to university because you have made yourself intentionally homeless and may not even be eligible for hostel accommodation for more than a few weeks.

I'd visit your council's homelessness office on Monday and see what they say.

I thought you'd been served notice from the OP, which would have put you in a slightly different position.

We had partial DSS in the past but I was in FT and DH in part-time (needed a two-bed in expensive city due to having two wee girls) and it was never a problem once we produced P60s/pay cheque records showing long history of employment.

It is very difficult for families whether HB recipients or working to get rental accommodation in university towns- the landlords prefer to squeeze in the students, no need for living area/use that as a bedroom, get them to pay holidays, no need to upgrade living conditions as students desperate. They get £100's more a month that way. I've seen some utterly awful houses, I am luckily in a nice one now but it was luck and persistence, as well as lots being taken before I even got to the agents/visit one.

I agree, try Gumtree, be very upfront from the start about HB and contact the council/housing office on advice of what to do.

I am completely mystified by this idea that it's 'all the landlords insurers fault' as justification for turning down Housing benefit recipients. I think that is just a convenient excuse to be snotty. I too work full time as does my DH, When he was very unwell recently we have claimed housing benefit. We have a large house privately rented. We have had to claim hb a few times in the last few years due to health problems of dh. The money is paid to me, and I forward it on to a landlord. How on earth could a landlord or insurer know ?.
I was also really disturbed to see a post very early on in the thread from eurochick which was completely wrong and only goes on to create urban myth about housing benefit customers being 'bad for the landlord'. she said her parents had rented to a nurse who claimed hb, but wasn't entitled. She then did a bunk and the landlord (her parents had to pay back the rent paid by the council. this is UTTER BULLSHIT !!!!!. the only way a landlord would be liable in these circumstances, is if they had been found by a court to have colluded with the renter in some way, therefore be criminally liable. A claimant to housing benefit signs a declaration on the form to say that everything they have included on the form is true. When this is found to be untrue by the fraud office at local council, it is this declaration that is used evidentially to prosecute. I have worked as local govt/dwp fraud investigator for over 25 yrs and no landlord has EVER been required to pay back rent from a scarpering tenant. This type of anecdote makes me really angry, it's hard enough to rent in private sector as it is, without horrible stories like this being peddled.

Is there a private rent team at your council? They will be able to put pressure on your landlord to sort out the heating issues.

The landlord has a duty to ensure services like heating and mains water etc are working.

Are they refusing to repair or provide heating?

'I am completely mystified by this idea that it's 'all the landlords insurers fault' as justification for turning down Housing benefit recipients. I think that is just a convenient excuse to be snotty.'

Um, no, it isn't. It's a fact, particularly among lenders and BTL mortgage.

We have had to use HB in the past, what was actually harder was 'no children' LL's. And there were a lot! As I said, we live in a rural area and viewed many a lovely home only to be told, after wasting our time, 'no children'.

'How on earth could a landlord or insurer know ?.'

Because if you are not in FT employment, your credit check and paycheque receipts will show you don't have the income to cover the rent fully. If someone is unemployed, and rocks up without 6 months rent in advance, the logical conclusion is that they are in receipt of HB.

We even had to give proof of income to rent a market-rent flat from an HA.

I'm not saying it's a great system, but realistically, no LL is going to let a place in a 'desirable' area to someone who doesn't front the rent in advance or has income proof they can pay it all themselves, there are just too many people renting now who can.

Well slightly ironically our tenant who was due to move in 1st February has just texted to say she can't move in after all. We are just outside of Glasgow, accept DSS and pets 2 bed £450 a month. If you want to view drop me a pm xx

expat, I don't think there are any hard and fast rules. I worked p/t for years and claimed partial HB and found it very very difficult to secure a private sector rental during that time, despite having a permanent job. Now I work f/t (and actually have less disposable income - go figure) but found a place to rent really easily once I got my new job because I only get a minimal amount of HB (which I didn't declare). All of the agencies around here seem to want your income to be a certain multiple of the rent and will not take HB or indeed maintenance into account in calculating that multiple and if you fall short you won't be considered. It could be that your area is different - I live in a university town so there is no shortage of willing mugs tenants prepared to pay over the odds for shitholes so the letting agents here can demand pretty much what they want.

Here's hoping this works for you, OP!

I would try to find a private LL OP.

Re: the university town conundrum: this is also true. If you've got a car, have you tried outlying areas, as students often like to be central?

It's not unknown for HB tenants not to say they're claiming it. And no surprises either, when we're treated this way. I would send out emails as a prospective student, and wait until you're actually asked whether you claim HB.

' Now I work f/t (and actually have less disposable income - go figure) but found a place to rent really easily once I got my new job because I only get a minimal amount of HB (which I didn't declare). All of the agencies around here seem to want your income to be a certain multiple of the rent and will not take HB or indeed maintenance into account in calculating that multiple and if you fall short you won't be considered. It could be that your area is different -'

Eh? I wrote of our experience renting privately (it was in Edinburgh) and we, too, found it easy to rent with minimal HB because of the FT + PT employment. I think what swung it was, yes, employment.

It's not unknown for HB tenants not to say they're claiming it.

I agree this is true, but suggest that on MN and a torrent of LLs come in and tell the person just how much they are putting the LL in jeopardy.

Like I said, we private let and qualified for min. HB due to very low-income, but having FT employment really helped.

I know expat, and am braced for the torrent.....

But really, if it's a choice between ending up in a B&B with your children or jeopardising the retirement income of a stranger who sees you as nothing but a means to pay off a mortgage, it's a bit of a no brainer really.

It's in both the tenants' and the LLs' interest to outlaw this discrimination against tenants, especially regarding the LLs 'insurance, but it'll be a cold day in hell before that happens under this government.

But expat, I was employed before. P/t, but employed. With a permanent contract. The letting agents wouldn't take maintenance and HB into account when calculating their multiples, so wouldn't take me on. Now, I have less money to spend on rent due to vastly increased childcare costs and tax credits dropping, but because I'm f/t they would take me on. So it's not the mere fact of being employed that made a difference (I was employed when they all refused me) but where the money comes from.

OP, would that make a difference to you? If you explained that your income would not comprise solely of benefits but would be from student loans etc? (Clutching at straws here.)

'The letting agents wouldn't take maintenance and HB into account when calculating their multiples, so wouldn't take me on. Now, I have less money to spend on rent due to vastly increased childcare costs and tax credits dropping, but because I'm f/t they would take me on. So it's not the mere fact of being employed that made a difference (I was employed when they all refused me) but where the money comes from.'

Well, yeah, I can see why. Maintenance may or may not be paid, same with HB (delays, coming back and saying you've been overpaid, cutting it off, etc) but FT work is that steady source of income. Of course it's seen as less of a risk to LL's (no I have never been a LL nor ever will be).

Same with PT v. FT employment. Someone in PT employment will be seen as at home more often, particularly with children, so will be seen as more wear and tear on the property and generally less desirable than someone in FT employment.

'It's in both the tenants' and the LLs' interest to outlaw this discrimination against tenants, especially regarding the LLs 'insurance, but it'll be a cold day in hell before that happens under this government.'

They have a huge interest in preserving a very big housing bubble.

Did you see The Super Rich v Us' and the latest trend: buy to leave?

That's right, plenty of people now buy property to leave it empty.

Buy to leave is fucking abhorrent. In a country with millions of people waiting for council housing, where the almighty market is propped up with £10b a year every year going to private landlords in the form of HB, where people are spending 1/2 of what they earn every year in mortgage payments just to have a roof over their head, the whole sorry fandango is kept going by investors buying a place, leaving it fucking empty, not even paying frigging council tax on it, and riding off when the price lurches up again. No way should the important business of provision of shelter be reduced to an obscene casino.

What about employed tenants who lose their jobs during the tenancy and have to claim HB? Informing the landlord that you are claiming HB is not something normally included in the tenancy agreement afaik. So where does the LL stand with regard to insurance then? Would it be fair for them to serve the tenant notice to leave?

According to my EA, houses rented to 'professionals' without children are usually the ones left in the worst state.

Ok as for homelessness I am not nor ever will be even thinking a long those lines. I was homeless over twenty years ago after parents putting me out when I told them I was PG. I was put in a B&B and obviously on the council housing list, my BF continued to stay with his parents and he was offered housing before me. So bang goes that urban myth also. I did move in with him so it was all fine.

Yes slight age gap btwn my DC. I will not be making either my little boy and I homeless if the absolute worst came to the worst we would move in with his big brother.
I put a wanted ad on gumtree a few days ago. I am on there everyday looking for new ads.
There are so many people looking for private rents now I know that but if the ad states DSS considered and you can't even get past the first phone call, what chance do you have? I am told each time "there is so much interest in that property from professionals, we already have viewings arranged and as you are a HB applicant your chances of getting it over professionals are slim, but we can if you want arrange a viewing". Ok so in other words don't bother. Thanks for that.
I agree I need a private landlord I can speak with directly or an estate agent who knows landlords who accept HB tenants to like me and help me out.

Did you see The Super Rich v Us' and the latest trend: buy to leave?

I might have to steel myself to watch it, as the other side of the benefit bashing TV trend. Think it will just get me ranting and frothing too much though.

You know what is needed- lots of protest occupations of these deliberately empty homes- oh wait, but haven't the govt. just outlawed squatting in residential properties? Shurely no connection .

stubbornstains, I think that people squatting in One Hyde Park would make for much better telly than yet another programme about benefit claimants.