Non oaying tenants should be arrested!!

[JakieOH]

Just watching a programme about landlords and tenants. I know there are bad landlords out there, however, surely it should be a criminal offence not to pay rent on a property?? It can take months and months to evict a tenant from your property and it costs a fortune too. Meanwhile the landlord has to pay the mortgage etc. it's awful, these people should be arrested for theft because that's what it is.

More a rant than a question really, I rent out my old flat and it worries me a lot! If my tenets decided to stop paying rent I would most likely default on the mortgage and loose the property. There would be very little comeback to retrieve the money Owed.

I'm lucky because I have great tenants, they get a lovely oroperty at a very very reasonable rate (just covers the mortgage and any breakdowns/upkeep etc)

I agree with you lovely I really dont think residential letting should be a private business.

Bless. Poor landlords. Property not making you as much money as you hoped? Tenants not able to pay the exploitative rent you are charging?

Hang on. Nope. No sympathy.

Charge a reasonable rent and tenants can afford to pay it.

I think criminalising tenants would be a ludicrous idea.

My tenant is currently massively behind on her rent. She was made redundant unexpectedly. The faff that she is having with housing benefit is beyond belief. There have been errors and fuck ups galore on behalf of the HB people which on top of the lengthy wait because the la staff have been cut to the bones has made the situation ridiculous.

She is a good, honest, hard working person in trouble through no fault of her own. I'm a good, fair, decent landlord who is out of pocket through no fault of my own. However the person who decided to take a risk is me. I decided to rent out instead of selling up. It would be utterly ridiculous to criminalise someone for damaging my investment when there is no deliberate intent to do so.

And in my experience of letting (around 10 years) I still strongly believe there are more crap landlords than there are bad tenants. That needs regulated before anything else.

Landlording is not, by definition, a risk free enterprise.

Nor is opening a shop, but if someone steals from a shop or throws a brick through their front window, they get support from the police.

At the end of the day, that tenant is effectively paying the mortgage that will eventually end up as an asset for the landlord

Not all landlords have mortgages, but whether they do or don't they are still taking the financial risk that the tenant can't afford to take for themselves and they are buying rights that they wouldn't otherwise have. You make it sound like housing should be free.

People need food and clothes too, but you can't just rock up to top shop or morrisons and help yourself to what they provide.

I can understand why people object to HB paying rent for people who will eventually end up with an asset if they haven't got it already, but it disagree because it's not the ll that makes the claim, they can house themlsves. The tenant is the one taking the HB and if it's providing them with the shelter they need, then it's money well spent. No one complains about people with mortgages claiming tax credits, which amounts to the same thing. It's still public money ending up as an asset for a private individual.

The faff that she is having with housing benefit is beyond belief. There have been errors and fuck ups galore on behalf of the HB people

I have experienced this and it caused me to fall behind on my rent. HB suspended payment in june 2013 to reasses due to my increase in earnings. They re-instated it in september 2013. However they did not back date for the 3 months they had suspended it. In the meantime i had to beg patience from my letting agent and was finally caught up with rent in december 2013. Do you know when housing benefit finally paid the back dated amount? (3 months's rent) april OF THIS YEAR! Almost 2 years later. I had to take out a massive overdraft on my bank account costing £30 a month, the late rent payments have affected my credit record and i wont get any of that back. Housing benefit dont know their arse from their elbow sometimes. It can really fuck you up. Thank goodness I had a sensible letting agent who recognised the value in a good tenant paying less rent for a while til i got caught up.

Toughasoldboots, no we had a court order, we had even allowed an extra week that they requested. We were told (correctly) they would ignore the court order by the local council yet we were not allowed to get out bailiff's appointed 'booked in' before the court order finished, even though it would have been us paying the £110.00 fee.

Actually, I do have a problem with Tax Credits being used to pay mortgages. Because I believe that no-one in work should need to claim any sort of benefit because of low wages and high rents. Some people have been in the 'fortunate' position of having bought properties at lower prices and then rent them out to families who have absolutely no chance of buying that property themselves.
If I was in charge I would very heavily tax the ownership of more than one home and I would introduce the right to buy for private tenants.
After all, if the current government can steal the assets of charitable organisations and sell them with a discount...

Landlords need a contingency fund in case of voids and tenants should have such a fund too. The money saving expert site suggests having contingency of 6 months of income.

It's all a dreadful mess at present. I would not become a landlord. The profit once you've paid costs, done repairs, paid the mortgage, covered void periods, paid the agents is just not enough profit to justify the hassle.

ptolemy

Your broken shop window example illustrates perfectly why LLs need insurance against tenants unable to pay.

It's a business risk like broken shop windows or anything else.

Of course LLs need insurance, I never implied otherwise.

Having insurance doesn't stop other businesses getting support from the police though, so I don't see your point.

I doubt police will be keen. What time of support would you like exactly?

Non payment of rent is, after all, an act om omission, criminal damage or theft OTOH are acts of commission. It's not as though non-paying (or, more commonly, under-paying) tenants need restraining or removing from the scene.

*type

Wow! Im going to turn my BTL into a brothel, seems it would be more appreciated by MN community than housing a family and expecting them to pay rent.

Landlords need a contingency fund in case of voids and tenants should have such a fund too. The money saving expert site suggests having contingency of 6 months of income.

Its all good and well saying that but it isnt so easy to do, not when you are paying extortionate rent already!

Landlords have the option of not becoming landlords if they cant save a contingency. Tenants dont have the option of not being tenants until they can save that. They need to have a roof over their heads. Its not a case of "i'll save for six months before i have a cushion then i'll start being a tenant." Unless you are already on the street of course

Wow! Im going to turn my BTL into a brothel, seems it would be more appreciated by MN community than housing a family and expecting them to pay rent.

Who has objected to the idea that tenants should be expected to pay rent?

Nor is opening a shop, but if someone steals from a shop or throws a brick through their front window, they get support from the police.

This is not comparable at all. The tenant has a legal interest in the property. They are not just a passer-by or someone in a shop. They are not renting a car or buying an mp3 player. They are, by signing a tenancy agreement, buying an interest in land. And there are different rules, thankfully, governing interests in land than there are governing possessions. Landlords who can't handle the reality of this, who bitch and moan about it and just don't get it, should take their money and put it into stocks and shares.

truth be told I wish their was more a landlord can do to recover the costs assoicated with forced evictions form tenents (aka being able to sent the baliffs on them and or actully being able to get CCJ against them)

There actully is very very little dis-instestive to actully not paying rent if they tenets were endanger of having assits/ personal propity stripped from them and their criedit rating to become worthless basically anythnig that would actully effect seriel no payers would be a much better system

or even a black list system were landlords can check if the tenet has not paid rent before or had to be evicted through the courts etc so that prospective landlords are warned about the possibilty of prospective tenets

A landlord blacklist would be good too. So tenants could see which ones had failed to put deposit in deposit scheme or failed to maintain property before they sign up.

I think it should be a criminal offence. We rented our old house out as my dh had a job at the time that came with a house (we were paying the same as our mortgage and not making a penny). Our tenants didn't pay for 5 months, when the estate agents finally let us have the keys back the tenants had painted the house all inside black, they had removed the kitchen, sockets and bathroom. It screwed us financially for quite a while.

On Mumsnet if you are a landlord you are obviously loaded so it's your own fault.

There are many things you can - and should do - to check out your potential LL.

When viewing the property ask the current tenant about ll. If the property is shoddy and badly maintained, then walk away.

You can check landlords on DPS site, it says whether they are registered, the implication being if they're registered they are probably protecting deposits.

You can also check landlords on NLA accredited website, with unis for student accommodation and some councils keep approved lists or have selective licensing for properties. I think all lls should have to be accredited, it only costs £100ish a year with NLA and only requires a few hours learning and online tests about laws etc.

If lls use an agent to find tenants the agents should also be checking these things. So use an agent rather than reply to an advert in the paper or a shop window.

Ask to see the gas safety, EPC.

Take responsibility.....