To wonder if my tenant should have told me..

[MatildaTheCat]

I'm a nice landlord, I promise. I have one very small flat local to where I live. It is 45m Sq. approx. one bedroom 10' 10' ( sorry to mix up metric and imperial) and another 7'x10' max. Living room again 11x11' max. No space to eat in the kitchen.My tenant is a young mum with two young dc aged approx 5 and 3 ish. One boy and one girl. They have bunks in the smaller bedroom. Her rent is covered by HB although she has refused to have them pay me direct and has on occasion paid late. Very late at the start of the tenancy.

She looks after my property well and I do regular inspections. I am aware that she has a cat although I've never seen it and it as against the agreement.

So, today I am due to go round to do an inspection and get a text putting me off because ' In April I discovered I was five months pregnant and the baby is now due in a month and I have to go for a check up.' I can't explain how much I cannot imagine how she will manage to live in such a cramped flat with three small dc. and all. The kit of a newborn.Perhaps I am naiave and this is normal. I'm thinking that with benefit caps now she won't get help to get a bigger place? It's a very expensive area and her dc are very lucky to be in a great school literally just over the road.

Should she have contacted me to explain her new situation? Is it none of my business? Am I right to feel concerned? I feel a heartsink situation coming on....

Thoughts much appreciated.

You can't just walk in to a tenants occupied property, but if you give 24 hours written notice, you can enter whether they're there or not. The exceptions to this are emergencies. Doesn't matter whether she's pregnant or what, you can still inspect your property as you wish (giving notice as stated).
But the fact she is pregnant doesn't affect you really, so there's no need for her to tell you

FFS OP get yourself a single bachelor and good luck with that.

Nasty, nasty.

You can't enter the property, notice or not, with the exception of emergency or court order.

jamais not sure what you mean. You have a right to accept money while tenant is living in property.

Also why is landlord being unreasonable?? For worrying? She hasn't said or done anything yet - just asked advice. Sounds like she is a good landlord and keeps her property in good condition and acts fairly.

You seem to have a problem here Jamais...why?

Do you really need to do quarterly inspections? Anything more than 6-monthly is a bit excessive and intrusive, IMO. My letting agency inspects every 12 months (when they remember) and I am fine with this. If they insisted on every 3 months, I would be thinking of moving on, as it would be a pain.

It is good that you were open-minded enough to take on a tenant claiming Housing Benefit, though, as we all know many landlords/agencies will not entertain this.

Jamais there is no way you're a landlord if you were you would have people lining up to live in your rent free property nice try!

Good luck OP, hopefully she will keep oaying rent and be comfortable on the flat. You sound like a fantastic landlord

'I would never have a hb tenant'
'Seems silly to get it paid to them just to pass it on'
Ffs. Contrary to what you read in the mail or your social climbing lower middle class chums say, being on housing benefit is not a particularly nasty form of pestilence that spreads to bricks and mortar. Judging all hb tenants together is like saying 'I'd never have a tenant over size 12 because fat people are too lazy to look after the property and are likely to spend the rent on pies'. And why the fuck would it be automatically paid to the landlord? Am I missing some new social norm where everyone gets their employer to pay their rent/ mortgage straight to their landlord or mortgage provider? I can assure you, just because you earn enough to pay your housing costs, despite wide gaps in your judgement and sense of decency, it doesn't follow anyone on hb must be less able to make good judgements or that they have less decency, when clearly for many the reverse is true. Infact many on hb are much better at budgeting. What a load of stereotyping judgemental bollocks

You can't enter the property, notice or not, with the exception of emergency or court order. have you read the information I linked to upthread?

You are incorrect. Any refusal to allow a landlord entry, after a timely request, could lead to the tenancy being ended. So, despite the numerous legal wranglings over this, a LL can expect to enter their property for a number of non emergency reasons. I don't understand why that keeps coming up. A tenant does not have carte blanche over their rented property.

For heaven's sake - the landlord never mentioned eviction. Read the thread jamais. She asked if the tenant should have told her. No-one mentioned eviction, (well maybe one person).

Agree with JakieOH - there is no way you are a landlord jamias!

The OP certainly hasn't mentioned eviction. It came up between lottie and myself, as a consequence of a tenant following the advice given by some other posters.

OP will have gathered by now that her 'Congratulations' response was entirely appropriate and that her concerns are currently unfounded but that she may need to keep an eye on things, e.g. any restrictions in her insurance/mortgage regarding occupancy levels; the possibility of another adult in residence; the flat becoming less appropriate for the current tenant.

None of which require anything to be done immediately but it would be daft to continue in blithe ignorance.

Lazylou the page you've linked to is incorrect. You do not have to allow viewings, for example. That's basic stuff.

I think you're saying that if you don't co-operate with your landlord they could give you notice to leave. This is true, but it still doesn't allow them
To enter your property without permission whilst you are a tenant.

lurked hope your nasty wee post wasn't directed at me I pressume it was seeing as one of your 'quotes' was something I wrote!! I never said I wouldn't have a HB tenant despite you putting it beside something I said! I merely questioned why HB was paid to the recipient first instead of directly to the landlord?? Not an UR question given ive never has experience of it, I was genuinely wondering. You comparing it to a wage from an employer pretty much sums up your thinking so I'll leave that as it is !!

As for 'reading in the mail or lower class social climbing chums' I'd probably get more sense out of the daily fail than some on here! Think you should speak to a professional to relieve yourself of that huge chip on your sholder!! rude!

I said I wouldn't accept HB for my property. Hardly an unusual position, you are probably aware the majority of small landlords don't.

I'm both a landlord and a tenant. I'd be concerned as you are OP, but I'd also know I wouldn't be able to do much about it, save giving the tenant adequate notice and re-letting the flat to someone else. Obviously that's your prerogative as a LL and pretty sad for the tenant, who sounds like she has a lot on, but that's the risk you take renting. (And I say that as someone who rents with two small children and could be kicked out of where we are now with a month's notice - my choice not to buy.)

Lazylou the page you've linked to is incorrect what, the government website is wrong?

Oh dear!

doesn't allow them To enter your property without permission whilst you are a tenant. I have not said a LL can do that. I have correctly quoted the law, put it into context and tried to clarify.

But the continued "a landlord cannot enter your property unless it is an emergency" is incorrect, when put like that, and the links I gave, and the quote I included, are correct.

The tenants voice website isn't the government website?

Look, you're making this very hard to understand. What are you actually saying?

Because the landlord can enter in an emergency, by court order OR after the tenancy has ended. The last is very obvious.

It is absolutely the landlord's business because from a safety point of view, she needs to know how many people are living there. e.g. if there was a fire, he definately needs to know that there will be 4 people rather than 3. All the legislation is pushing landlords to being more responsible for their tenants, not the other way around.

She also needs to know whether there will be overcrowding in her property. No sensible landlord wants to rent property that is going to provide poor living conditions for the people involved or overcrowding.

Many landlords wouldn't take on single mothers on benefits as tenants, so I think berating the OP for doing so is undeserved. Its not easy to provide accommodation for someone who does appear to be a bit irresponsible (in not considering the overcrowding herself).

The quote was from the government website (which Tenants Voice agrees with, by the way). It is directly underneath the Tenants Voice link, which I gave for balance and for the OP to have a read of, for clarity.

Tenants Voice discusses a number of cases where the law has been questioned (forums and FAQ), as lottie said upthread. It is an invaluable site for both tenants and landlords.

I have made it very clear what I am saying, as have others. A quick read of the links spell it out really clearly.

jakie I'd rather be considered rude than actually be rude enough to jump to massive conclusions about why someone may receive hb. Perhaps as an alternative to sharing your lack of knowledge you might wish to look up the words 'disability' 'domestic violence victim' 'minimum wage job' to name but a few, and then when you realise what effect they might have on somones ability to cover their own housing costs you can come back and realise how judgemental you sound. And I don't personally have a chip on my shoulder, plaster cast aside I usually work with a lot of the so called scrounging hb claimants that have had more shit in their life than even some posters talk, so yes I'll get pissed off when people ignorantly comment like they are somehow inferior.
ilove much of the above applies to you too. Yes I'm aware, and it's beyond me why such blatant discrimination is even legal. And to me just because many people are quite clearly that discriminatory it doesn't make it ok to join them.

HB goes direct to the tenant these days. The contract is between you and the tenant. The tenant is not the middleman, the council are. I imagine the late payment at the beginning of the tenancy, is because they will not set it up till youre actually in the property, and then there is generally a delay, and then backpayment.

Lazy Lou- I don't think you're being clear by that's subjective I suppose. I do apologise as I hadn't seen you had provided 2 links, one of which is indeed the government site. You're referring to advice given to tenants which states they should allow access with 24 hours notice. If that permission is not given, the landlord does not have the right to enter the property. The right up quiet enjoyment to statutory.

What I and others are saying is that the landlord still can't enter without permission.

If I was you OP id probably give it 6 months/a year and then end the tenancy.

so you get all that from me asking why housing benefit (clue in the name why it isn't the same as a wage) doesn't go straight to the landlord?? Again genuine question but please, don't bother trying to answer it, it's clearly something your very touchy about But I'm the judgmental one

Because it's an equally valid part of someone's income and down to them to budget and take responsibility for same as anyone who gets the money from an employer