To be pissed off at having just seen my tenants spending a load of cash whilst they're behind on rent?

[JennylovesRosie]

I am fed up to the back teeth.

This is the third month now where they're falling behind.

(I know them by their appearance and we have a mutual friend on a social networking site)

I have just seen them paying for a spa and no doubt it'll be up on social media next week (they like to brag and display all their newly acquired gains in Instagrammed glory.)

Next month my kids won't have the birthday parties they wanted because I'm subsidising these idiots living expenses and incurring charges as for their late/part payments.

Has anyone managed to get tenants out despite then not being 2 months late on rent. The Lettings agency have told me I'm stuck with them . Can I fine them?

They got a 12 fixed contract in January and surprise-surprise they started to default from day one of it.

I'm so upset.

[BoffinMum]

The people who rent from us are usually either house hunting or working in the area for a year or so and then moving somewhere else. I think we provide a professional service which is appreciated, and I don't understand the vitriol, TBH.

It also misses the root of the problem. Around here, like a lot of the wealthier parts of the UK, a lot of people around us are quite frankly over-housed and very greedy for space. There are many wealthy individuals, usually retired, or affluent childless couples, perhaps with inherited money or who have managed to flip a business suddenly through sheer dumb luck, who live in family houses on their own or as a couple and turn numerous spare bedrooms into luxurious dressing rooms, gyms, home cinemas, meditation rooms, collectible display rooms and so on, while their less affluent neighbours are cramming bunk beds into smaller homes in a desperate attempt to house young families. For example the woman who lives in the other half of our rental semi occupies a three-bedroom, two reception room house on this basis, with one room just for her clothes. If we put our half up for sale she would be first in the queue, and no doubt want to knock through so she had six bedrooms and another three reception rooms to spread out in, just for the hell of it (she has indicated as much). I find this obscene and a kind of condoned hoarding of space and goods. I think we should tax under-occupied houses much more heavily than we do.

At least when you rent out a family home out to a family and each bedroom is properly used for people rather than possessions, it is sharing out the space equitably and reducing pressure on other forms of local housing. People should think about that before bashing landlords quite so readily.

[mathanxiety]

It's Monopoly with real money.

A service is provided, very true.

But should private LLs be paid from public money?

Annual cost of HB is £23 billion. Over one third of HB goes to private landlords. That is a lot to pay for reluctance to pay for LA housing or low income housing.

I suspectone of the factors rents are indexed to is HB. The availability of HB also keeps London real wages lower than they really should be. The winners are to be found in the private sector, both employers and landlords. The losers are those earning a low wage and living in overpriced accommodation with no hope of getting off the gerbil wheel.

Government policy has directly caused the supply and demand bottleneck and it is also government policy to use taxpayer money to feather the nests of the landlord class and inflate the rent they can ask. In a way, HB is like Passing Go for the better off, isn't it? It is means tested for the poor but no accountability is asked of the ultimate beneficiaries.

[Tabsicle]

So what would happen if private landlords couldn't receive HB? If you are renting from one and lose your job you have to move out?

I don't understand what the alternative is to paying landlords HB?

[mathanxiety]

You would need fewer people or more houses.

The electorate would need to sit down and spend some time thinking. I suspect a lot of voters would not like to think of their hard earned taxes going into the pockets of private landlords.

Or London employers in particular might have to consider paying people a living wage.

[cruikshank]

Of course there would be no need to pay housing benefit in the astronomical sums we as tax payers give over to landlords if we reintroduced rent caps. It works fine in other countries and used to work fine here. It's absolute nonsense for people to talk about 'market rents' when actually the 'market' is propped up by billions of pounds of public money. Ok so maybe fewer people would be landlords if they were prevented from putting their piggy little snouts in the trough. Well, ok, buh-bye then.

[cruikshank]

Tabsicle only one in eight housing benefit claimants are unemployed. The majority just can't afford their rent without a state top-up.

[katsopolis]

Next time considering doing it on your own. I had tenants through a letting agency who ended up trashing my flat. Refused to use them again.

Advertised myself on Spare room looking for tenants who had impeccable references from two previous landlords that were contactable through reputable sources and i've had no problems. Paid his rent late once but that was a genuine misunderstanding. I also rent my flat unfurnished- sure they can damage the walls, floors etc but it takes away the temptation of trashing 100 year old pieces of furniture like my old tenants. It took me longer to find someone than I would of liked (about 5 weeks and I am in a well populated area) but I was pretty certain it was going to work out as soon as we met.

Unfortunately some people just don't respect other peoples property.

[Oysterbabe]

Definitely second the importance of references and financial checks. We used an agency for that part and finding the tenants but manage ourselves.