To accept tenants with DLA?

[thatverynightinmaxsroom]

I'm a LL of an inherited property, not a professional landlord, and I'm really very ignorant about this.

I've been asked if I'd accept a tenant whose rent would be paid directly by DLA.

Is there any reason I wouldn't or shouldn't accept?!

Pointless landlord hating? When you've acquired a disability that renders you unable to work, and you've been subjected to the inhumane treatment outlaid above by every single letting agent in town because your current landlord wants to sell your flat out from under you for the profit, and you can't find a single place to live because of it, come back to me and tell me this is pointless landlord hating. They're all the same. They all play by the same rules, because they want nothing more than to line their filthy money-grabbing pockets. They're all disgusting.

Zebra you are just being rude.

Urubu long post maybe, but the reality is longer and sadder.

As I said it is complex to resolve, but a start has to be talking to the tenants as people and not just viewing them as (exaggerated) statistics. Is extra insurance really needed even? Some would say not. We need to vote for a government that wil provide social housing and not continue to sell it off I know that. LLs could vote witht heir feet and not support lenders and agents who discriminate. Its possible the industry could work woth councils to develop a better rent guarantee system for HB tenants but we first of all need a govt who wont stick the knife into disabled people. As a society we would have to widen our window of compassion first adn prtoect other people just in case the same happens to us, rather than thinking it will never happen to us.

I'm not able to think about it any more tonight.

That's exactly what they mean isadorafancing123

I think there should be tighter control on landlords, there are some shocking ones out there.

I won't sell my grandparents flat because I don't want it bought by a money grabbing scum landlord. It's in an area with massive demand for rentals and there are three particular people here who own shitloads of damp, crap properties they rent out for ridiculous rates. I rent it out for a fair rent (same as the few council properties left) and its usually the council who have put someone they can't place in touch with me.

As far as I'm concerned it's their home - they can decorate. Current tenants have a beautiful dog. We changed the bath to a shower and they'll be there until the council can find them something (average wait is 9 years). In the last 3 years I've broke even because of the wetroom and a couple of other things we've done. Previous tenants were on temporary placement at the local hospital.

I'd be happy to be heavier legislated as I treat my tenants properly and fairly, and some ll's simply shouldn't be allowed to be ll's because they treat their tenants appallingly.

quercuscircus I said "long post" in a good way

All landlords are scum, and making money off the back of other peoples' misfortune, yes.

Grow up and stop being so OTT

OP here.

The thread's moved on a bit since I last looked! Thanks again to those who posted reasonable, thoughtful replies. I've found out more about the nature of the disability and the rent will be paid directly from the council as a result of it.

I was never saying that I wouldn't accept a tenant on DLA; my post was actually asking if there were reasons not to that I hadn't considered or wasn't aware of.

To those vitriolic posters who think that all landlords are arseholes using other people's misfortune to line their pockets, how sad that you carry around this much anger.

I inherited the house - it doesn't take a massive leap of imagination to consider that my own misfortune was involved too.
I'd rather have my parents alive than a house, thanks.

Also, until very recently my family and I have lived in rented accommodation and I've never considered myself unfortunate as a result. We've had one arsehole landlord and four lovely ones so not too bad going.

@quercuscircus i know this is missing the point but I don't believe you are allowed to claim Housing Benefit for renting from an immediate relative anyway. I appreciate that is the least of your concerns in this scenario you described (and believe me I have enormous sympathy for you and your daughter), but I believe that even the mortgage lenders had allowed you to rent your BTL property to your daughter, it wouldnt have been permitted by HB rules anyway?

The real issue here is the lack of social housing stock, clearly.

Having seen things yourself from the point of view of someone who owns a BTL property, can you at least see that the landlords' hands are largely tied in this situation and given mortgage lenders' rules, they don't have much choice in this matter?

To the lady above who described all landlords as scum, disgusting, and wished bankruptcy on all of us (well I'm no longer a landlord so I guess it doesn't really cover me any more), I have every sympathy for your predicament too, which is clearly horrible and again would have been avoided if we had enough social housing available for people in our situation. But by lumping all landlords together, calling them all disgusting, scum, and wishing bankruptcy on them, is every bit as judgemental as assuming that just because someone is on benefits they will default on their rent. The difference is, none of the landlords on here have resulted to name calling or wishing bankruptcy on people! (Not classy, btw). And most landlords, when you push them on it, don't automatically assume anything about tenants, they are either doing what their letting agents have recommended, or what their mortgage lenders have dictated. Saying that you consider people whose sole income is benefits higher risk as a category of people than working tenants is NOT the same as saying you assume bad things about all benefits recipients. You on the other hand have made a blanket, sweeping statement about ALL landlords as being money grabbing, profiteering out of others misery, disgusting and scum.

But by lumping all landlords together, calling them all disgusting, scum, and wishing bankruptcy on them, is every bit as judgemental as assuming that just because someone is on benefits they will default on their rent.

I could not care less. They all disgust me. It's a vile business operated by vile people, in the main.

@quercuscircus actually ignore my last comment - I'm wrong - it's not a blanket ban on claiming HB for renting from relatives, it has to be a genuine commercial arrangement. I apologise.

dolcezza my dm rented out our old family home for about 5yrs to a family until they moved out about a year ago for a bigger property. My dm charged a fair rent that was a fair bit cheaper than other properties and carried out all repairs as and when they needed doing and my df would tend to the big trees and the gardens for the tenants but right enough shes still an arsehole ll...

@ItsNachoCheese - well duh, obviously...the mere fact of being a landlord alone apparently makes you an arsehole. So I'm also an arsehole for not having put my last tenant's rent up in 7 years, renting at below market rent for the last 12-18 months because they were good tenants, letting them choose what colours it was redecorated in, not making them pay for a professional clean at the end of the tenancy, giving them 12 months notice that I wouldn't be offering them another tenancy when their last one came to an end, because o wanted to be able to take the equity out to buy somewhere for me and my new husband to live in rather than carrying on renting myself.

So yep, I'm a disgusting, vile, money grabbing scum landlord too, apparently! I'll consider myself duly told. 🤔

thevoiceoftreason what a disgrace how dare you do that 😉

I don't know whether to be more disgusted by the people posting "nope, don't do it, nobody on benefits at all," or those posting "wait, don't assume they'll be bad tenants just because they have a disability, some people on DLA are high earners" (what, because while it's offensive to brand DLA recipients as more trouble than they're worth, it's perfectly fine if you only mean the ones on lower incomes?).

OP, of course you need them to have enough reliable income (whether through secure work or benefits) to cover the rent. If they do, your other concern should be finding out if they have been good tenants where they are currently.

Making the decision based on anything else is just prejudice and discrimination of the cruellest, ugliest kind.

They all disgust me. It's a vile business operated by vile people, in the main.

Let's say you're right that it's a vile business operated by vile people, in the main. Isn't it rather unfair to say that they all disgust you?

OP inherited her house, presumably when parents or other close relatives died, and doesn't give any impression of being prejudiced or unfair. I'm guessing that if you inherited a house, you wouldn't sell it and give all the money to charity?

I was a LL for a few years. As a teacher in a poor area of the country, I'd been able to afford to buy a property - something which would have been impossible for me in my native South-East.

When my beloved mother developed a terrible disease, I gave up my job and moved back to my childhood home to care for her. I let out my property at a very reasonable rent, and used the rent in excess of mortgage payments for property improvements. I made zero profit overall, because house prices in this particular area fell, so I eventually sold it for the same price I bought it at, in spite of improvements.

Does OP disgust you? Is she actually in any way at fault?

Do I disgust you? Presumably if I do, then you're confident that in the same situation you'd not only give up career and home and move hundreds of miles to care, unpaid, for a relative, but you'd also sell your home, giving up any chance of returning?

It's very hard facing poverty and discrimination. I've been there, although I'm in a different situation now. But hating everyone, good or bad, is hardly a reasonable answer.

Where would people like my tenants go if there were no ll's to rent to them?

There's not suddenly going to be a zillion council houses availabke instantly so where would someone with no hope of getting a mortgage go while they wait on a council house becoming available?

And I suppose all you "benevolent" landlords, acting like you're doing people a favour by being so "nice", are renting out your properties at the same rents charged by social housing? No? Of course you're not. You're using people to pay off your mortgages and make a profit and you don't have a leg to stand on, sorry. Come back to me when you're genuinely helping people. Landlords are vile, all of them, making profit from the misfortune of others. End of.

@dolcezza99

It's clear from your many posts that you're very bitter, and either intellectually unable or emotionally unwilling to engage constructively with any viewpoint other than your own.

People battling disability and struggling to find housing are having such a hard time in this country that someone has to really be a special kind of arsehole for me to lose all sympathy with him or her when they're in that situation. But you've managed it. You're genuinely unpleasant.

Or - to use your favourite word - vile.

Oh, DFOAD. When you've experienced the kinds of discrimination that disabled people on housing benefit face every day, when literally no letting agent in town will rent to you because the landlords don't accept housing benefit, then you are entitled to come back and argue this point with me. Until then, you have no valid opinion to offer, because you don't know a fucking thing about it.

Actually I do know all about it.

I have experienced it. I am disabled and terminally ill.

Your posts are vile, nasty and goady.

So in your own words ODFOD.

HTH

Also maybe think about using the term ODFOAD it is about as disgusting as you can get.

Grow up.

What a pleasant individual you are.

Dolcezza, you're very angry and you should seek professional help.

I'm not angry at all, Nancy. I just have no time for money grabbing arseholes, especially those who are pretending to be benevolent landlords. When you're renting out your properties at social housing rates, then come back and tell me what a great caring landlord you are. Until then, STFU.

dolcezza99

You have been thoroughly nasty throughout this thread. Including using the shorthand for wishing I would fuck off and die.

You need professional help.