Completely agree. It should be illegal for owners, mortgage companies & insurance companies to have such clauses.
Poor tenants come in all shapes and sizes they're not all Benefit recipients.
Yes we also need MUCH more social housing built, ALSO affordable non-social housing - I live in a deprived area where developers have built 3/4/5 bed properties WAY out of the price range locals could HOPE to achieve that then don't bloody sell! Ridiculous! - which would relieve the pressure on social housing too.
Most people are decent, polite, clean & tidy using the FEW who aren't to excuse such discrimination is out of order!
"I'm just going to put it out there. If you need a mortgage to be a landlord, you can't afford to be a landlord." I completely agree with this.
"Why do you think that?" Because being a landlord involves ongoing costs in terms of the correct insurance, maintaining the property, repairs, meeting existing & possible future safety requirements etc if you need to borrow just for the initial outlay chances are you can't afford to do all this properly - if you need to get a mortgage to buy the property initially you likely don't have the funds to meet large repair/maintenance costs eg roof repairs, new boiler, rewiring...
I also think "accidental landlords" should be outlawed.
I've seen posts on here by landlords complaining they can't afford to meet the very minimal safety requirements of private letting - if you can't afford to do this you shouldn't be a landlord!
My last private landlord was like this, the place hadn't been refurbished AT ALL in almost 40 years, when new laws came in on electrical matters they begrudged paying for the equipment to be updated and when the chap came to do the work he was disgusted at the state of the old equipment which hadn't been maintained properly to the point he said if there was a way of reporting the landlord for being ignorant of tenants safety he would (apparently the fact he was there to do the work that would make it safe meant he couldn't), every year when I had my gas safety inspection done the guy would say "they STILL haven't changed this boiler?!"
The landlord before that only replaced the Windows I complained about being drafty when they LITERALLY Fell out of the building! Nearly landing on a passing pedestrian! I hadn't even touched them, we had high winds that shook them loose that's how rotten the frames were.
The one before that was good on repair side but a nightmare on privacy side and kept letting herself in when I was in bath etc!
The one before that was very good and I was sad to leave - only left due to marrying now ex husband and moving into army quarters with him.
Before that I was a lodger in several places and mostly lucky with landlords, the first one I ended up staying friends with for many years after and babysitting her kids - excepting the VERY religious one who just could not cope with the idea of my having PLATONIC male friends and basically ended up accusing me of being a prostitute!!
Considering tories are generally for landlords I find it hard to understand why they are making it harder for them to get their rents paid. But then it means private landlords are less likely than ever to take on benefits recipients. While I know they hate the working classes I'm struggling to see the long term aim here unless they literally want a continued rise in homelessness.
In areas like mine such policies by mortgage and insurance companies must make it very hard to find tenants at all and certainly I see the same properties being advertised for months on end.
"under the terms of both the mortgage and our insurance, we can’t accept tenants who are in receipt of housing benefit. It’s not our choice." Except it is - you chose to be a landlord, chose your mortgage and insurance companies (or were ltd to them by your own financial background which goes back to its a choice to be a landlord).
"housing is far too important to be the investment vehicles of a bunch of amateurs." Totally agree with this too.
We need more social housing, we also need much more stringent regulation of the private renting market (on both sides, there are absolutely nightmare landlords AND tenants)
I do wonder if this policy will continue once UC completely rolled out and almost everyone is on it! So there will be much fewer prospective tenants available to rent to!
Another thing I think a lot of landlords don't know/understand is that hb is paid 4 weekly rather than calendar monthly. I'm quite good at managing my finances and can work with this, many in receipt of hb aren't financially/numerically literate particularly those with learning disabilities and find this very hard to work out. Why it was/is never paid calendar monthly when most people's rents are I really do not know.
"ImE it's easier as usually the housing benefit doesn't cover the full rent anyway and I always have to make it up to the full amount." If you do
hb/4x52/12
you'll probably find you are getting the full rent covered but in 13 4-weekly amounts rather than 12 calendar monthly.
UC IN THEORY being a monthly payment was supposed to address this issue but it's been implemented so badly most recipients don't know what they're getting from month to month even if they're on a regular salary!
"There should at least be a basic test to show that you've read a minimal amount about the law so that you know you can't let yourself in with 24 hours notice etc rather than just letting people make it up as they go along." They should have to be registered and pass a test covering basic legal requirements of a landlord inc safety reg's & access rights. Then they can't claim ignorance either. Plus then you can have a situation where slum landlords can be barred/deregistered.
No reason why poor tenants can't similarly go on a register so that decent landlords aren't caught out in the future - then landlords would have no excuse to discriminate based purely on source of income.
"Does 'No DSS' cover those in receipt of HB but not actually out of work?" Ime yes - this is likely to become more so with UC as it's difficult even for claimants to ascertain what "type" of claimant they are as its all one benefit name. On here and elsewhere on sm MANY claimants unsure if they're receiving a housing element, if they're eligible for free prescriptions etc - and getting answers from dwp like pulling teeth! Plus claimants have been told opposite answers by dwp people if asking on different days etc - it's a bloody mess!!
I've been in receipt of housing benefit (not always full amount) for 16 years almost and NEVER defaulted on a rent payment ever. In that time I've been employed (part & full time), a student and unemployed due to illness. None of those descriptors changed what kind of tenant I was.
I also look after the properties (though I've been accused otherwise - I now take photos and mark down EVERY scuff mark, sticky door etc on the rental agreement before signing - learnt that lesson the hard way!)
"the root cause is the failure of govt to properly and fairly regulate the housing market
now we're backed into a corner with grossly over inflated property prices" while we allow MPs to be landlords - even property developers - while serving as MPs and voting on housing matters this won't change. It's a conflict of interests and should be illegal.
"That means the ll's who rip the piss with what they charge have been forced to lower their rents" this is one reason why this govt WON'T increase social housing - those that are landlords & property developers profits would drop!
"There's that saying that you can get the measure of how civilised a country actually is by observing how they treat their vulnerable members of society. We're failing spectacularly on all fronts at the moment in the UK.
Yet mysteriously there's plenty money for MP breakfast allowances or second homes, or bungs for the DUP."
I'm also sensing (from mn and elsewhere - not just this thread there's been a few lately) that the mentally ill are one of the few sick "categories" people still think it acceptable to discriminate against.
"I'd love Shelter or CPAG or someone to bring a test case on this basis" me too.
"I didn't become a LL to house people in need, I became a LL for financial reasons. It's an investment for my DS. What is wrong with that?" By doing so you also took on a moral and legal responsibility to ensure the property is safely and habitably maintained. A lot of landlords don't care beyond ensuring the rent is paid. They don't allow for repairs, ongoing maintenance, safety reg's etc
"The theory was that the councils would build more housing, to replace the properties they sold off" I'm not sure that's true given she then effectively barred councils from building!
"But I think everyone should buy a home." Geez where's your ivory tower based? Most people cannot afford to do this - mainly because the rental market has pushed prices up!!
"As an ex housing worker, I and many colleagues thought RTB would be withdrawn after Labour came into power in 1997. " the problem there is it was "new labour" not true labour, they were tories in (thinly veiled) disguise.
"its been a long long time since we had actual socialists in government." - exactly! And look at the mess we're in!