To think it's disgusting the amount of landlords who won't accept DSS?

[7hup]

My friend is 36 and just been kicked out by her boyfriend because she had a mental breakdown and multiple suicide attempts .

She's just been released from hospital and has been given a B&B room as temporary accommodation.

She has to claim universal credit as she is in no fit state to work.

Council said if she can find private housing they will cover her first month's rent/deposit/fees.

No where takes housing benefit.

It's unfair.

There's no council accommodation and no private landlords will accept it.

She's 36. No children. No pets. Doesn't drink. Doesn't smoke. Is quiet and polite. Keeps to herself. Clean and tidy. She just needs a home :(

Its working people too. My Dsis has a kid and can't move out of my mums because she works only 16 hours because of her son so would receive housing benefit. So she can't move either.

Even on Spareroom. Co. UK in our area there are 674 rooms.

ONE takes DSS. And is dou le the price of similar rooms

It's so unfair :(

This is why:
Chris Town, vice chair of the Residential Landlords Association, says: “Our most recent research has shown that 61 per cent of landlords with tenants on Universal Credit have seen them go into rent arrears, up from 27 per cent in 2016.

Looks like they may be looking at being able to pay landlords directly again though...
www.simplelandlordsinsurance.com/landlord-hub/news/universal-credit-reform?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter2401&dm_i=3RJJ,II7G,2W0S16,1ZVMH,1

As a landlord I have to pay extra to insure DSS tenants and I have been badly burned before losing over £2k in rent arrears and damages of more than £3k. It was the first time I had ever accepted a DSS tenant. I can't afford to do it again - that's basically a massive hole in our pension fund

Same here jack I’ve been badly burned and lost around 5k in total by agreeing to take a few tenants (not DSS) who are not British citizens and they’ve buggered off leaving rent arrears and huge damage. It’s so difficult and expensive to trace them and get that money back that it’s UK citizens with a strong paper trail only only for me from now on. Even if all the rent is paid upfront, the potential for costly damage leaving me out of pocket is just not worth the hassle.

I’m very choosy now and I do my own digging on a tenants background. Experience has taught me not to trust most agents to do it properly or to be honest with me. If I don’t like the look or the sound of you for ANY reason, you don’t get one of my houses. 🤷🏿‍♀️

LLs are out for themselves as much as anyone else running a cutthroat business. Some are okayish, some are total cunts.

There is no doubt that it is a problem that there is not enough housing available to those claiming benefits. However its not the landlords fault. It can be more costly (or even not possible) to insure when renting to benefit claimants and often mortgage providers will not allow it. Also the way housing benefit eligibility works means landlords can struggle to end tenancies (even when contracts have expired or for normal reasons like needing to sell the property) because councils class people as having made themselves homeless if they leave without being evicted via a court process, so tenants have to refuse to leave even when served notice.
Your friend's best option is to push the council hard, e.g. to provide lists of any local landlords who do accept DSS (they won't be on rightmove/spareroom etc, its a whole separate market).

True Luv true. Although I don't think its a 'cut throat' business - it's just a business. Or a sideline at least.