To say about bloody time? No DSS landlords breaking the law.

[Whatisthisfuckery]

A judge has ruled that landlords and letting agents refusing to let to people on housing benefit is unlawful.

It’s about bloody time it was made clear that it is not acceptable to discriminate against people who are on benefits. Housing is not just a privilege for those who are employed and able to work.

Obviously this clarification in the court will not solve the housing crisis, for people on low incomes especially, and much more needs to be done to make sure people have access to benefits without lengthy waits that then create rent arrears etc, but it’s a step in the wright direction.

www.bbc.com/news/education-53391516

@ClaudiaWankleMan....I would let all nine of my properties sit empty before I take someone on Section 8 which is our housing benefit. Fortunately there is a 15 year wait for that program in my area. I also require that renters make 4x the amount of the rent, credit check, criminal back ground check and I also require center's insurance.

@ComDummings...So I should be required to house people who.can't afford it, pedophiles and drug trafficers?

How do you know your tenants aren’t paedophiles or drug dealers @Leaannb? At least the latter would be able to afford the rent - never met a poor one yet.

My husband let his flat to a lady on housing benefit.

Was a disaster. She never paid and it was a nightmare to get her out. The flat has been let successfully over the years and the only time there’s been a problem it centred around housing benefit. He’s resolved never to let it again to anyone on benefits.

Thankfully we’re in Scotland where this law doesn’t apply yet.

I think when you own a property you should decide who you want to live in it. I’m about to be flamed

Landlords should not have the right to charge ridiculous rents and dictate how people should live.

They have every right to dictate if you’re living in their house.

@AskingforaBaskin

Ah there we go. 'The fear and the risk' and what do we do with risk? Asses it and mitigate it.

People on benefits that need supporting are the governments problem to solve, not private landlords.

They own the house, they should get to decide who they want to live in it. They don’t need to take extra risks with benefits claimants when there are many out there who aren’t.

Just to mention - my understanding is that the ruling is due to it being considered indirectly discriminatory against disabled individuals and women. It doesn't prevent discrimination against individuals on benefits directly. This means that anyone wanting to make a claim would have to show that their share the relevant characteristics (female and/or disabled). But I expect most agencies will change their policies and look at other checks to achieve the same results without relying on a benefit status.

@heartsonacake Don you maybe want to read my other posts.
We mitigate the risk by not renting to those who endanger our income. 🙄

Agree with Alsohuman the majority of undesirables have never been caught and are very good at making themselves look respectable, employed etc etc

We let to tenants on housing benefits. It was harder work to find insurance - much harder work, because the tenancies are riskier.

They don’t need to take extra risks with benefits claimants when there are many out there who aren’t

Not for long. Full employment will rapidly become a distant memory. A lot of landlords are going to find their current tenants are benefit claimants sooner rather than later.

They have every right to dictate if you’re living in their house.

But they don’t @MillyDilly
Tenants have many legal rights which trump whatever a landlord might write in their contract.

*People shouldn’t have to pay £300+ more than the mortgage payments on the house

I understand landlords want the mortgage covered and then profit on top, but when your mortgage is way £600, why are they charging rent at £900+?*

Fees, insurance, savings for repairs and house care expenses, emergency fund. When you have your own, trust me, that you will want to be saving aside because house is an expensive thing. Plus insurance, general upkeep. House never costs just a mortgage, let alone rented house. In flats you have to add in a service charge too.

[quote AskingforaBaskin]@heartsonacake Don you maybe want to read my other posts.
We mitigate the risk by not renting to those who endanger our income. 🙄[/quote]
Okay, so we agree. And no, I don’t read every single post on every thread.

This should never have been a thing. If landlords were that bothered, they could have requested the housing benefit went straight to them

Virtually impossible. HB goes to the tenant who then chooses whether or not to pass it onto the ll. A pp says she’s not been paid since Christmas. There’s no way I’m risking that. The process of getting back your own property is crackers and very expensive, not to mention the tenant may well have wrecked it.

@monotata - I think you'll find the same will apply in Scotland. It's not a new law but a (logical) interpretation of the Equality Act. I cannot think of a reason why it wouldn't apply in Scotland.

I can see your point re wanting to rent to whoever you want but as a landlord you are also under the legal obligation not to discriminate against tenants on the ground of sex/disability/sexual orientation etc and this ruling is simply an extension to that.

Sorry MillyDilly I don't agree with you. Landlords have no rights beyond a tenant paying agreed rent in a timely way and living cleanly and decently.

Agree that blanket discrimination is wrong but:

• can't change the fact that from a statistical perspective a benefit recipient is a higher risk than a tenant not in receipt if any benefit. Landlord insurance will always reflect this by charging higher premiums.
• it is easy to screen out benefit recipients by setting requirements on earned income and thus failing people at credit check stage.

I understand landlords want the mortgage covered and then profit on top, but when your mortgage is way £600, why are they charging rent at £900+

I know it's hard for renters to understand, but property owners have other costs, insurance, repairs, maintenance, renovations, etc. A property owner needs to put funds into reserve for when a new boiler is needed, or the house needs redecorating, or something really expensive like a new roof is needed or all manner of more regular smaller maintenance jobs. Renters don't have to think about that kind of thing.

I assume landlords will just start requesting guarantors (if your earning is under say 18k - which j assume most people on benefits would be under) and a credit check (which I would think a good chunk of people on benefits would fail).

Either way landlords/estate agents will find ways to prevent people from renting.

Landlords have no rights beyond a tenant paying agreed rent in a timely way and living cleanly and decently.

And when that starts getting enforced in a readable and timely way maybe LL will want to be generous. Right now they get screwed.

If only Brown/Blair hadn't changed the rules - until they changed them for no obvious reason, landlords were paid directly by the DSS so regular payment was virtually guaranteed.

We've never said no DSS for the property we let but someone on benefits wouldn't pass the affordability check that our letting agent uses.

Basically the government want to make it as difficult as possible for private landlords so they all think it’s not worth the hassle and sell up...

Well this threads really brought out the benefits bashers eh?

Lots of ignorance and misinformation.

Not all housing benefit or equivalent recipients are unemployed.

Even those that are unemployed it may well be that for any number of reasons they’re unable to work, disability, caring responsibilities...

There’s SOD ALL social housing because of right to buy and linked policies that PREVENTED councils from building/developing more social housing. I live in an extremely deprived area and social housing is very difficult to get. I’m disabled, as is my daughter who was part of my household until very recently, took us 8 years!

Not at all surprised to see several landlords posting that they fully intend to continue being prejudiced against benefit recipients - which it looks like will soon be illegal.

Personally I think “accidental” landlords should be banned. Very few know what their responsibilities are and if they do they don’t necessarily care. Even if they’re well intentioned they’re rarely in the appropriate financial position to cover even maintenance let alone emergency costs.

There’s been a few examples given of dreadful benefits tenants, I’m personally well aware of non benefits tenants that have also behaved dreadfully and been hard to shift, and certainly I’ve experienced some nightmare landlords. There will always be a few bad ‘uns in every group but tarring all with the same brush is unacceptable and soon hopefully illegal!

I do agree that the ridiculousness of councils not having responsibility to house people until they’ve been forcibly evicted needs to end! It serves nobody and causes great distress and expense for tenants and landlords.

And realistically how many non smoking, childless, pet less professional working couples are there? totally agree that many landlords and associated people are very unrealistic about the market. I was browsing recently as a friend is looking for a new place and I have the time to look and I then email her the links (she gave me rough specs to go off) and was shaking my head at the number of 3, 4 and even 5 bed properties with pretty high rents were only interested in “professional couples no children” utterly ridiculous! A couple with no children generally has no interest in renting a property larger than they need for a much higher rent than they need to pay! These are clearly family homes. No surprise to see that they had been advertised for several months! Friend said once on the phone with one of the letting agents about another property and mentioned this and agent agreed it was ludicrous but the owners/landlords won’t shift their attitudes.

I am afraid the housing crisis is only going to get worse as the full impact of coronavirus and brexit hits the economy and more people are out of work. exactly! And this govt are doing precious little to deal with either housing or unemployment!