To think renting as single mum is horrific

[Blueysmum12]

My bff is a single mum to two young boys. She works in a nursery and gets universal credits. She has a small dog who she got when she split with her husband and is her baby.

she’s lived in the same house for 6 years, rent paid every month on time etc.

the owner is selling their house and obviously she has to move. Between us we have rang 40 properties in this town and surrounding villages. Not one will accept her because she’s either on in universal credits and she has a dog.

the council rang today and said they suggest she takes anything and rehomes her dog because they will put her in a bnb for around 8 months.

I would have her dog, but I have a cat and a dog and 3 kids already, my husband isn’t keen.

I feel so bad for her. She’s lost weight, she looks an anxious mess.

:(

No, why would you claim that?

There’s nothing in my post saying anything about what I “expect.”

No, you (deliberately?) misunderstand. The house is neither in London nor the South East, and I didn’t say that it was.

Yes, that’s right. There’s nothing about that that’s a wind-up; if there is a family who’d pay the market rate then the property should be rented to them if you won’t or can’t afford it.

Disagreeing with you is not “being on a wind-up.”

The whole point of HA houses are for people who can't afford private rent. Should we all be made homeless then?

And the disabled people who live in them who can't work? Chuck them out onto the streets?

You're very ignorant.

No, no deliberately about it, although I will confess I don't have enough interest in you or your portfolio to really try to make sense of it. I mean, if you're renting out the London flat and using the dog-piss-damaged-plantation-shuttered place as your second home, where are you living? No issue for me if it's a third or fourth or seventeenth property, but if you don't say so, it's just a wee bit confusing for the casual reader.

@QuietQuietBang

We rent out a flat that we used to live in,

I was renting out our second home for a couple of years to a couple with a dog

I now use my other property as a second home rather than renting it out.

as a result me and thousands of others stop renting out our London properties

I think that by the time most of us have a second property to rent out

This is why we now use it as a second home ourselves; large family homes like this don’t get a great yield, especially given the tax treatment, so this is the better option for us.

I think this is a logical response. I don’t know why people are flipping out. If you think you won’t be able to provide a good life for your child then don’t have one until you can. If you are happy to stay in a low paid dead end job or on benefits and have kids that’s fine but if you want to secure a financial future for your family then you should hold off on having kids as it’s easier to retrain, start your own business and save without kids.

yanbu

firstly this is why we need social housing

secondly salaries for caring roles such as nursery staff are appalling!! presumably she needs to be doing this job because of childcare. as a single parent she won't have the option to ‘get a better job/work more hours’

It absolutely is not fair and my heart goes out to her. A working adult should be able to put a roof over her children’s heads and my goodness the poor woman isn’t asking for much is she - just to be able to keep her little dog. Life is crap.

Tories out

So basically you are saying people who don’t have money don’t have the right to a fulfilling life that meets their human needs?

Don’t have kids, don’t have pets, just slave away to earn more money - no matter your capability, no matter your happiness, money making needs to be the priority. And WHY do you need more money? So you can pay it to those who are more fortunate in society who are GREEDY and SELFISH and put their PROFIT before the basic standard of living of their fellow human beings.

No, I don’t expect private landlords to be charities….. THIS IS WHY WE NEED SOCIAL HOUSING.

Social housing actually makes a profit over the long term. It is a political decision by the Conservatives over decades to deny the less well-off access to affordable secure housing and enable a whole class of BTL landlords to prosper, push up house prices and pretend they care about housing provision.

citymonitor.ai/housing/ten-myths-about-council-housing-and-one-ask-3797

Council housing is subsidised
It isn’t. Far from it.
Here in Islington, most council housing blocks were built decades ago and tenants have been paying rent on their properties ever since. Council housing is administered through an account that is separate from all other local authority spending, the Housing Revenue Account, which has to remain solvent.
Council housing pays for itself either through rents or by the building of some new private homes for open market sale. This is what many councils have to do in the absence of government funding.

Ah give it a rest love. Not everybody better off is selfish and greedy. That is the sort of attitude that divides the country. It’s not about rich and poor. People can do what they want. Just go in to it with the knowledge you are going to have a harder time and will have to do without things. However if you can take the time to put yourself in a better financial position before having kids then you should. People can pull themselves up by their bootstraps, it just takes work and determination. It’s easy to accept the hand your are given, end up on benefits or in a dead end job worrying about bills and putting food on the table. I wasn’t born well off. I didn’t have anyone help me with a leg up. Everything I have is because I’ve put in the effort. People are free to choose their own path.

"the dog-piss-damaged-plantation-shuttered place" @Mummyford !?! Are you forgetting you're talking to a lendlaydie who rents to CEOs?

If you think it's hard renting being a single mum, try renting as a single man.

Thats a bit of a simplistic argument @Romeoalpha . It's not just about having kids or not having kids, it's also about things like how many kids, and the timing. Have 3 kids in your early 20s, its probably going to be be pretty tough to develop a career or work your way up at work, save up a bit (to buy a place or otherwise). If you choose that then fine, but it's not some great social injustice that those who waited a bit and stuck at one or two kids can afford a mortgage and you can't.

As with anything in life though if you’re a single male or female you can just throw money at the problem make it go away. And if you don’t have money and you have two arms and two legs you can just work harder and get more money.

I thought my life was so hard as a single 22-year-old. I look back and I did not know I was born.

What's so difficult about renting as a single man?

Well a single male has pretty much no chance of getting social housing (unless they meet the priority criteria) so there's that. A single woman is more likely to be considered vulnerable.

I actually found renting with a dog really easy, so I wouldn’t be too quick to assume that’s the problem.

I got a (big) dog when living in my old property, but had to move a few years ago. I was upfront when booking viewings, booked maybe 7 or 8 different places in all, only one had an issue with a dog. No one else seemed to care, in fact one property had even converted a space under the stairs as a fancy dog bed/house. The property I moved to in the end was fine with dogs and told us the previous tenants had 3.

When I worked in property, I saw far worse damage from kids and even adults, than I ever saw from dogs.

What?!!!

I hate to say this but as a landlord renting out a property is a bit like doing a job interview. with my last rental property I had 75 enquiries for a 2 bed flat.

Tenant A are a professional working couple on £5k a month. Can easily cover the rent. No pets, no kids and will be out of the house all day during the week. If they split up and one of the tenants leave I know the other person can still cover the rent.

Versus

Tenant B who is a single parent (not necessarily a mum) with two kids and a dog working p/t and are on UC. The p/t job is doing Avon. Can't afford the rent without the top ups.

I choose tenant A every single time. If they were applying for a job you'd choose tenant A.

I've rented to people on UC in the past and every single time there has been unpaid rent issues. I repeat every single time so now sadly, for them, I don't anymore. I've been bitten too many times - damaged property, unpaid rent etc So now I don't rent to anyone on UC - even couples and no-one with children UC or otherwise.

With 75 enquiries I can take my pick. I want the rent to be paid every month without fail and I want minimal damage to the property. I'm not running a charity; it's the government's responsibility to house Tenant B.

@Notanevillandlord except the government says it is not their responsibility.

@Notanevillandlord well you can do it like that- if you don't mind it being like doing a job interview. Personally I just accept the first person to meet the basic criteria. In 20 years I've only had 1 dud tenancy (and they were a married couple).

I'm sorry she's in that situation but surely she knew it was risky getting a dog when private renting and on UC?

It's sad for her and her kids. Wouldn't the smart thing be to have not gotten a dog?

@Notanevillandlord
no-one with children UC or otherwise

I do think this is discriminatory though if you are renting out a family sized home as we have severe over-crowding issues in the U.K. such that family sized properties shouldn’t be occupied by singles or couples only.

Too, children can’t be rehomed like a pet can. So if all other requirements are met, it’s sort of a reverse ageism imho.

Families need private rentals as well and I don’t agree it would be the governments responsibility to provide all homes for families that do not own a home. The damage deposit is what is there to protect you from child caused damages.

Well basically, yes.
If people want 'a fulfilling life that meets their human needs' whatever that is, then they need to WORK for it.
We are taught from a very young age to work hard and knuckle down so we can get a good job when we are older, yet all the nasty bullies and disruptive dirtbags who tore through my school are now stuck in either private rented or council flats, sulking and moaning about having to use good banks and how dare people like me who got our heads down have nice houses and pet dogs for our 'lucky' children.
This way of thinking, this misplaced jealousy, bitterness and self pity has boomed in the last few months what with the sudden rise in bills.
I am getting quite bored of it.
We ALL get an education in this country, it is free for all and with the right mindset everybody can make something of their lives.
There is nothing wrong with having a min wage job, but what IS wrong is begrudging the more successful their just rewards and expecting everyone else to give your UC family a 75k lifestyle.
You rent a property from a private LL, you obey their bloody rules or you stay on the streets. They have every damn right to dictate what animals you can or cannot have living in THEIR investment, they do not need to take your kids' mental state or your nonsensical 'human rights' into account.
What you then do for your children, instead of bleating about nasty spiteful rich people and all their dogs is you teach you children some fortitude and stoicism, and instill in them the importance of working hard, aspiring high in life, and working at an education whilst still at school rather than throw away the opportunities available to them.
And no one come back at me with the tragic examples of the disabled, the bereaved and the abused. They are the minority and not who I am talking about here.