To think these potential tenants don’t add up and suspect benefit fraud

[ChocoLeibnizBiscuits]

I know mumsnet hates landlords but I have unexpectedly found myself one.

I received tenant reference checks through and the applicant has had over £40k in this bank account for over 6 months however they have also been receiving almost £1000 a month in universal credit. I’m not at expert but I know how difficult it is to get UC and a quick google shows you won’t get any if you have over £16k in savings.

they also wanted to pay 6months up front.

I feel mean rejecting them
but something doesn’t add up does it?

Well I did and it was straightforward and painless - well as painless as renting can be. No guarantor needed.

Also Myrings don’t require a guarantor www.myringsestateagents.com/component/downloads/Tenant-Fees-and-Terms-new-2016.pdf

Neither do Linley and Simpson (who we rented with)
www.linleyandsimpson.co.uk/content/pdfs/tenant-guide.pdf

If you went through HBC i assume you were applying for housing association properties?

I wish people would RTFT. This isn’t always true. There are a number of conditions people have already outlined.

Honestly speaking as a LL I ask for 2 things - pay rent on time and don’t trash the house. Anything else I give very few fucks about. I don’t ask for bank statements (I ask for payslips though) and I inspect twice a year. I’ve had one horrendous tenant who left me with thousands of pounds worth of damage and unpaid rent but that’s the name of the game I guess. The rest have been fine. It seems that according to MN I should give them a personality test before accepting them 🤣 the OP may come to regret rejecting them if she finds someone with less income who ends up not being able to afford the rent. She’s be wishing she had got Mr & Mrs moneybags in then!

Is it possible the account holder could be the nominee for a third party benefits recipient who, for some reason, cannot administer their own money?

Supply the evidence and details to DWP.

Benefits fraud costs us hardworking squeezed middle millions and billions

What do you expect the DWP to do?! What evidence? Bank statements the couple have handed over themselves?

Are landlords now entitled to see your bank balance??

They will investigate and potentially end their claim for UC and demand money back if they do not qualify.

Having savings, such as 40k in the bank, can mean you aren’t entitled to any money.

What do you expect the DWP to do?! What evidence? Bank statements the couple have handed over themselves?

Well quite!

If you want to rent a property from me I need bank statements, payslips, evidence of savings, references from the last 2 landlords, and job status. I'm not 'entitled' to see them, but if you want to move into one of my valuable properties why wouldn't I require that? It's a business . . .

No thanks, love.

Well you can rent with me and even bring your pet. I have no business reason to see someone’s savings that will never even go to me anyway. I think the other shoe will drop for LL’s before long and gone will be the days so many ridiculous demands are made of people

Isn't asking for the details of the last two landlords rather over-egging it? Why two, and if they've been renting long enough to have two, also, of course.

Small point I know.

As a LL I really cannot find references from other LLs reliable. If they have a tenant who isn’t paying and is trashing the house why on Earth would they put you off taking them off their hands?!

It's a business don't you know?

Because if the current landlord is desperate to get rid of their tenant, they're not going to give a bad reference to the prospective landlord.

Savings are required because if they don't pay the rent they have something to lose and I can sue them.

X post, exactly 😃

Oh I see.

I've only ever rented as a student, and that included halls. I don't think I was asked to provide details of a previous, before the previous, landlord, however (and that information did not exist in any case, unless you counted my parents).

Certainly not savings. Income, and so on, I can understand.

You’ve clearly never had to sue a tenant.

The chances of getting a single penny out of a tenant who owes you money is practically zero. Here are too many ways to dodge paying - the worst you can do is send a HCOE in (after a loooong time and huge cost) and hope they have an expensive car that’s not on finance so you can have a chance at recouping your losses. Them having savings doesn’t mean suing them will give you any sort of access to those savings.

If you want to rent a property from me I need bank statements, payslips, evidence of savings, references from the last 2 landlords, and job status. I'm not 'entitled' to see them, but if you want to move into one of my valuable properties why wouldn't I require that? It's a business . . .

Wow! In some countries you would be breaking the law asking for all that.

Reject !! Sounds like trouble and you dont want to have to be trying to evict them later on. They sound dodgy.

I wouldn't even know how to go about tracking down my previous landlord, I've been living in my current property for so long that they may well have moved or died.

Nice to hear that that might actually prevent me getting another tenancy if I have to move in the future. Didn't know it was possible to be too stable a tenant to be desirable.

My previous landlord we was with for 13 years, unfortunately he had to sell up and we started looking. The local estate agents let us view the houses, when we failed a credit check they asked for a guarantor earning £45k who we didn't have, then 6 months rent upfront. We are a hard working family and we was literally nearly homeless,luckily found a landlord on openrent who was happy with my retired FIL as guarantor and 3 months rent.
It is so hard to rent with poor credit, we have been working in fixing it but it doesn't happen overnight, and with cost of living i presume others will end up like us

We paid 6 months rent upfront when we came back from the US 25 years ago. They weren't interested in our US pay slips and we'd only just started our U.K. jobs. It was the only way to get somewhere to live. We had savings as we'd cashed in a pension and sold furniture when we left. DH had received two weeks of not-means-tested unemployment benefit, as it was then. We rented for 14 years (in different house) and never missed a payment or claimed benefits again. We were perfectly legit, glad our landlord didn't think we were red flag tenants!