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?

Again, it's different if you are asked for it rather than randomly offering the 6 months.
We paid 6 months after being asked because of self employment and landlord asked for that or a guarantor.

Just sell it. Being a landlord sounds like a right hassle these days. If you’ve got your own mortgage then you could pay it off that.

Just because someone pays 6 months up front does not make them dodgy. I am living outside the UK atm but will be back in the UK next autumn. Pretty sure will have to pay up front as I am retired but can well afford to rent until I find somewhere to buy

You’d think wouldn’t you.

However, when we lived in London and we had the absolute audacity to work in jobs that didn’t pay enough to live on (local authority and NHS), and so had to claim housing benefit as rents were so extortionate, the hoops we had to jump though were humiliating.

This was with estate agents as well as the landlords that were renting their houses though them.

The few estate agents that didn’t laugh us out the door with “no dss”, there were only ever one or two landlords that would even consider partial housing benefit, even though we were both working.

We we’re asked for all of the above proof, plus references from our employers, two personal references from professionals, and when they found out our son was in secondary school, the landlord wanted to see his last two school reports to make sure he wasn’t some awful delinquent who would trash his house with parties - which of course he probably would be with feckless parents who needed help from housing benefit!

We had to accept 6 weekly checks where the agents would come round and always be so faux shocked that we were looking after the place and tell us horror stories of other people on benefits.

The agent went though our bank statements. It had been my sons 13th birthday the week before and we had ordered a takeaway for him and his friend. “You know, if you didn’t waste money at pizza hut and cooked, you probably wouldn’t be in your situation!” said the agent and her and her colleagues all laughed.

It was humiliating. But we had no choice. Our wages weren’t enough to live on without top up housing benefit. No one would rent to us. It was an affluent area with an attitude from agents and landlords to match. If we had told that landlord to piss off, where would we have lived?

Our last landlord was selling, there was no safety net, the council weren’t going to help us. Everyone says “go on the housing list!” like you will be offered a place to live immediately. We were working, we weren’t a priority. We would have been at the back of a 15 year list.

We moved 150 miles across the country when dh work went fully remote and bought a house in a place we could afford. It’s not a great area, but I thank God everyday that I will never be at the mercy of another landlord or estate agent making me feel like a piece of shit for daring to need extra help because rents were so high.

DD was considering paying 6 months upfront recently as she has no one to act as guarantor, it turned out she passed the checks so didn't need to, but it was a realistic option for her.

Oh and we were asked to pay 6 months in advance every time we had to move (4 times in 8 years, each LL sold up), luckily PIL paid and we just paid them the rent every month for 6 months instead.

It was just another little test. If we didn’t have PIL who could stump up thousands each time at the drop of a hat, we would have been screwed.

I think it’s quite normal for people to have to pay six months upfront-it does not mean they are dodgy. Eg, a friend had to when she and her husband were separating and she needed somewhere to rent with her children. She had been a SAHM so had no recent employment. Another young relative, married, both with good professional jobs in the NHS and social services, also had to pay six months’ rent up front, as they didn’t have employment history (both were in first jobs). It’s a terrible state of affairs.

Third party debt order. Works every time.

My OH paid 6 months up front on a recent rental property - he had a mental breakdown so hadn't worked for a year but had sold his car and house and had equity from that to live on hence the large sum of money in his bank account that wasn't going to move for a while.

NAndJAgainstStrepA
This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

Glad to see some of the distasteful comments have been deleted from by this thread, though I didn't report them personally.

These landlord threads bring out some awful behaviour.

Is it not ‘awful behaviour’ to have a property - which the landlord will eventually own and be able to sell or use personally- bought via Tax payers/ housing benefit payments? ☘️👍🏿

What on earth are you talking about? @eveoha
The deleted comments, for breaking talk guidelines, I'm clearly referring to

Whatever 🙄 I stand by my statement ☘️👍🏿

Well, the awful landlords are selling. According to many threads on MN landlords shouldn't exist, they should sell and many tenants have deposit and landlords selling is good for them.
This is what is happening. This is why there are bidding wars on rentals...

Explain yourself then

The only way it wouldn't be fraud ifbit was new style contribution based payments big risk as if they are relying on housing element to pay the rent this could be stored pending investigation so ubdid the right thing

Ugh stopped not stored

@Footballmyarse - that is a disgusting story. It is exactly why people hate landlords and estate agents.

Glad you have moved on.

My DP rents his property in Camden, North London for £2200 pcm to a couple who are both solicitors. He does this through a large agency and they were never asked for a Guarantor, just proof of earnings, deposit and reference so perhaps it only happens in Harrogate?

For some, you are probably right. However, some like myself pay 6 months upfront because our wages don't match the ridiculous amount requested to rent a property, and we don't have a guarantor due to family and friends either being retired or renters themselves. Therefore, our only hope of getting a private let property is by offering 6 months rent upfront.

Awful that some people would automatically think we are dodgy because of how much we and our family and friends earn 🙄.

My friends have been given notice as her LL said he was selling but it transpires that he isn't but his daughter wants to move in. Every house they are looking at want six months rent as deposit. My friends are low earners due to disability and I'm very worried for them as they don't have access to that sort of money (all parents are retired). I really don't know what they are going to do. They were previously home owners but had to sell because of huge debts when he became disabled.
I'm so glad that my daughter and her boyfriend have saved enough for a deposit to buy a place next year (as I thankfully did aged 24) and now at 51 am mortgage free.
My neice and her partner are renting and I can't see them being able to get on the property ladder despite being in good jobs. My sisters FIL recently passed away so I'm thinking my BIL might give them a deposit from his inheritance but otherwise they'd be stuffed.

I've name changed as I started a thread about a landlord acting illegally a few weeks ago. It was my friend looking for temporary rental properties. My thread was about the landlord's intention to inspect monthly with the addition of unannounced checks. I was advised to report it as they were acting outside of the law.

Anyway, and getting to the point, in other advertisements there were many landlords asking for up to three months of rent in advance, not including the bond. I didn't see any asking for six months, but it wouldn't have surprised me.

I do think there are some bad landlords, that much is obvious. I think some should look for alternative ways to make money rather than treat people as they do. Just a pity about the lack of housing stock and the recent halt (unless there's been another more recent u turn) in building new house targets by Sunak.

This was one of the good things about when we lived in Denmark. Rentals are seen very much as a norm there and even quite well off Danish families often had state/housing cooperatives rent controlled 2 and 3 bed houses and flats. Very nice too and in good areas -not just cheap thrown up crap . Hence those in the private let arena had to offer equally nice places at often more sensible rates- the reality was they were the ones letting mainly to non Danes- because the Danes had other decent choices at sensible rates. To be honest I would rather the big insurance /pension companies etc got in on the act (legal and general have started) it's far less likely they would be constantly making you feel like they are doing you a favour or not renewing because you dared to bring up urgent issues etc..it's as bad at the high end by the way- as we've rented nice houses for 20 years.

As the property asset bubble inflates increasingly those who own see themselves as being able to lord it over the poor peasants who have nothing

If the 40k was compensation UC disregard it for a year