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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to bend truth about working when comes to looking at rented houses

43 replies

Phoenix4725 · 16/01/2010 07:49

ok go gentle genuine advice please

I had to leave my home and my town suddenly due to violent ex and were now staying at my mums and step dads, we being me , ds15,ds12, dd6 and ds4, they have 2 and a very small box

i am looking for private rented and every house i go look at or phone up about say oh no we wont take benfits .

I am considering telling small white lie and say I am working having housing benefit paid straight to me .anyone else done the same

Am thinking its not techinally a lie , since i am classed as working by the govement/dhss due to the fact am my sons paid carer dont have to tell them its only 17p a hour

OP posts:
BigBadMummy · 16/01/2010 10:12

OK, I run a property management company have dealt with hundreds of benefit claimants looking for private rented.

First of all, it is against the law for any letting agent to say "we do not take benefit claimants". As a blanket rule they cannot say that when you first phone up.

What they can say is that "the majority of our landlords are unable to accept tenants who claim benefits".

Which is true. A large number of buy-to-let mortgages will not allow a landlord to accept benefit claiming tenants for all sorts of reasons.

So what to do ....

Make sure the Housing Benefit is paid to you directly. (if it is paid directly to a landlord and then it is discovered that the benefit has been claimed fraudulently the Council can "clawback" the payments for up to six years. So whilst he landlord has done nothing wrong, the Council go after him. Which I why I advise my landlords to not accept it directly but to have it paid to them by the tenant).

Then go to the letting agency and advise them that you are looking for property up to a certain amount. That may be the full amount of your Housing Benefit / Disability / making it up with your own savings etc.

At the end of the day the Letting Agency just needs to know you can afford the rent and isn't really too bothered where it comes from.

"I have a small inheritance that I shall be using to pay the rent / my ex gives me £X a month and I shall be using that".

If you say you are employed they will want an employer's reference to see what the likelihood is of you being made redudant or if you are on a 3 month contract so you cannot lie and say you are employed.

Simply keep information to a minimum.

They may ask for you to get a guarantor who will need to (in theory) be able to cover the rental payments if you cannot. They obviously don't have to, but they need to demonstrate they could if needed.

Good luck.

AnnieBeansMum · 16/01/2010 10:12

Landlord's who take out Rent and Legal insurance and then let to a dss tenant will not be able to claim should any arrears develop. This is why a lot of landlords will stipulate no dss. If they rent to someone who is working full time and they let their rent payments lapse, the landlords can claim in back against their rent and legal insurance.

ObsidianBlackbirdMcNight · 16/01/2010 10:27

As long as you know for sure you will always pay the rent on time then lie as much as you need. We lied when we moved and said DH was working (he was registered with an agency but hadn't had any work for weeks) and said we got no HB although they were paying over 1/2 our rent. I didn't hesitate as I knew the rent would be paid and we are good tenants so we did what we had to do.

Original poster
Phoenix4725 · 16/01/2010 10:38

thank you for advice

but i just head a bungalow i went to see few days ago Landlord has thought about it and has weighed everything up and that as im not a youngster first time I been glad to be considered old.

that i can have it and he knows on benefits he is not worried !! long as i can come up with deposit and rent in advance and i dam well will

OP posts:
Awassailinglookingforanswers · 16/01/2010 10:39

I wouldn't lie no - for the reasons others (especially BBM and ABM) have stated.

However you do realise you'll only get LHA (HB) for a 3 bedroom house don't you not 4?

Original poster
Phoenix4725 · 16/01/2010 10:46

awassailing

No i can have 4 my eldest ds is almost 16 and is entitled to his own room were talking 4 weeks time .And becuase of the fact ds due to his disablites needs his own room we could have had up to a 5 on Hb .that was direct from the council offices and did get it in writing but am happy with a 4 but the good news is i got a 5 no more having to carry ds up stairs or watching him crawl and the rent is less than a 4

OP posts:
Angelcat666 · 16/01/2010 10:58

That's brilliant news, good luck

2010aQuintessentialOdyssey · 16/01/2010 11:03

good news! good luck!

StrawberriesandCherries · 16/01/2010 11:16

Wow - that's great news, so pleased for you

squashimodo · 16/01/2010 11:40

I missed this. So glad it worked out for your phoenix!

nighbynight · 16/01/2010 11:45

phoenix, you have such a lot on your plate. I have been there with teh 4 children and the violent ex - things do calm down eventually. I have a job, but have an au pair at home to take care of the children. So glad you have now got a house, and hope that things go well for you from now on.

fluffles · 16/01/2010 11:49

i own a flat i let out and my mortgage and insurers wont let me take a tenant on benefits

i don't know what would happen if someone lied to me but i suspect that a whole load of stuff would be invalid... which might not affect you if there was an accident and you were going to just run away in the night but you'd leave me well up shit creek! (with invalid buildings insurance possibly )

i know it's a pain but PLEASE don't lie. i really hope you find a landlord who owns outright and doesn't have these mortgage/insurance problems.

fluffles · 16/01/2010 11:51

sorry, missed the message that you'd found somewhere - i'm pleased for you.

Good luck.

melpomene · 16/01/2010 11:58

Glad that the OP has found somewhere suitable, but in case anyone else in a similar position is reading this I wanted to second what emskaboo said above: the council shouldn't have said you were intentionally homeless and decisions like that can be challenged.

dreamingofsun · 16/01/2010 12:18

as a landlord i would insist on a reference from your employer and follow this up verbally - so if you lied not sure how you would get round this. The reason we don't have people on benefits with children is that we are worried that if they trash the place we will be unable to get them out without going full the full court process which takes over 6 months. We actually quite like tennants with children - they seem to keep the place clean and tidy and don't have wild parties.

memoo · 16/01/2010 22:14

"Memoo got anything on the hearts/essex border"

Sadly no, we have got a house free at the mo but we're up north.

AnitaBlake · 17/01/2010 20:45

When I was a landlord, my house insurance specifically excluded tenants on housing benefit, it wasn't that I didn;t want to take a HB tenant, and indeed I know many people on HB, and they are fab tenants, but the conditions of my insurance said that I couldn't. Please don't assume it is the landlord that is discriminating against you.

Original poster
Phoenix4725 · 18/01/2010 06:10

i know not everyones the same but also know in some cases that it does happen

luckily i found someone that ows house outright since he brought the land at back for somewhere to store his work vans and gothouse with by default hence why he wantd a long term tennnat think that i want 10 years plus was what did it

OP posts:
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