do i stay in my damp cold expensive house or lie through my teeth so my kids can have a nice home??

[bellarose2011]

just looking for some advice really, i am a single mother to 2 DD, 10 months and 2yrs.
we currently live in a 3 bed semi detatched house, it has an old back boiler which makes the gas bills huge yet we are still always freezing. the garden is a vertical hill (literally!) there is mold growing on the kids bedroom wall. the double glazing doesn't work and there is puddles of water on all the windowsills every morning. i hate it!!
in the area i live there is a shortage of social housing and my name is on all council/housing association lists. my only hope is a house from an estate agents. but of course they won't accept DSS.
now i get my housing benefit paid to me so there is no reason i need to disclose this other than it being dishonest. but i know i would be a great tenant, i have never not paid my rent, i'm a clean freak and have no pets.
i have found a perfect house that i can afford and have the application form in front of me, i know i won't get it if i tell the truth. i have a friend who runs her own business and would say i worked for her. i just don't know what to do??
the eatate agents use MARAS, will my bank tell them where my funds come from?

[DudeIAmSoFuckingRock]

ok!

[Tobermory]

DH is in insurance and has provided a comprehensive technical summary. I will try to explain thus;
For insurance a dss tenant is one that is referred by social services who may then also meet the rent bills on behalf of the tenant. Someone would be a dss tenant because the tenancy agreement has been made between the landlord and the dss on your behalf. .

If the contract is made between the tenant and the landlord the contract is known as a private rental. You may well be in employment and then lose your job, but this wouldn't effect the landlord insurance because the contract is a direct agreement between the landlord and the tenant.By the sounds of it, from an insurance point of view you are not DSS and so the LL insurance would not be affected.

Try and contact him direct and state your case - he may be desperate for a good tenant to pay his mortgage and insurance which is more expensive when the property is empty! Offer guarantees or find somewhere else. Be careful of declaring employment though, what if social services found out , could you lose benefits?

[Graceparkhill]

Dude- sorry didn't mean to sound abrupt. I work in housing advice and it worries/ frustrates me when I see people being given well meant but inaccurate info.

Loads of wrong/ misleading info on this thread now.

DHSS and DSS disappeared years ago. Welfare Benefits now dealt with by DWP.

Housing benefit/ local housing allowance currently administered by local govt.

Issue with private landlords not renting to people on benefits is an issue with mortgage lender not ( generally ) insurance cover.
You need to seek permission from lender to let property to someone on benefits and some lenders have refused.

You will always get some insurer,somewhere to cover a risk. The greater the risk the higher the premium. Failure to disclose will result in cover being invalid.

Nothing whatsoever to do with social services either.

Some local authorities ( only speaking for Scotland now) have leasing arrangements with private landlords to make properties available to homeless families ( they may or may not be in receipt of benefits;they may or may not have social services involvement ).

Anyway if OP is still around my advice still stands- contact Shelter for housing advice and do not consider giving false info to prospective landlord.

Sermon endeth.

[FrameyMcFrame]

Grace, tax credits are not DWP they are Inland Revenue, the ad states no DHS anyway.

DudeIamso Working people are also entitled to housing benefit too you know! (Or housing alowence whatever)
Would those people who work but earn a low income be also discriminated agains by this blanket ban on 'DHSS'???

Op I'll pm you, the people on this thread don't live in the real world.

[stella1w]

I would write a letter to the landlord explaining the situation, offering your mum as guarantor, pointing out that as you are on benefits your imcome is more secure in a way than someone in a job and promise not to let the kids damage the house

[FrameyMcFrame]

Anyway, soon these discriminatory ads stating 'no DSS' will become illegal because it is prejudiced against disabled people who may be on benefits or indeed older people who may be on pension credit etc.

Not to mention prejudiced against single Mothers who have little choice about being on benefits if they want to look after their own babies.

It makes me

[baabaapinksheep]

Frame - that is what my estate agent told me when I asked why a lot of landlords won't take tenants on hb.

You are also being hugely irresponsible by encouraging someone to do something illegal.

[DudeIAmSoFuckingRock]

"DudeIamso Working people are also entitled to housing benefit too you know!"

i know i worked while i received HB! as for not living in the real world i have already told OP my circumstnaces which are pretty close to hers. i am very much in the real world.

[DudeIAmSoFuckingRock]

framey you are being incredibly naive if you think people posting here are posting from some ivory tower and have no clue what the reality of OP's situation is. people are posting because they know exactly what the reality is and what risks she would be taking by doing as you are encouraging her to do. i do wonder whether you would be quite so keen to encourage if it was you in this situation risking homelessness for your children. you seem very vocal when it's someone else's children.

[DudeIAmSoFuckingRock]

OP be careful about what advice you take and back up whatever decision you make with facts and not just by the chip on someone else's shoulder.

[Graceparkhill]

Sorry missed the bit about Working Tax Credits- didn't realise OP was receiving them.

You are right WTC administered by HMRC. The whole system is complex and there are variations within the UK - all the more reason to get proper advice from a qualified source. Did I mention Shelter?

[bellarose2011]

thanks for all the advice everyone.
I JUST WANT TO MAKE ONE THING CLEAR, WHEN I RENTED OFF MY MUM WE PUT IT ALL IN THE FORM THAT THE LANDLORD WAS MY MOTHER. NO LIES WERE INVOLVED. i was just surprised at the time that they didn't do any digging to find out what the situation was. and of course my mum received every penny of the HB and extra added on.
also yes i have a 3 bed detached house, the rent is 400 a month because its a dump. and i pay 70 a month towards the rent.
i have no idea how anyone can think you could claim housing benefit and keep it, you would have to have a full time job on the side.
my plan is to say that i work part time, get working tax credits and a small amount of housing benefit. therefor if it is a problem with there insurance we they will know about it. i am not going to use any fake wage slips.

for anyone who thinks that im wrong ive decided i don't care. do the all the MP's give a fuck when there lying to employ there family members in jobs that don't exist and the wages are paid by the taxpayer. do they care when they are passing laws that mean that children living in poverty are going to loose there free school meals and go hungry whiles there earning there massive salaries and living off expense accounts. wake up people, the government is screwing you and using people on benefits as scapegoats to stop the light shining on them!!!

rant over!!!!

[DudeIAmSoFuckingRock]

bella as much as i agree with you that the MP's get away with fucking murder and i hate it, believe me, that will get you nowhere when you are sitting on the street with your children after being evicted. it really doesn't benefit your situation at all the fact that other people are also doing dodgy moves.



however as i said earlier in the thread, as long as you mention that you are recieving HB then you are being honest with them. i'm glad you aren't going to fake wageslips or anything that could get you or your friend in trouble too.

again, good luck.

[bellarose2011]

p.s i couldn't have paid my mum a tiny amount of rent and kept the rest of the housing benefit as she had a mortgage to pay that was higher than the housing benefit i recieved.
sorry if the above post sound a bit angry but it just winds me up when people make out that anyone on benefits is bound to be scamming in some way.
most people on benefits don't want to be, life doesn't always turn out how we wanted it to and we are very lucky to live in a country where we have benefits for when we really need them.
and i also agree with some of the benefit reforms, like the cap on benefits at 3 children (i think) no child should be born just because there mum wants more benefit money. although of course for peolple that already have big families and are out of work this would be so hard.
its all very complex and i don't see how they can make it fair for everyone.

[expatinscotland]

How are you going to fake working part-time with no wage slips? They'll check, you know.

[bellarose2011]

ive spoke to a few people who have had houses through this agency and they just ring your boss.

[ALovelyBunchOfCoconuts]

You have to provide wage slips for the credit check tho.

I was all for you going for it OP but the more I think about it the more I think it's a bad idea to lie. Just be honest, say you have a guarantor and see what happens.

You can't be claiming benefits and lie about working as it'll catch up with you and DWP/HMRC will question why you're claiming to work and not declare it. You don't know what checks these people do behind closed doors.

[bellarose2011]

to be honest ive come to the conclusion that they want us to think that they are checking up on every detail of your life but the truth is an estate agent has no more right to check up on me than anyone else does. they just want to talk to your boss, currant LL and a character reference. only on of these is fake.
they do a credit check that any member of the public can do if you give them the right infomation.
its a different story with a bank if you were applying for a loan, they have much more power to look into your life.

[bellarose2011]

i have asked them about any documents they need and they said none,

[TantrumsAndBalloons]

You cannot predict what they are going to ask for.
You cannot predict what they might ask for a year down the line.
You just cannot be a hundred percent sure.
You will be living in this house knowing that at any minute someone could knock on the door and catch you out.
How are you going to enjoy living in your house like that?
I couldn't.

When me and DH were made redundant and we lost our house, we saw several houses that we loved but the LL didn't take housing benefit. We just had to go with what was available.

[IWipeArses]

I can imagine how desperate you must feel in a damp house, we had a very mouldy, freezing house before and it was just miserable.

I don't think it's worth it to risk lying to the landlord though. Your references will be fucked in the future if they find out, then you'll be out of options and out on your ear.

Speak to current landlord about fixing the house up, if they won't then ring environmental health. Is there a current gas safety certificate? Could be the boiler needs replacing.

[FrameyMcFrame]

.... I do speak from experience unfortunately.

The worst that can happen is that they will refuse her application for tennancy as she doesn't pass the checks but if she can offer a guarentor then I expect they'll accept her as a tennant even so.

As for being evicted because of being in receipt of housing benefit, how will they ever find out if the rent is paid every month?

Even if they did I doubt there will be a clause in the contract stating 'we can evict you if we find out you claim housing benefit'. Think it through a bit please.

[bellarose2011]

unfortanatley were i live it isn't an option to wait for a house that does accept DHSS, there are no rentals. a few come up a month and they are all no DHSS and out of my price range.
i have just had a gas safety check here and boiler is fine just old and running at about 40% effeiancy. so 40% of my bill are going up the chimney as the gas man puti have decided to go for it and hope for the best. im not the type of person to sit there worrying about a knock at the door. if it happens i will deal with it.
i have family so me and my kids would never be homeless.
unfortunatley i am in a position of needing to take some risks to improve my life a bit.
yes there is something very depressing about living in a damp cold house, i don;t feel like i can't really move on and starting sorting out what i am going to do with my life untill i have a decent place to live.
i want my kids to have a garden, they deserve to be able to go out and play when they want.

[bellarose2011]

my mum or aunty are happy to be gaurantors,

[BeehavingBaby]

We have rented for years and for the last 4 no-one has wanted a reference from a previous landlord not that anyone can buy a credit check. Have had to prove income though. If you think you have all bases covered and they are using a proper deposit holding service I say go for it.