would you now rent to a housing benefit applicant?

[WhyMeWhyNot]

So all you Mumsnetter landlords --- in all honesty will you still or would you in future rent your property to a housing benefit claimant? Either one who works and has their rent topped up or a family on 100% benefit?

I'm on HB (not full though, I have make most of rent up myself) but I am really quite at the suggestion that I am less likely to pay my rent on time or in full. I have paid my rent on time and in full every single month.

Also a bit at the suggestion of me being more likely to damage the property. My current landlord was left with a huge bill to cover damages after the previous tenant left. The walls, windows and floors had been scrawled on, the fridge was manky, furniture was badly damaged etc. Oh and these people were not unemployed. He was a G.P and his wife a SAHM. I'm neither Kim or Aggie but I keep this place spotless in comparrison.

Want2bSupermum Our landlord is selling up, we have to leave. I'm actually not in London, and the amount of HB we qualify for here doesn't come too close to the market rent here. Plus finding private landlords who take HB (as this thread shows) is very difficult.

So unless we get lucky and find on who does take HB and does charge under the HB amount, we wont have a home come February.

If the rent was paid directly to me as the landlord rather than to the tenant then yes I would rent to someone on HB, but otherwise no due to the possibility of non-payment and clawback that others have mentioned.

What makes a huge difference to me is having a prior reference from the landlord. I have lowered the rent before to a couple who were perfect. She was pregnant and their budget was lower then the rent as they were saving for a house. I gave them the lower rent because their prior landlord gave them a glowing reference. They were not on housing benefit to my knowledge but they didn't make much so were high risk.

I would speak to your landlord now about them speaking to potential future landlords and providing them with records such as you paying rent on time and in full each and every month. If the place hasn't sold yet you have a lot of leverage. IE - access for viewings, keeping the place immaculate etc etc.

I see it that I have a responsibility to good tenants to help them find a new home so don't mind providing references. Letters don't cut it for me. I want to speak to the prior landlord and then have them email me with the info I ask for. The reason I ask for proof of rent being paid on time and in full is because then I know I have spoken to the landlord.

Interesting that there are so many misguided people out there.. I was on HB for quite a while, and was scrupulous about paying on time. I borrowed the deposit to make sure I met my responsibilities as any tenant would. If the rent is paid to the tenant (rather than the landlord) then it's the tenant's responsibility to pay back to the council anything overpaid. If it goes straight to the landlord, it's the landlord's responbility. Sometimes people who've never 'owned' property have less respect for it, it's true, but very few of us would deliberately risk homelessness. I was a SAHM for all that time, and kept it scrupulously clean and tidy. There are also some very dodgy landlords out there.. tenants are obliged to trust that any mortgaged property doesn't fall into arrears (I was wrongly evicted from somewhere where the landlord fell behind with the mortgage, despite my rent always being in full and on time). I think while there is a shortage of social housing there will always be a reliance on private landlords. The insurance and mortgage companies are simply being prejudiced without grounds - if any tenant were smart enough to apply to the European Court of Human Rights, I think the companies would lose. Working tenants are more financially vulnerable in this day and age, as there are very few people with complete job security. Quite a few landlords rake in HB rents from vulnerable tenants where the properties are frankly substandard - I used to pay massive fuel bills in a rented property where the windows were warped and I was unable to do anything to improve the fuel efficiency, despite repeated requests to the landlord. There are responsibilities on both sides!!

To those of you who say "no way" unless they were working (not based on insurance/mortgage restrictions) - what would you do if that tenant then lost their job?

I went on the Rent Assistance Scheme which paid my rent (out of my first months HB) and my deposit (a loan which I'm paying back).

The council (who run the scheme) come and do a house inspection every 4 months to make sure I'm not trashing the place.

MaMo - this is hypothetical as i'm not renting anywhere out atm, but I wouldn't kick someone out just for losing their job, unless non-payment became a problem.

If someone was already renting then you would already have a tenancy agreement so you could not just get rid of them and I would keep them provided they kept paying their rent in full and on time.
What we were suggesting was a person who you'd never met before and so knew nothing about and in those circumstances I wouldn't take on a workless person/family.

Another thing to bare in mind is that 1000's of non-working HB claimants (who do pay their rent and look after their homes) top up the HB to cover the rent - so you'd not get it all from the council anyhow.

I was lucky here that my LL not only said "well I'm more interested that you actually pay your rent on time, not where the money comes from" and then also willingly and without fuss went through the whole RAS thing for me.

(he's also bloody hot )

'the real familys I would seek to avoid would be workless familys as I believe that there is a greater chance of damage being done to the property.'

Ah thanks for that, Huddspur.
Charming.

Can I just tell you what I have done while living here?

The place started off untouched since about 1980. The curtains were literally rags, torn shreds, the carpets were THICK with gluey filth, the side of the bath was kicked in, vinyl was disgusting, no vinyl in the other loo (carpet, yeuch)
the wallpaper was literally falling off and these rooms have 10ft ceilings. Lots of damp.

First of all I ripped out the carpets, all of them. It's a large flat. I was given a WEEK to do everything prior to moving my stuff in whichw as ridiculous as there was no one here and it was unliveable in.
I stripped the wallpaper off an entire room and repapered, and painted it.
I took off the damaged paper from the loo and repapered/repaired the wall.
I hardboarded the floor MYSELF which was really difficult, and paid for decent vinyl to be fitted in the loo.
My mother and I cleaned the bathroom and kitchen (kitchen still terrible, missing drawers, rusty cupbaord hinges etc) so at least they were useable. I tiled the side of the bath.
I painted the bedroom and living room (remember huge 10ft walls and bith massive rooms) and bought the platform I needed for this and all the paint and equipment.
I bought myself the slate tiles for the dining room and ended up laying half of them as builders the landlord paid for were crap - then I sealed, grouted and resealed the tiles myself.
I planted about 20 trees and 30 shrubs in the garden. Fixed the shed door and roof and built massive chicken run.
I felled some large trees and disposed of a lot of rubbish.
I sealed and oiled the floorboards and paid for new carpet in the large bedroom.

I also bought and put up good curtain rails in all the rooms.
Do you want me to go on? I'm in the process of repainting the exterior doors atm.

We've been here just over two years btw. They want us to stay as long as we want.

Oh and I applied for and got a grant to thoroughly clean out and repair the heating system (microbore - very very old - three out of 15 rads worked! And a brand new boiler)

The landlord only had to pay 400 for this.

I'm not saying that all workless familys would damage the property but I think that the chances of damage is higher with workless familys than one that isn't. So why would I take on the additional risk when I don't have to?

ahh frrrright - I'm just a teeny bit jealous - the house I rented last year hadn't been updated for years and I had the LL's blessing to decoration "tastefully" (basically not garish colours ) to my hearts content. Then I moved out

Here is beautifully decorated so nothing needs doing (and recently decorated too).

All 4 shelves of the cupboard under the stairs are full of the remains of pots of paint - LL said I could chuck them, I've kept them to patch up any children's wear and tear that appears. That'll be as much improvement as I'll get a chance to do here

why - if they've got kids then there's a chance of damage surely whether they're working or not?

If you could have seen what DS2 did in our house (our own, mortgaged place) when he was a toddler - omg I still want to scream when I think about it. It was awful, thankfully DS3 doesn't have quite the same "artistic" tendencies

"Working" does not a responsible family make.......

Oh Mamo. I loved decorating before I had the kids but it's another job to be done these days! Still nice to see a result though.

I really wish he would gut this kitcxhen though, it's dreadful and I can't afford to do it myself - though I would happily do the work.

Huddspur with respect you have zero justification for thinking that.

Have you read my posts? I don't work, am here a lot of the time and have two kids.

I spend the time doing good stuff, not wrecking the joint. I don't want to live in a shit heap.

oh no - I'd love to do some, even with the kids.

I did get to do some in the house exH is now in before I had to move out. Totally re-did what had been the spare room/3rd bedroom for DS1

New carpets put in (paid someone to do that), paid a friend to replaster one of the walls. And then I painted the whole thing,

I only have one thing to do here - next summer I'll take DS2's chest of drawers downstairs and in the garden, strip it and repaint it.

It's stll got the same paint (and handles - well minus a few snapped ones) that my mum put on 30yrs ago when she bought it old and scruffy from a 2nd hand furniture shop

In the future I dream of finding a run down old place and doing it up

I have the mortgage and insurance companys on my side of the argument though. This is the reason why some of them cover HB applicants or if they do it tends to be at a higher cost as their actuaries and risk assessors have assessed there is a greater risk with those on HB.

I'd like to understand why, Hudd. I wonder if it's documented anywhere or if they are just, well, a bit prejudiced.

Yes and some of them have realised that in these days when a large % of the working population have to claim HB to some degree it's rather out dated.

Some of them if asked will allow HB claimants now - my Vicar is a landlady - she had the "No HB in her insurance and mortgage" - a family came to her, she asked the insurance and mortgage, they said yes - no problem - and so she had them for years - paying regularly.

Ironically until they both started working and then stopped paying regularly

I have noticed in my area though since unemployment has soared during to several local companies going bust that more Letting Agents now consider people on housing benefit.

Approx 3/4 of them now consider them as opposed to approx 1/3 nearly 2 years ago.

There's definitely been a shift.

It's a shame that some people can't get the "claiming housing benefit=non working/scum" out of their minds.

Sadly, statistics do back huddspur up, though. Hence, why many mortgage companies and insurers have clauses in their contracts with customers about HB tenants.

Instead of trying to argue with her, however, I do agree with the poster who suggested showing this thread to their MP as that would probably be more productive.

The trouble we ran into when privately renting was 'no children' and landlords who wouldn't take partial housing benefit as we are a working poor family.

We are now in HA property so don't qualify for HB. But in private lets we'd have needed partial HB.