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?

"We elected them in good faith. We trusted them to represent all of us. Or if not, then we recognised the democratic process at work and that our choice was different from the majority of voters.

But in return we expect not to be taken as fools. Or branded 'deserving' or 'underserving' based on solely our economic worth to them."

Exactly.

Tbh, I find the tone of some of the government's recent announcements far more threatening. There was one by the housing minister the other day, who when asked about forcing people out of their homes said something like "these people are forcing you to pay for them"

Expat's post was sweetness and light in comparison.

im hb claiment and i live in a wonerfull house i would never think of not paying my rent and i dont even worry about the rent getting payed. im home every day at the moment but that means the house gets cleaned from top to bottom every day, hopefully will be at uni full time next year fingers X!!! so will be out of the house every day. TBH if i where a landlord i would most def take each case on face value, i can understand the difference between rentin to myself and dd as a student claiming hb than a fam of 5 who could potentionaly rent your property who are possibly not taking as much care of it as you would wish.

but please never rule it out, it could be someones saving grace. as it is mine. I had to sell my property as it was too small and i did wory about paying the mortgage on it.

I wouldn't. But it's because if they're having to claim benefits then they shouldn't be able to afford to live in this type of house anyway ifyswim.

"But it's because if they're having to claim benefits then they shouldn't be able to afford to live in this type of house anyway ifyswim"

No - I don't see what you mean.

I'm not sure where you expect them to live???

Only rich people are good people, Mamo

didn't you realise that?

btw - thanks, Expat

Our last 4 tenants have been full hb.

1. Refused to pay rent for last 6 months, court order to evict, £2k to fix damage plus massive clean-up. Couple and child.

1. Broke boiler and didn't tell us and went without heating all winter, MASSIVE MASSIVE damp in house. Huge £ to fix,also stopped paying rent. Last time we didn't insist checking the property periodically. Single mother 2 kids. Why one earth you keep your kids in damp I don't know, I'd even rung twice in that time to check everything was fine and she'd said yes. (we're hundreds of miles away now). TOld us if we presused her for non-payment she'd report us for the living conditions.

1. FIlthy. Left the place piled with kids toys and other junk. Again non-payment and damage. Grandparents plus 2 kids.

1. Fake disability claimant (well considering how he claimed for not being able to walk and was fine putting sat dish on roof and doing the odd repair up there without informing us about his botch jobs). Damage was something else, had to replace kitchen/ bathroom/ all floor coverings/ outhouse roof/ boiler plus they gave neighbours hell. Also did malicious damage (e.g. taking bits off boiler) then reported us to environmental health repeatedly to show them damage they'd done. Council accusing us of being slum landlords and threatening fines as it was repeated (thankfully later proved deliberate). I dodn't quite know WHY. Married couple, one baby.

Sold property as we'd lost so much on it, for just under the mortgage on it. Paid to be rid of it as it was a money black hole.

I know people think it's prejudice but we gave it FOUR chances to a variety of couples/ families/ disability claimants who we had family vet for us and presented themselves well intially. We're not rich, it was simply a family home we couldn't sell when we had to move for jobs. We rented a crappy flat ourselves, 3 kids and 2 bedrooms. We were treated though like the ruling class who could afford to keep sucking up £££ of damage, I remember crying on the phone to the man at the council who gave us 1 week to do about 2k of work (all deliberate damage) as we couldn't get the money in anyway for it. HE basically said deliberate damage or not we couldn't rent a property like that and as landlords are expected to afford it.

I know we've been very very unlucky but it's stories like ours that put landlords off. It was a 3 bed detached victorian property with a beautiful 10 ft garden that had been loving looked after. Not a shit-hole, it was a tad shabby but clean and in excellent repair, just in a poor area.

Deathjeff

so where would you expect me ,4dc and ds3 has Sn uses a wheelchair to live then please I did not choose to be a single parent/carer on benfits but when your then dh calls his ds a retard and that does not want you know IRS time to get out

Yes the property I rent is pretty good detached 4 bed dormer bungalow yes it has breakdown yard at the back and close to level crossing but I'm happy to live with that
and yes my LL had lot of wobbles about Hb etc which he does now admit are unfounded

so should I be punished live in some 2 bed grotty flat full of mould ,damp because your not punishing me your be punishing my dc

Strawberry cake, that's really bad - I'm sorry you went through that. I had a very close friend who let her second hom out to tenants who were not on benefits and they did similar, though.

Sometimes I think it's just bad luck. Did you ask for references when they applied? I've always provided excellent references as far as I know.

:(

I'm horrified at what some people put other people through - and Strawberrycake can totally understand your disillusion. It means people like myself and others who have posted who do respect property and want to live decently in every sense of the word are tarred with the same brush.

I still think that direct payment to LLs would be part of the answer, though I appreciate the poster who commented on the LA messing up payments also has a point.

Can I ask the LLs who have posted here if they do get the deposits if property has been damaged, because I thought the new third party scheme was put in place to help both sides in this sort of situation?

Aside from that I don't know what the answers are - from the ground level up I suppose it would be to either pay wages that actually cover the cost of living, or reduce costs of things like housing to match current wages. But then, I'm a bit naive in that department. :(

I have to say that even when I worked full time I had to claim housing benefit, and that was for a one bed flat - in the days before minimum wage.

Also, Myleetlepony I did read that you can get direct payments to LLs once arrears exist (eventually) but surely it is better to avoid that situation in the first place ie pay claims direct from the outset?

We manage our money fine but others for whatever reasons can't - so when it is "taxpayers" money at stake, surely every precaution should be taken to protect the LLs and the stability of the claimants family?

toxic to answer your question ref deposits. yes we got the deposit back, but it didn't cover the cost of the damage and the rent that was due. i have also had to take an ex tennant to court to recover money and this is quite a timeconsuming and stressful process and we only got the money back because we knew of a property she owned.

a major concern with tennants is that once you have a bad one it can take ages to remove them from the property if they insist on going through the full legal process - so you could end up with no rent for 6 months and still have the mortgage to cover. we have been put off taking anyone on benefits because of their lack of income. though our current tennant (single parent since partner left) does now get a top-up and apart from a glitch at the moment has been excellent.

"Can I ask the LLs who have posted here if they do get the deposits if property has been damaged, because I thought the new third party scheme was put in place to help both sides in this sort of situation?"

Seeing as our past LL got to keep our deposit for damage from a leaking roof that they knew about before we moved in and refused to fix till environmental health forced them to, it seems it's pretty easy to keep the deposit. :(

This is another part of the problem, those that do take on HB tenants aren't usually the best LL's. Let's face it, if you've got HB tenants in, you know they don't have the funds to move or fight you.

References aren't worth the paper they're written on from landlords. If you want someone to move out without the massive fuss of eviction then they need to find another place to go, and if they need a reference from you, are you really going to write a nice honest reference saying "This person is dirty, broke loads of things and never paid on time and I don't recommend them"? Are you hell, because then you're still stuck with them and their horrible dirty ways.

That, or their mate writes it for them.

lucky1979 I agree I pay little attention to references to be honest

agree - you can't tell from refs. one of our current tennants had fairly poor ones but we couldn't find anyone else so took her on - and she's great - keeps the place spotless, has redecorated, paid rent on time (current slight ST glitch but we can live with that) - yet her ref was that they wouldn't be able to pay our rent and the place was filthy. we have also had great refs and lousy tennants.

you also can't generalise about the age/family situation. we've had young professional couples who've been terrible and have found that single mothers with children can actually be very good - keep the place clean, don't appear to have wild parties and pay the rent on time as they are keen to keep a roof over their children's heads. you just can't tell!

Hmm I had to have a gurantor who had to provide references to and not just any had be from work as well .plus 6 weeks rent as deposit plus month in advance

To be fair my LL is fairly good I normally leave rent cheque out back with company and never see him but this month in holding onto the rent cheque myself and am making him come get it as need some discussions

When I moved in march the bathroom false ceiling was missing most of the tiles dud to previous leak was told be fixed in a month ,still not done ,Then 3 weeks ago informed him the pump for bathroom upstairs making odd noises sounded like motor going , he said ok will sort informed him week after pump stopped working now have sewage bubling up in theshower upstairs

He said he was busy but would sort plumber out that was 5 says ago I have emptied the crap and piss that came into shower bleached it all but then as no pump it refills slower so I jeep emptying

So this time he's going have to ask for rent and ge knows I'm away from Monday to so if will be late but then this I'd only way I can make him sort it

so for now I have no upstairs bathroom and a smell of sewage in to ds1 and ds2 bathroom

So if LL had the rent paid direct to him. I would have no way of forcing the issues

so if little attention is paid to references it really does come down to

rich=good
poor=bad

I hear what that LL's who have had bad experiences with those on HB are saying.

I could tell just as many stories from the side of the tenant of awful landlords as well.

I think the rental system in the UK is just a mess to be honest, for both parties. And something needs to be done to make it easier for Landlords and Tenants when things go wrong, - and that's taking the HB issue out of the question.

if i had a second home that i was renting out for LONG TERM. i would deffo have someone on HB, becuase i then have them by the balls.

if they fuck off sharpish, their HB gets fucked up and it takes months to get another HB claim through.

it would certainly deter me from moving, thinking that my whole benefits would get fucked up each time i move.

There was an interesting article in the guardian recently about a charity which is leasing flats and subletting them to homeless people with the landlord's consent. The trust pay the deposit and can be sued/contacted for damages and rent. They also carry out inspections. I can't find the link now.

This would seem a really good way of bridging the gap. If a Local Authority could do the same sort of thing - take the lease themselves, ensure it is a suitable condition before the start of any tenancy and remove the tenant in the event of malicious damage/ non payment of rent more mortgage and insurance companies might be prepared to allow accommodation to be used. It would mean an increase in staff though which isn't really what the govt has in mind...

Sound like you don't have a good LL peasant but I wouldn't reccomend deliberately paying late

conversly people with money are in a more stable position and can just leave you in the lurch after a couple of months and get a new place

they can also be more demanding - that you fix stuff - and to please then you would have to - to keep your tenants.

also i'd wager that they are more knowledgable about their rights - and thats deffo not a good thing, as i would be in it for the money - not as a social housing provider.

Oh and point out i do normally pay rent on time infact normally few days earlyas am scared losing roof overdc head,I do most small stuff myself including clearing gutters that never been done we had a 18 tree in them also when LL was stuck in USA due to volcano

I manged and did not complain that had no boiler for 3 weeks so no hotwater or heating yet still paid full rent

Like most SP or people on HB I don't want to rock the boat for fear of ending up homeless ,

Hudspur it' not iffically late it's collected each month and for convieance I leave out back at yard as never know when he is coming ,I have it here bankers draft and it's within date rent not due to the 1st but I need him to come to the house ,

often the cheque is left for week ten days before ge collects it

In some ways ge is ok he leaves ne alone does not bother me allows me to decorate etc so it's a balancing act ,I can not afford to move or find somewhere so suitable for ds3 it more to point somewhere who will take Hb

Am just reminding him that yes I'm on HB and yes I'm glad he agreed to let it to me and yes most small stuff I brush under carpet but this time reminder hb ,sp or not Ge needs reminding that there's a certain minmum standard

Hellmouth

exactly why I'm carefull not to make waves or demands because if was not on Hb and knew could afford to move .I would been dam site more demanding about problems I've had