Most private rentals "unaffordable"

[TheVampireEmpusa]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15284892

Not surprised by this, wondered what others thought. Especially in relation to those struggling for cash and reliant on local housing allowance.

According to the BBC article, the cheapest rent is in Burnley, at £394 pm, but according to the LHA calculator the max anyone could get is £340, so still need to find £54 a month. Quite a lot if you are struggling already.

sorry to hear that Beetle problem is the cards are stacked against you because no doubt everyone feel that they know someone who knows someone....... or has read something in the paper etc etc

I don't know about where you are but have you tried housing associations?

Beetle, lots of mortgage companies and landlords insurers forbid them renting to HB tennants so its only those that dont have this clause that can offer the option if they choose. Its based on past claims and experience so whilst there may be good tennants on Hb there will have been many bad ones, its rated like any other insurance.

I dont think LHA/HB should cover the full rent, people need to have some personal responsibility too. Many cant or wont houseshare, many have children that need rooms yet havent allowed for this in the finances anywhere, many thousands choose to not work yet expect a home to be paid for them so there has to be a cut off point somewhere.

I think any landlord who gets a mortgage that forbids them from taking in HB tenants is utterly mad.

There is no legal obligation for tenants to tell their landlords if their circumstances change and they receive HB, so your insurance could easily be invalidated and you would have no idea AND you wouldn't legally be able to blame the tenant for your invalidated insurance either.

Holiday - if you can deduct things from your income tax like subscriptions to professional bodies, or wigs, as they are a legitimate expense. why can't mortgage interest be a legitimate expense? No one I know can afford to buy a house without a mortgage; not all landlords are BTL; we are not, we are renting out a family home BECAUSE the government sent dh to serve abroad and we will need somewhere to live when we return; rather than renting somewhere that someone else may need, or having Local Authority housing.

Even if there were no interest deduction, many may not pay tax anyway. I wouldn't as any income would still, after the other deductions, be under the tax threshold as I don't work (as am abroad), so can fully utilise my allowances. I imagine that HMRC have done the calculation and worked out that there would not be much increase in tax, or that it may impact on the amount of housing stock available to rent if the rules were changed.

'I think any landlord who gets a mortgage that forbids them from taking in HB tenants is utterly mad.'

Mine is a residential mortgage, and that was the clause in it. As I was allowed to rent the house out without any change to my mortgage, I was happy to accept that clause.

Betelgeuse - sorry if being unreasonable here, but couldn't you just not tell them you're on HB? How would they found out?

It seems dreadful that you can't find anywhere at all. :(

Hey - just noticed - are there two different beetle/betelgeuses on this one page? Please tell me not - that would be too weird...

This is really scary.

There will be a lot of people on council waiting lists, and a lot of people moving into trailer parks.

As a family we have been reliant on the councils help toward our rent for years. The area I have grown up in, and wished to stay in, has become so expensive that rents are, on average, £100-£150 more than the local LHA will allow. We are about to leave, for family reasons, but the painful truth is that LHA in our area only covers the amount needed to live in horrible estate a few miles away. You DO have to tell your landlord as most now go through credit and guarentors checks, but thats another rant! At one point we were offered a B+B 20 miles away as the only option, thankfully we were saved by family passing the checks but it was intrusive, my father had to give them all his bank and payment details, and not many peolple will have someone willing to go through that unless they are family. Cardboard cities will be the order of the day soon.

gore it is . I think the government are hoping that landlords reduce rent. And pigs might fly.

Of course they're not going to reduce rent. Hands up who has ever had a rental reduction...

...

Thought so.

"Of course they're not going to reduce rent."

No, most of them can't.

Most landlords are not making huge profits, they're often paying for a mortgage on a property that they bought at a high price and then also have to deal with the additional costs of being a landlord. A lot of landlords these days aren't even doing it to make a huge profit, they're doing it because they just can't sell a property that they have and they need to be living elsewhere.

So those people can't do a lot.

Yes there are "evil" landlords who are making huge profits from their tenants and letting them live in appalling conditions. But they're the minority, and tackling the problem of high rents under the delusion that the problem is caused by that minority is dangerous. If you hack into the profit margins of current landlords then the only ones who will stay in the game are those with high margins, so those "evil" landlords will become far more common as they're the only ones that can afford to keep going. Those good landlords who are often just getting by will give up.

we! we review the rent with out LL every year and had reductions for 2 years running. paying less now then we paid 5 years ago.

That's good Mousy! Sounds a world away from the area that I live in (house prices are always stupidly high here).

house prices are stupidly high were I live (central -ish london), but LL are humans (yes really!) and you can talk to them.
we are good tennants and our LL is happy that we take good care of his property.

I haven't reduced the rent on my place, but neither have I raised it for the current tenants, so they've paid the same rent for 4 years, and I won't raise it whilst they are there.

I am sort of a landlord. Well i rent my mum's house for her, so she gets the cash but I get the aggro. Works well....for her! lol

Anyway, I agree that landlords don't make vast amounts of money. If my mum's place had a mortgage, we'd be running at a loss most months.

People see the rent and think it's all profit. It rarely is. There's all the regulations, certificates, insurance to pay for. After that there's the repairs which seem to crop up quite regularly. There's always a leak or something broken or whatever.

The reason why landlord's don't like accepting HB claimants is simple. Firstly there are quite a lot who would happily trash the place, not pay rent then piss off into the sunset. Of course a professional couple can also do this but its considered less likely. I've not done the figures myself but the key thing is that the perception is that a professional couple will be a better bet, especially if they can afford to pay more.

Secondly council's can claw back housing benefit paid directly to the landlord. If the tenant pays then they cannot but then you go back to the risk of them not paying again.

A good friend of mine is a single parent and her landlord was initially reluctant to take her on since she was on HB and had been stung last time by the council before his old tenant trashed the place. She's paid up without fail and when the HB messed up, even took an overdraft to ensure rent was paid on time. These types are like the holy grail of tenants. As a result her landlord has frozen rent rather than risk raising it and her moving out.

My point is that most landlords don't make anywhere near the money most think and you really have to see how many idiots there are out there who are renting to see why landlords are so selective. When we do find a good tenant, they are worth their weight in gold and most will do their utmost to keep them happy.

What do you mean by the councils 'claw back' housing benefit?

Landlords seem to have forgotten that while they are letting out their property to cover the mortgage, their property is increasing in value by let's call it 5% a year (recent two years excepted). Giving them - on a 400k property, £20,000 a year in their back pocket.

Clearly things are now starting to change as house values are going down and landlords will have to reduce rents or sell up. But even if they sell they still won't lose out, it is unlikely that any landlords will come out at a loss.

I don't think LL's are evil at all, I didn't state that hardly anyone (I'll accept mousy!) have had a rent reduction because I think LL are greedy buggers. Certainly at our last place I know the LL was making a loss on our rent but choose to keep us on and not raise the rent because we were good tenants. I expect current LL here is probably just about breaking even.

I think that really high rents on small properties in particular are to be blamed on the huge mortgages being given out 5+ years ago/inflated house prices in general.

But that means that the reduction in HB payments is going to make no difference whatsoever on rental prices, and the poor will just struggle even more (or become homeless). It seems insanely cruel to punish renters for something they have no control over.

tbh, I don't care if my landlord makes a profit or not.
I pay the market value for the flat (well a tiny bit less). the landlords finances are not of any interest to me as long as we are not booted out.

Ah, but that's why I wouldn't argue for a rental decrease too much (we pay less than going rate anyway) I can't afford to get booted out.