Landlords refusing to take benefits recipients as tenants

[sarahquilt]

It's in the Guardian about major landlords refusing to take on people on benefits due to increasing levels of arrears - pretty controversial!

(Also the problem with not knowing whether a tenant is on HB is the vast majority of people on HB are in designated social housing, with only a tiny number taking their HB into private rentals. It is possible for venerable tenants (ie addicts) to opt to have their HB paid directly to the landlord but without the landlord being able to identify them it's not working.

My tenant gets his housing benefit paid directly to me, he used to get it himself and pay monthly himself until he spent 2 months rent in a row on 'Christmas presents'. In August. I'd love to sell my house but it's worth nothing and is my only foothold on the property ladder as we now rent another house. In very worried about the effect of universal credit etc and can only hope that the tenant wants to live in the house more than he wants to spend the cash on something else. That goes for all tenants though, it can be a minefield and i think better tenants and landlord rights need to be a priority.

I also worked hard, for 20 years. i wasn't planning to turn 40 on benefits. nor was i planning for my ten-year relationship with my husband to falter and then fail.

i need housing. surely it's better for me to be able to rent in the private sector than take up much-needed social housing?

anyway. i find out today. what will be will be.

Red herring.

As someone else pointed out, this isn't just any landlord, this is "The Wilsons [tm]".

As you may or may not know, they've bought up swathes of the Medway by leveraging each home to buy another. First point - every time they take a home out of the market it affects the local people of Maidstone who have one less home to buy - and, because of the Wilsons aggressive buying formula, pushed up the prices around the Medway putting them out of reach of the local working population.

So, let's look at this another way - poor, poor Mr Wilson (ex maths teacher), didn't quite get his sums right and is likely facing a margin call. Now, he can either keep those houses filled with local families (600/m HB ???), - or he can make them HMOs and with the latest influx wave of eastern european visitors he can keep the wolves from the door a little longer.

Do not confuse ordinary (even amateur) landlords with this despicable couple!

DolomitesDonkey is a margin call a request from a financier to provide more equity?

Serenity, not sure how in your opinion bank statements are "worthless". They show your income coming in, spending going out. No you couldn't just "say you work for the council". You would be lying and you would need to get someone else at the council to lie for you to confirm your fake employment.

I often read about these horrific landlords on this site. Then I read about tenants who say they've never had a credit check or had to prove income... I wonder if the two aren't related.

Every estate agent around my area needs bank statements as part of the application process. And those hardworking "Eastern Europeans" or any who are self employed provide 6 months worth (if they don't have an accountant who can give a letter of reference.)

I've never had to provide proof of income to rent a property. But then, I do live in the back of beyond. For this present property, I had already been living in the village, so I believe my LLs asked around for their own informal references!

But I'm sure it's different in the South East. It wasn't when I rented privately in London- but that was 15 years ago, so it's probably changed now.

(I've rented whilst claiming HB, I've rented while not, and in neither case have I failed to pay my rent on time.)

Also the problem with not knowing whether a tenant is on HB is the vast majority of people on HB are in designated social housing, with only a tiny number taking their HB into private rentals

I don't think that's true any more serenity, and I don't think it's been true for a while. With a huge lack of social housing, and housing costs going through the roof, many many HB claimants rent in the private sector. And many, many "hard working families"(TM) are now being forced to claim HB to top up their incomes, not just feckless junkies .

Isn't a bank statement confidential - you should be able to black out the names on the transactions. The Wilsons are doing this to pressure the LA about their local housing allowance. The Universal Credit is going to have a big impact on landlords as some have said already - it's making them nervous.

Surely by paying the rent direct to the LL would resolve this?

Yes but as mentioned earlier the benefit offices are much more strict now and will cut benefit at the drop of a hat / mixup with an interview or failure to sign on or even their own admin mistake. It's cut and then the landlord doesn't get their money.

Eh? How is this news? Landlords have always been afraid of tenants on HB.

Anyone who's ever been on HB will know this all too well.

I don't get how it's anything new.

And now people can't even go to payday lenders to top up the Landlord's shorfall!

handcream - it does as long as the tenant is not making a false HB claim. As someone else pointed out above, if the council find out that HB has been claimed incorrectly then they will recover it from the landlord, leaving him out of pocket. It's actually a huge risk because the landlord can't exactly check out the tenant's claim.

I actually had a Google, and they reckon that about a million private tenants are claiming HB (moneysavingexpert, of all sites!).

Cokefan - so the Wilsons could also be concerned about benefit fraud impacting on them? They would of course be able to recover the money from the 'client' by civil action but that would be tricky.

The whole system is a bit of a mess really, funny we only find this out when the DSS start making restrictions. They were effectively giving away blank cheques to Landlords before...

Credit checks can be shit for a tenant too tbh.

As a single working parent years ago, I defaulted on non essential bills but always paid my rent, council tax, tv licence etc.

I had to claim part HB to top up my crap wages. I had a pay rise of £6 per month. They stopped my HB until I provided payslips and bank statements to prove it was a recent pay rise. Took 6 weeks to sort the claim out (their side)

That month I was only £45 short of my rent (borrowed from family) luckily my LL at the time was great about it. That was the only time I've ever been late to pay.

My credit history is not good but I've always prioritised my bills. I would be screwed if a future LL did this.

Yes there are basically equal numbers of HB tenants in private and HA. The proportion in private has risen massively.

if the council find out that HB has been claimed incorrectly then they will recover it from the landlord

I don't disbelieve this and I've heard it before , but how was it ever legal?

If the tenant hands over cash to the landlord who is to say that this is the same money he got from the housing benefit. Maybe he spent the housing benefit on food and gave the food money to the landlord.

Is it possible that this was instituted because of collusion between landlord and tenant? "Tell them the rent's gone up 200% and we'll split the difference?"

Anyone know how often it has been applied?

I agree the problem is the system, not the tennants. Renting to HB claimants is just too risky for sever reasons, for example ...

I rented my flat our for a couple of years. I advertised it ad "no housing benefit" as from my own experiences of receiving benefits in the past, I know how common mistakes and late payments are with our local council, and I couldn't risk losing the flat due to delays to receiving rent which I wouldn't have been able to cover. (A friend of mine waited 18 months before the council paid her HB! they list her claim 3 times! They only got it sorted when the LL issued an eviction notice.)

In the end however I did end up renting to a friend on housing benefit. Never again. When we gave our friend 2 months notice, she couldn't find another place as there was no where accepting HB. She asked the council for help and they advised her not to move out, to ignore my request to leave and to wait till I took her to court to leave, I was shocked this was their official advice, and it put us in a difficult position as friends.

I tried to resolve the situation by helping her with get flat hunt, I was trawling through several sites a day trying to find a flat for her, it was nearly impossible. Gumtree appears to be full of ads for flats for people on benefits, but you get used to seeing the same ads, the flats they show are actually generic pictures, they don't representvreal flats. They're from a website which wants you to pay to join, I never did but suspected it wouldn't have ended up with a flat, seemed dodgy to me!

After 2 months, my friend found a place by chance through another friend.

There's no way I'd rent to someone on HB again, even a friend. It's just too much of a risk IMO, which is a real shame IMO.

Argh, full of typos, on phone sorry!

I think the issue here is that the Wilsons have sent eviction notices to a huge number of tenants who claim housing benefit. Personally I'd call that out and out discrimination and I would be shouting loudly and consulting CAB.

A lovely "fuck you" to their tenants.

Nice.

I got a house by hard work too.....I didn't plan on a broken marriage at a time when buying anything was out of the question on one income. The house had to be sold when the marriage broke down.

Nor did I plan on an autistic child.

I am now in a HA property and currently claiming HB.

I have worked hard all my life, despite currently not being in work I am still working hard as a carer, as a Mum, as a volunteer parent supporter.

I think they are probably entitled to discriminate, but equally the tenants are entitled to tell them to fuck off and get a court order if they want them out.

well, i didn't get the flat i was after as LL mortgage company won't allow HB.

i'm not going to be beaten down though. been on rightmove and the phone all morning, and have 2 viewings lined up for this week. this time, i have asked the agent to confirm HB will be accepted before i arrange a viewing. the agent on the first flat sent me to view the property after i asked specifically for a list of properties that would accept HB, so i am unhappy that they actually hadn't checked again first.

what will be will be. i am lucky that my soon-to-be-ex husband is fine with me living here til i find somewhere decent, and will pay all moving costs etc for me and be a Guarantor.

to be honest, he earns a very good salary so i'm not sure why HB woulsn't be accepted with him as Guarantor. my benefits are fixed til 2015, HB will be paid in full and i want a long-term let.

please let this get easier!!