No DSS - landlords prefer pets to benefits

[gullyg]

The BBC are reporting landlords would prefer pets to housing benefit. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-39102860

 

Ignoring the fact they seem to be citing figures from flat sharing website rather than rentals it's an interesting question, which would you rather. 

 

I'd say it's not much of a surprise, no personal experience of being a landlord but with all the TV shows about benefit tenants wrecking houses and keeping the money only to force the owner to pay yet more money to legally evict them I can see why there's this perception. 

 

Plus round here they're still forcing builders to put social housing on private estates. In my estate there's been 2 murders in the space of two years in the social housing plus the bit where social housing has been built is minging with rubbish everywhere, cars in bits in the parking spaces, cars parked on the grass, trees and play park equipment vandalised etc etc - thankfully it's a fair bit away from me so it doesn't appear to have impacted house prices too much but it still costs a fortune in maintenance to repair the damage as it's spread out over the whole estate. 

Edited 9 March, 2017 by gullyg

[CWARD]

Long time since I've been a landlord but had two tenants at different times who were DSS. The first was paid direct to me and within a few months the house had been trashed with doors punched through, writing on the walls, carpets stained and generally no respect for someone else's property. This was followed by the long process of evicting them. After much expense to myself repairing the house it was let out to a friend and his partner. Unfortunately they split and she had no other income and although the tenancy agreement was his name only she convinced me to let her stay on and she would claim through the DSS. The rules changed and the money was paid direct to the tenant, all was well for around 4 months then I stopped getting rent. I was told what ended being a lie that there was some problem with the payments to her and it would be resolved. I was a bit surprised to receive a letter asking to confirm the reason for the rent increase stating the previous payments which had been made but not given to me. As she had a child it was near impossible to evict her. Since I was receiving any rents I wrote to the DSS to inform them stating that her tenancy agreement had come to an end so they stopped paying her. It took me 8 months to get her out of the house and was achieved by paying her to move out. I lost that much money that I stopped being a landlord and sold the property. If I were to be a landlord again I would even entertain DSS.

I'm an accountant now and a lot of my clients with rental properties have similar stories from DSS tenants and no longer allow them. This usually demonises the landlord but it's the tenant who do not respect the property they are in who ruin it for others.      

[Phil-E]

I still think that Housing Benefit should be paid direct to the landlord. This would avoid any such problems.

 

Unfortunately with the introduction of Universal Credit it has gone the other way. Anyone now claiming Universal Credit gets their housing costs paid to them and the responsibility of paying the landlord lies with the claimant.

 

I can see why they have done it as they want to promote independence and responsibility to people claiming benefits but then there are those that abuse the system and fail to pay their rent.

 

There should be a "blacklist" for benefits where you cannot claim again if you've failed to keep up with your rent payments and kept your housing benefit for yourself.

[Aspman]

I don't think they like pets either. Mate of mine is just out the RAF and has a dog. He's having a terrible time getting a rental that will take his dog. 2 out of 100 so far.

[RickTT]

No to DSS -- to get rid of someone from a property who is funding it via DSS so much harder.. If a tenant on DSS moves out on their own accord they do no qualify to be re-homed (for some LA).. therefore in order to qualify they are encouraged to remain in the property until evicted... costing everyone but them self cash.

[Ootohere]

?

When was there last the Department for Social Security, but anyway as to Housing Benefit and Income Support being paid out by the DWP or Local Councils the crazy system came in where to give people 'a feeling of controlling their own budget and worth' the Claimant gets the Rent Money to pay to a Land Lord,

Even a Council Tenant gets the money to get in arrears to the Council the Rent should go to.

(EDIT< Doh sorry when link linked i see they say 2001 when the DSS was finally scrapped, renamed, rebranded, millions ands billions spent on the HMRC / DWP / Job Centre / Job Centre Plus/  Sign on and claim and get no Job just money,. then no money, or lots of money centres. Now apply online or clear off you waste of space with no home phone, mobile phone, home computer or local library.)

 

So now it will be Universal Credit and not paid weekly or fortnightly but Monthly to the 'Recipients' to Budget their living expenses including utilities and rent.

 

It is a farce as is how much is paid even still to some private landlords even after 'Benefit Caps' have been introduced.

Edited 9 March, 2017 by Awayoffski

[CWARD]

Failure by successive governments to invest in housing stock has resulted in the demand on private landlords. This is nothing new and was same when I was a landlord in the mid 90's. The difference is we've had a huge jump in house prices since then.

Most private landlords like myself then still have a mortgage to pay on the rental property add to that insurance, maintenance, repairs and safety checks and the majority barely make a profit even less now with less expenses allowable. They are in it for the long haul hoping to gain on the sale of the property for their pension. 

If you flip the equation then there should be an earnings cap before you have move out of a council house and into private. That way council houses will be available for those that can't afford private and actually need low rents. Bob Crow was a prime example of someone who should never have been allowed to continue to live a council that could have been used by someone who needed it. 

[VWD]

Maggie started the rot with right to buy, and then Prescott kept it going with stock transfer, where tenants decided that buying was better than having some housing association buy the house for a pittance and then jack the rent up, and degrade their conditions of tenancy.

Earnings cap- great in this jobs not for life society. Bloke works hard, studies harder and gets on - so he's got to get out of his social housing and work longer to pay the mortgage etc. Then two years down the line he's made redundant- but where does he go -and who pays for it. And if in meantime, one of his kids has moved away, and he's got a spare room- DOWN goes his income. Been there done that & had the T shirt and the bad experience.

What is not really shown on programs is how bad landlords get away with things. My move was to a place with no heating and wall to wall mushrooms. landlord had had damp proofing done ,but refused to take advice on replastering. I think he's still trying to get that place on the rental register. Son rents a place and it's taken strong action from his councillor and threats of closure to get landlord to even replace a broken window. And that's just on one of the properties the landlord rents.