@Izbeckistan 503579 wrote:
It took me ages to find a place to rent with housing benefit. Most homeowners wont rent out to people recieving hb. I spose cause they dont like the government know how much income they get.
Govt/tax authorities aren’t as joined up as folk think and using this to assess someones tax liability would yield little benefit for the surveillance resources involved, especially as the local authority does the bulk of the work, not central government.
The real reasons are a combination of many property owners having free market right wing views (unless its a housing co-op (my friends run one)) and also considering housing benefit claimants as a greater risk – not so much due to the risk of them being bad tenants as such (any tenant can be dysfunctional) but delays in claims being assessed (and the landlord getting their rent) or (where benefits are paid to the claimant rather than the landlord, it varies from place to place) concerns that claimants who have been allowed to move in just do a runner the day they get their rent cheque (this happened to a family I know who were trying to help someone out and the folk what got ripped off were really good right on people, not “capitalist pigs..”)
@Izbeckistan 503579 wrote:
It took me ages to find a place to rent with housing benefit. Most homeowners wont rent out to people recieving hb. I spose cause they dont like the government know how much income they get. Its either traipse a shit load of privrate landladies/lords or go agency which require either an income of 20k+ or a guarantor…i mean how many people fit into that?
Nothing to do with tax, everything to do with getting paid, fact is most private landlords are not rich people, they are normal working people with mortgages. Buying a 2nd or 3rd property to rent out is what a lot of people do now instead of pensions, these people make no profit, and often make a loss when factoring in maintenance costs, and they do it so after 20-25 years when the mortgages are paid off the rental income will support them in retirement.
For these ‘pension via buy to let’ landlords one bad tenant can sink them, the process of eviction if a tenant stops paying rent, or damages the property with no way of repaying damages is very long, they have to evaluate the risk carefully because the stranger they rent to could potentially bankrupt them & cost them everything.
Not judging anyone here, but fact if the stats dont lie, unemployed tenants are more likely to underpay/miss payments/stop paying rent, they are more likely to become criminals, and they are more likely to have heavier wear & tear on properties. Of course it’s sad that the good ones find it harder to find a home, but you have to see it from both sides.
This will get worse next year when ‘Universal Credit’ replaces HB as many people will be forced to downsize, it’s a good plan in theory, get single people an couples out of 2-4 bed houses to make room for families, but in practice there arent enough 1 bed properties available for them to downsize so most will be trapped in properties they cant afford running up debts, LAs & HAs will w/o these debts no problem, but private landlords with mortgages renting to unemployed tenants could lose there pension properties and investments they have worked hard for.
Oh we’re employed, just get top up credits. But with private landlords I would of thought they like people with hb as it guarantees they get rent pain into their account?
Luckily we found a cushdey landlord who specifically wanted a struggling family. Nice bloke.
@Izbeckistan 503621 wrote:
Oh we’re employed, just get top up credits. But with private landlords I would of thought they like people with hb as it guarantees they get rent pain into their account?
Depending on the Councils they can get a lot of pain but no rent for many months, even if the tenants themselves are good people. This isn’t often the tenants fault but simply because Councils in areas with large amounts of claimants do not have the admin resources required to process claims as quickly as working people can usually pay rent. Also not all areas pay the rent straight into the landlords account, in some it goes to the claimant direct and they can withold it or do a runner. Also as Mezz says if they are older people whose kids are long grown up and might live elsewhere or never had children at all, they may not be aware that their Council pays a lot quicker, and still understandably unwilling to take the risk.
TBH although I technically have spare space in my own house renting it out would be more trouble than its worth for the money I got….
@Izbeckistan 503621 wrote:
Oh we’re employed, just get top up credits. But with private landlords I would of thought they like people with hb as it guarantees they get rent pain into their account?
Luckily we found a cushdey landlord who specifically wanted a struggling family. Nice bloke.
Currently HB being paid direct to landlords is optional and by no means guaranteed, councils stop or reduce payment for many reasons without notice, even when they pay they only do it 4 weekly in deficit ( whereas private tenants usually pay 1 month in advance ), and councils wont put up bonds for unemployed tenants to cover damages & redec so these costs are usually unrecoverable.
Also the biggest problem when Universal Credit replaces HB next year will be that all UC will be paid direct to all tenants, NOT to landlords, councils, or Housing Associations, so all that guaranteed income will vanish. If someone is poor, on benefits, they have a few hundred quid in the bank from UC and the option of paying the rent, or getting the kids new clothes etc, knowing full well they cant be made homeless when they have children as dependents where do you think the money will go ?
All LAs and HAs are expecting a huge drop in income when UC comes in next year, and private landlords ( except for the slumlords ) are avoiding tenants on benefits and switching all tenants to short term renewable leases to try and make it easier to evict people who lose their jobs.
@thelog 503226 wrote:
I really thought that the council would have had to make the flat a certain standard before moving other people in.[/quote]
I guess you thought wrong on that? Don’t panic. Just use your emotional discontent as a spur to getting it sorted soonest/cheapest/least hassle (you only get to choose 2 out of 3 from the list).
@thelog 503226 wrote:
Any advice would be great cos this is causing me a huge amount of head pains ATM
Cheers.
That’s OK, I’ve got a few ideas for you.
1) First, MOST IMPORTANT – READ YOUR TENANCY AGREEMENT. That is going to list who is responsible for what. There isn’t a standardised tenancy agreement between local authorities, although there is such as a thing as the Local Government Association where they can chat to each other about issues like that. Which doesn’t help you. But first, CHECK THE COUNCIL ARE ACTUALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR REPAIRS AND WHAT REPAIRS.
2) Research who repair orders go through. Some Local Authority offices have premises with phones to put you straight through to the right department. Or, find a phone that calls local for free (Job Centres, other scumbag assistance centres can help. And I’m one of the scumbags who are forced to use such means to communicate – by neccessity.) Don’t worry about being made to feel like a criminal, that’s just being poor in the UK, everybody gets that.
3) Right, assuming you can get through on the repair line number, they will check your council reference, address etc, and hopefully arrange a time to fix the “Health And Safety” issues. The exposed wiring.
4) Asking them to scrub off somebody elses nicotine stains or other scummy residue is pretty unlikely UNLESS you can show their is a danger to someone in the vulnerable catergory (Children are protected by the Children’s Act, so just wheeling the sprog into the office and pointing is a widely used tactic).
5) The QUICKEST way of getting rid of stubborn stains on walls and ceilings is to use a hand sander. Yes it means redecorating. Unless you can match a paint shade, which is pretty unlikely.
6) 2ND MOST IMPORTANT POINT – Keep your cool at all times when dealing with the Council. They are not just your new landlord, they are also usually staffed by socially minded people who hate to see unnecessary suffering and who get a great deal of stick from most of the people they see. Treat ’em nice, firm but fair. Tell it like it is and don’t let your emotions rule you – say when you’re unhappy, ask them pointed questions, get definite dates. But if you treat Council staff like human beings, they’ll be much, MUCH more likely to want to help you now, AND IN THE FUTURE.
7) The good news – Local Authorities are pretty laid back in comparison to private landlords, and are much more able to finance repairs and necessary mods. Get used to calling them. They are also a hell of a lot cheaper than private landlords. Being big organisations, a well heeled private landlord might get repairs done quicker (I’ve had one or two that were amazingly quick). But on balance I prefer being a council tenant. Even if some people do stigamatise me by most post code.
I’m poor. That’s not actually against the law. Being completely without support, I tend to just do the stuff myself rather than expecting the council to nursemaid me all the time. I’ve actually saved them a fair bit of cash by not insisting every repair is carried out soonest.
“Squeakiest cog gets the grease”. 🙂
Housing quality depends where you live, one of the very few useful things the Welsh Assembly has done was to introduce the ‘Welsh Housing Quality Standards’, of course it backfired on them being a bunch of liberal loonies they thought they were targeting wealthy slum landlords, but it actually had most effect on council housing and put many LAs into deep into debt.
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