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View Full Version : Renting to those on benefit? Read my story



agibson
25-11-2009, 15:24 PM
So you want to rent to DHSS This is my story

2001 bought myself a lovely new two bedroom flat in new development in a good area, there were 5 flats in the stair and all my neighbours were fantastic and we had 6 years no problems.
Jim the owner of the flat above me decides to rent out his flat to his son Allan.
He turned out to be a total waste of time and had a drink problem he would go out at the weekend and invite all the local junkies and drunks back to party in the flat this went on for a few months. What I did not realise at that time was that when the junkies get used to being in your stair they start to eye up the flats for robbery, so apart from the door in the stair being kicked in twice all the noise a junkie girl pissing in the stair johns flat was broken in to. cost us £150 each to fix the door and get a new bit carpet. I met the guy in the stair after he had trashed Johns flat I had seen him going to the party the week before. I called the police and was able to identify him from his mug shot. This was the start of my new relationship with police and anti social behaviour team. Little did I know at the time that I would have to learn all about Procedure to get anything done?
Finally Jim gets rid of his son and decides to give the flat to a management agent Orchard & shipman on a five-year lease.
Orchard & Shipman are responsible for housing the bottom end of the market for the council they now have 2000 flats in Edinburgh.
So here we go you have spent £200,000 on a flat work hard to pay for it pay the council tax and the expensive factor. Orchard & Shipman are like a big fat cuckoo depositing its eggs in your nest.
There first tenant was a single mother with a scowl that would turn milk so before we new it the stair was like a episode of rab c nesbit and she had family straight out of a episode of street wars they liked to come and visit and could not believe how lucky there wee girl was.
But the wee girl had a friend a twenty year old lad with a track suit and cap who liked to party and would regularly hang out the window on his phone to order his drugs. This was a couple that had the firm belief the world owes them a living So after a year of Police calls anti social behaviour team call outs the were evicted for benefit fraud.
Orchard & Shipman’s next attempt was a young single guy with issues David, the first night David moved in he came to my door to see if I could give him a loan of £2 having never met him before I sad no.
David had ambition to be on the xfactor and he loved to practice on his karaoke machine he was dreadful and could not be persuaded to stop.
David also had a friend a girlfriend who moved in they decided to get a pup.
Well they forgot you have to take it out and the poor pup never saw the light of day. They also used to go away for days on end a leave the pup on its own, the pup used to Howell , I went up to the door looked through the letter box and there was dog **** a piss every where the pup destroyed everything. So what were they going to do. (insurance scam)
The next weekend David went to stay at his mothers and while he was away the girlfriend came around with her friends and trashed the flat.
When David came back the next day he came to my door and said he had been broken into so I called the police.
The police eventually came to see me and see if I new anything, my story did not tie up with his. David and his girlfriend did not realise that the stair cctv recorded everything and they were caught. David did a runner leaving all the unpaid bills unpaid rent and council tax and a trashed flat
He was able to do that because the HB was paid to him.
After more complaints to Orchard & Shipman and the council I was promised the next tenant would be a sensitive let.
Orchard and Shipman done up the flat and put in new furniture and let it out again.
The new tenant was another single mother who liked to party she also has a friend a girl friend who has moved in Her Partner, more benefit fraud the girlfriend likes to drop her lit cigarettes out the kitchen window straight in my window. They also like to have there friends and family round and my experience when you get 6 lesbians and they get drunk they all fall out and its one big drama at 2am. They farm the child out to the father go out and get drunk come home and fall out. Bang about the flat at 2am . She also likes to hang out the window on her phone discussing her court case for assault not paying her rent and council tax, a responsible mother I don’t think. Orchard & shipman don’t return my calls anymore they are busy dealing with their other 2000 tenants and I would bet my house on it 50% of them will be the same as the 4 that we have had in our stair. Yes rent to DHSS and you have a 90% chance of big problems and get done out of your rent
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

Bugledog
25-11-2009, 15:55 PM
If you voted for the political party that has encouraged a whole strata of society to be paid for doing nothing, then sadly that is the result....

jeffrey
25-11-2009, 16:18 PM
'Strata' is plural. Read 'stratum' instead.

Emma1973
25-11-2009, 16:41 PM
Yes rent to DHSS and you have a 90% chance of big problems and get done out of your rent

A somewhat exaggerated stastic methinks! :D

If 90% of your Housing Benefit tenants (The DHSS disappeared years ago!) arent paying their rents then you dont know how the system works properly!

In my experience 'professional' tenants and HB tenants are equally bad for not paying rent and causing damage, dont stereotype so much!




when you get 6 lesbians and they get drunk and fall out

I bet theres quite a few people around here who'd be quite happy with 6 drunken lesbians falling out all over them!

islandgirl
25-11-2009, 18:23 PM
Bugledog - which party are you blaming? Would it be the one that oversaw the destruction of British industry and threw many hard working people out of a job in the 80s? Just wondering.....!

Snorkerz
25-11-2009, 22:26 PM
A few points for the OP....

While you are right, there are proportionately higher problems with benefit-funded tenants, it is hugely unfair for you to assume that they are all drug-taking loud-mouthed layabouts.

Nowadays it is generally regarded as a faux-pas to take issue with somebodys sexual preferences - drunken or otherwise! Likewise being a single-mother is hardly a crime.

I suspect the company you have repeatedly cited may be a little concerned to be associated with your post.

I am not sure of the Landlord & Tenant law in Scotland (this site is essentially E&W) but there are processes open to the landlord to evict 'problem' tenants.

And finally.... Your post suggests you couldn't bet your house on the status of the companies other tenants - because you have a flat, not a house!

David Lawrenson
26-11-2009, 09:30 AM
I would agree with some previous comments here, there are very good people on housing benefit (or local housing allowance) who stay for a long time and always pay on time, and there are some who are not very good at all.
The skill as a landlord is to tell one from another by doing thorough background reference checks - and if you cannot get good references from the tenant, then don't take the risk with them.
In particular, a reference from the landlord before the current one (where one exists) is very useful - but check the reference is genuine using for example, the land registry to see if the landlord really owns the property he said he lets to the tenant.
If you are letting through one of the private leasing schemes run by the like of Orchard and Shipman, local authorities and housing associations, the down side to the guaranteed rent (and in some areas no requirement for furnishings) is that you normally have no control at all over who they put in the property.
My experience of letting under private sector lease schemes like these is pretty mixed.
If letting to direct to LHA tenants, a lot will depend on the local authority too. Some leave you high and dry and some are very proactive, stepping in fast to pay the landlord if LHA payments are not passed on.
Other local authorities are slow, cumbersome and inefficient.
We do work with the local authorities - helping them with their private rented sector strategies, consulting and advising them how to get landlords to get on board and let to people on low incomes, so we are well aware of the huge differences in the way they deal with and help (or in some cases hinder) landlords.
The message is, if letting to tenants on benefits, it is worth checking how the local authority deals with and helps landlords in the area you are letting the property.
See our short article on them here...http://www.lettingfocus.com/pages/myarticles_guaranteed_rent.html
Good luck and I hope this helps.
David Lawrenson Topic Expert
www.LettingFocus.com

clw1981
10-12-2009, 13:33 PM
Hi,

I am in temporary accommodation as I found myself homeless after the breakdown of a relationship, oh and I am a lesbian as well as having been off work due to ill health for several years.

I have found in the past that certain landlords will tar all Housing Benefit claimaints (or LHA as it is now known) with the same brush.

We are either druggies; alcoholics; single mums under 18....I could go on but it upsets me. I am simply a woman in her late 20s; on long term sick but keen to go back to work once health is better; no drug or drink problems; no pets; no children. I do not want to be stuck in temporary accommodation where my rent is over £250 per week because the law dictates that amount whilst in temporary accommodation.

Not everyone is a dreg of society if they are claiming benefits, it is time people realise this. It is time that landlords realise this too. We do not have to tell you we are on benefits before we move in, often when we do some discriminate.

Stop tarring every benefit claimaint with the same brush!

islandgirl
10-12-2009, 15:10 PM
and the fact that you are a lesbian is relevant because...?
I don't ask about the sexuality of tenants and don't care as long as they pay!

jeffrey
10-12-2009, 15:14 PM
clw1981:
landlord runs a business, not a charity. Shops do not give goods free to the poor; landlords do not make accommodation available free to the poor.

tom999
10-12-2009, 16:26 PM
Not everyone is a dreg of society if they are claiming benefits, it is time people realise this.It may suprise you to learn that even LL's realise this.


We do not have to tell you we are on benefits before we move in, often when we do some discriminate.Your post and writing style remind me of another recent poster*.


...landlords do not make accommodation available free to the poor.Not 'private' landlords, but local authorities (in E&W) effectively do provide 'free' housing; they house their tenants and conveniently get the rent paid direct from another department within the same council.


* Don't worry, if the Mod's catch wind, they'll only ban you.

Snorkerz
12-12-2009, 13:57 PM
We do not have to tell you we are on benefits before we move in.

Well, as my insurance is higher for non-employed tenants, I need to know or else LHA tenants would be in a house for which there is no valid insurance.

So I ask. If they refuse to answer, I won't let to them. That's not me discriminating against LHA tenants, it's me looking after my business interests.

Chicco
13-12-2009, 14:15 PM
We do not have to tell you we are on benefits before we move in, often when we do some discriminate.

Stop tarring every benefit claimaint with the same brush!

It would be nice to know, as landlord insurance costs extra.

A working couple for me is £144 a year.
A non-employed couple is £257 a year
A assylum seeking (non-working) couple is £380 a year

Cant always plan as worst case all the time.

Regards,

Chicco.

havensRus
15-12-2009, 13:53 PM
Hi,
We do not have to tell you we are on benefits before we move in, often when we do some discriminate.


oh yes you do. Otherwise you would be obtaining the tenancy deceitfully or by false declaration. LL could seek to evict on S8, gnd 17.

If LL discriminates, its for a good reason, after all you will protect your interest, so why should the LL not protect his/her interest?? its a business, not a charity.