Housing Benefit and renting

barnaby-bear

clutton wrote: »

no landlord in his right mind would want to get rid of a tenant who has successfully paid the rent for 7 years - tell him to claim LHA and carry on as normal - his income is nothing to do with the LL or LA

But the tenant wants to be honest and play by the rules... if the mortgage company forbids letting to such a tenant the honesty issue gets passed on to the LL.... he then gets the dilema, if I was the LL I'd rather not be be told as I could say truthfully I didn't know and carry on with the happy arrangement

barnaby-bear

Pete268 wrote: »

Hi,

I am trying to help out a friend who rents his house privately through a letting agent and has done so for the last seven years (two properties - the first one was sold three years ago but the letting agent found him another equally good property). The landlord has a mortgage on the property.

Anyway, he has been in full time employment and always paid his rent well before it was due etc and kept the house very well etc etc - infact what I believe is a 'model tenant'.

Anyhow, on the Letting Agents website giving guidance to tenants and prospective tenants is the paragraph:

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]IF THE PROPERTY HAS A MORTGAGE - THEN SORRY BUT ANY BENEFIT APPLICATIONS WILL BE TURNED DOWN - THIS IS THE LENDERS GUIDELINES NOT OURS.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]Now my friend is disabled, and although he has worked full time for many years, [/FONT]he is currently off sick and has dropped onto half pay (then it will be nil pay) and it looks like he will be medically retired with a small pension. He does get DLA and a small War Pension.

However he will not have enough to pay the rent. He would like to put in a claim for Housing Benefit or LHA but is worried about getting evicted etc because he will be claiming benefit.

Is the clause above really lawful and/or enforcable?. He doesn't want to tell the letting agents he is about to claim benefits as he really likes where he lives. (He should be entitled to full HB/LHA inicdentally as War Pensions are disregarded in the area he lives in)

He is in a bit of a quandry as to whether to go ahead and claim HB/LHA, getting it paid to himself so he can carry on paying the rent without actually telling the Letting Agents or face being evicted if he tells the Letting Agents he needs to go on benefits.

Any assistance would be helpful.

Thanks

Peter

LHA is an Allowance not a "benefit" and besides he isn't "applying" to rent

Pete268

Thanks all.

I will pop over tomorrow and try to reassure him.I will print off the replies to show him

Thanks again.

Peter

clutton_2

i have never known ANY lender take any action re DSS tenants (as they still call them) - as long as they get their mortgage payments monthly they dont give a toss

if a LL is not told a tenant is on benefits there is no deception

if a LL asks and the tenant says no - the LL still has not committed deception

if the LL asks and the tenant says yes - and the LL continues there is deception

i would just be quiet about it

if the LL was soooo bothered he would have asked already

this "no DSS" is a standard clause in any BTL mortgage document T&Cs - i bet thousands of LLS ignore it

Debt_Free_Chick

clutton wrote: »

i have never known ANY lender take any action re DSS tenants (as they still call them) - as long as they get their mortgage payments monthly they dont give a toss

if a LL is not told a tenant is on benefits there is no deception

if a LL asks and the tenant says no - the LL still has not committed deception

if the LL asks and the tenant says yes - and the LL continues there is deception

And if the tenant was not on benefits when they applied for the tenancy and is under no obligation tell the LL of a change in circumstances, then there is no deception as the LL doesn't know what's going on

silvercar

Totally agree that it doesn't much matter for mortgage purposes, but be careful about insurance.

If you are insuring the rent, a lot of companies won't offer cover for those in receipt of benefit. Also some building insurance companies won't offer cover if your tenants are claiming. I got a quote from directlineforbusiness who were offering a guarantee to be cheaper than any other quote, only to see a tick box that the tenant wasn't in receipt of benefit.

clutton_2

i suspect this would be illegal under the grounds of equal opps/discrimination or some such - but we do have to put up with this discriminatory nonsense - at least for the time being

ceebeeby

I've literally, in the past few days helped fill out a HB claim form for an elderly relative of mine, and there was no opt out for the council NOT to contact the Landlord. We had to supply all of the LL's details, inlcuding their registration number.

TBH, if your pal has paid on time for past 7 yrs, is ex-military, disabled, I can't believe there's a landlord out there that would be looking to evict him (imagine the front pages of the local paper!!!!) under those circumstances. I think be honest, because otherwise could come back to bite him on backside one day.

clutton_2

ccbeeby - i am confused - as Housing Benefit was replaced by Local Housing Allowance in April 2007. All housing rents/benefits/allowances - call them what you will - now go to tenants directly and not to LLs - so there is no reason why the LL has to know if a tenant is on benefits. Which council is this ?

Pete268

Hi,

I visited my pal again last night and he is still worred about all this.

Does anyone know if legally he could get evicted if the Letting Agents find out he had had to claim Housing Benefits (bearing in mind the clause on their website and also as someone posted above the landlords insurance may be invalid)?

I am really trying to reassure him he will not find himself on the streets.

Thanks

Peter