First time renting... please help

Nicky321

My daughter has seen a rental property for herself and son. Under a sticky in this forum, questions to ask it has the following

"Ask what deposit protection scheme your deposit will be held in." what does this mean? I myself have never rented and have no idea with the renting procedure.

Also, she is single and currently lives at home with us, but she needs to move out due to overcrowding. There are 4 adults including herself and 3 children including her son in our 3 bedroomed home.

Am I correct in thinking she should be able to claim housing benefit and council tax benefit due to being on income support?

tootiefrooties

Don't know about the benefits - have a look at entitledto.com to find out.

As for the deposit scheme, it's a safer way of holding a deposit, as a neutral third party has it. I think it's the law now that one is used. It means that the LL can't just say "I'm keeping your £1000 because there is a muddy footprint on the step".

The only one I've heard of is the TDS, so just make sure her deposit will be held with them and you won't have to worry as much, as the return of it should be much fairer.

stick2000

From April 2007 landlords are required to protect any deposits they receive. This was introduced to protect tenants from landlords deducting hefty amounts from deposits and to ensure that they are returned at the end of the tenancy.

There are three schemes in place:

The Deposit Protection Service (DPS), which is a custodial scheme meaning the landlord hands the deposit to the DPS for safekeeping. The tenant receives letter from the DPS with a pin number so that at the end of the tenancy the return of deposit can all be done online. (This is the deposit scheme I use for my tenants deposits as it is free for landlords to use).

The other two schemes are insurance based schemes where the landlords holds the deposit themselves and takes out insurance with one of the providers. I'm not 100% how these work except that the landlord has to pay for each deposit protected.

The DPS have a free arbitration/resolution service is the deposit becomes disputed.

I'm afraid I don't know a lot about housing benefit or council tax benefits.

stick2000

Sorry forgot to say that once she has paid over the deposit she should receive "prescribed information" from the landlord under s213 of the new act - within 14 days. This basically details all of the deposit information, terms and conditions, etc. If the deposit is not protected by the landlord then a s21 notice would be invalid (the one served at end of tenancy if landlord wishes tenant to leave) and she could claim 3x deposit back from landlord.

Nicky321

Thanks for the replies, I have now rang the agents who are acting on behalf of the landlord to ask a few questions,

eg. The property has already got white goods, washing machine, freezer & fridge. I wanted to know who was responsible for them if they where to break down or need replacing, they told me it will be explained in the agreement. Along with other questions which will be "in the agreement".

I also asked about costs and they told me
£75 admin fee
£35.25 Agreement Fee
£29.38 Inverntory
£580.00 Deposit
£420.00 Rent (payable month in advance)

Then something about £75 to accompany the application form for the property.

This amounts to £1214.63 before she actually moves in and then she has to furnish the place. Are the costs above average?

dag_2

Am I correct in thinking she should be able to claim housing benefit and council tax benefit due to being on income support?

If she's getting income support, then, yes, she will be able to get council tax benefit, although she will probably need to fill in a short form that says she's getting income support in order to get the council tax benefit. The council tax benefit will appear as a credit on her council tax bill.

You still get a council tax bill either way, regardless of whether you're entitled to council tax benefit or not. But if your entitlement lasts for the full year, then your net council tax bill will be zero.

If she's renting privately, though, she won't get housing benefit. That's because housing benefit has been abolished for private tenants, and been replaced with a thing called "local housing allowance".

Instead of being paid their actual rent, a tenant on income support is paid a fixed allowance which depends on what area they live in, and the total number of bedrooms and reception rooms that would be considered reasonable for a family of the tenant's size; for single people over 25 and childless couples, that number of rooms is two. If the rent is less than the fixed amount, then the tenant gets to keep the difference. But if the rent is more than the allowance, the tenant has got to make it up themselves, either from their other benefits, or asking their relatives for help. So it's very much in a tenant's interest to shop around and haggle for the best rent deal.

You can find out what the allowance for a given area and a given number of rooms would be by looking at the local authority's web site. To identify the local authority, go to http://www.oultwood.com

If a tenant's income or savings is higher than it would be if they were on income support, then the housing allowance is tapered in the same way that housing benefit used to be.

Like council tax benefit, local housing allowance is not paid automatically - however, you can use the same form to claim both. Hope that helps.

Nicky321

dag wrote: »

If she's renting privately, though, she won't get housing benefit. That's because housing benefit has been abolished for private tenants, and been replaced with a thing called "local housing allowance".

Yes thanks, I refered to housing benefit but meant LHA, she would be entitled to an allowance of £98.08 per week for her circumstances.

Ive just been scouring the web and found the budgeting loan, not sure if she would qualify because you have to have been receiving income support for 26 weeks and she was on income support then Maternity allowance and then back on Income support from about june 08.

Nicky321

another question i would like to ask is. How does my daughter find out who the suppliers are for the electricity and gas? would this be on the agreement or would the LA or LL be able to let her know?
and would she be able to change supplier or tarrif to make it cheaper? At the moment the Gas is by prepayment card meter.

tbs624

Nicky321 wrote: »

another question i would like to ask is. How does my daughter find out who the suppliers are for the electricity and gas? would this be on the agreement or would the LA or LL be able to let her know?
and would she be able to change supplier or tarrif to make it cheaper? At the moment the Gas is by prepayment card meter.

The LA should provide the information on utility suppliers.

For any tenant (or Owner Occupier) who moves into a property without having been told who the suppliers are, see here http://www.enaconsulting.org/

Your daughter needs to be aware that those who have to use prepayment meters pay for their supplies at a higher rate than everyone else. You can ask if the LL would consider switching to a billed meter but their experience will probably include tenants who have left owing unpaid utility bills in the past. The other possibility is that you get the LL to switch to Ebico who charge the same prices to all users.

The other difficulty is that sometimes the pre-payment meters have been set at a rate to recover a prior unpaid bill.

Also check whether she has to pay the water charges, and whether the supply is metered.

If your daughter is worried about furnishing costs then she should maybe look at Freecycle to pick up basic items FOC: some local charities also offer low cost furnishings in good condition, or trawl through the local paper's small-ads.

Your daughter should ask for a copy of the tenancy agreement*before* signing it and take it along to a law centre, council private sector Tenancy Relations Officer or CAB to get it checked over so that any clauses she doesn’t understand can be checked out.

The Council may be able to offer a deposit guarantee, so that your daughter does not have to struggle to find the initial deposit. She would still however be responsible for any damage at the property herself.