landlords being in on the lie

red_devil

Apparentely i heard its quite commom for a landlord to say two people are just friends/housemates when they are really living as part of a couple!

This way he gets the rent or she!

This is in the case of where one of the couple works and one dosent. Its the only way to get the money as the working person cant take on the whole rent if they are low paid! One pays the rent their share and the other gets benefit.

Was anyone else aware of this and what can the dss do about it if the landlord veries it!

Oldernotwiser

I don't think that anyone's stupid enough just to take a LL's word for it, although I'm sure that it's tried sometimes. Many aspects of the relationship are looked at to decide whether a couple are LTAMAW.

red_devil

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

I don't think that anyone's stupid enough just to take a LL's word for it, although I'm sure that it's tried sometimes. Many aspects of the relationship are looked at to decide whether a couple are LTAMAW.

like what and what does the abbreviation mean.

lili2008

The landlord has no way of telling whether what tenants say is true and it's not his or her obigation. The landlord has no power to enter the property and no obligation to do the DWP's work for them. The 'couple' makes the claim and they get in trouble if the claim is fraudulent.

Unless by landlord, you mean the person who lives in the house they own and pretends their partner lives as a tenant in a separate room?

MrsBartolozzi

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

I don't think that anyone's stupid enough just to take a LL's word for it, although I'm sure that it's tried sometimes. Many aspects of the relationship are looked at to decide whether a couple are LTAMAW.

for Red Devil.
This means Living Together As Man And Wife.

Pee

If the landlord had a seperate agreement with two people or a joint agreement this would be a matter of fact. If they paid their rent seperately, that would be a matter of fact. If they had paid separate deposits and told the landlord they had separate rooms, ditto. The landlord could confirm the facts they knew but how can a landlord know whether two people are a couple. I let to a couple who I know very well and I can never remember are they a couple this week or not, so a good job they are not claiming benefits.

Pee

P.S. I have friends who post Uni have lived with male friends, def not cohabiting and one had a real problem with inspectors coming round and going through the laundry. It was hard work proving they weren't together, even though they weren't, and they tried saying his girlfriends knickers were my friends, despite a considerable disparity in size!!

-BA-

Considering I have just replied in your other thread re. avoiding attending New Deal. I now read this and must say:

a: you are either compiling a manual of "How to scam the system"
b: trying to scam the system
c: trying to help someone else scam the system
d: a benefit fraud investigator with limited skills

I am fascinated to know about:

e: none of the above

Jowo_2

Like other posters, I'm a bit baffled by the landlord's expected involvement in this, their role in supporting the deceipt with the benefit system and by the assumption that landlord's regularly support fraud. I can't recall at what stage a landlord is invited to confirm to the state, the relationship between tenants or why their word would be needed.

I'm a private landlord and would not give a tenancy to anyone who could not demonstrate they could afford it and I expect all tenants living in the property to be on the tenancy agreement as joint tenants. Like many landlords, I also have a policy of not letting to claimants. Therefore, tenants of this type would be screened out at the application stage and wouldn't even get to view the property. Should they fibs about income and employment status, this would be uncovered by the tenant screening process, and they would not get a tenancy.

I regularly read landlord forums and this type of practice rarely gets a mention. When it does, it's because a landlord is suspicous about the motivations of the tenant and wants to prevent being complicit in benefit fraud or has a suspicioun that they are being misled about the purpose of including extra people on a tenancy agreement.

Never have a read a post where landlords have been required to give statements about tenants personal relationships, nor any that supported cheating the benefits system - landlords run as fast as they can from deceiptful tenants.

Widelats

Actually, lots of landlords are corrupt, they harbour illeagal immigrants a lot, and if someone is legal asylum seeker the government pays the landlord 3 times what he would get if he housed a normal UK resident - thats what i heard.

movingforward2010

-BA- wrote: »

Considering I have just replied in your other thread re. avoiding attending New Deal. I now read this and must say:

a: you are either compiling a manual of "How to scam the system"
b: trying to scam the system
c: trying to help someone else scam the system
d: a benefit fraud investigator with limited skills

I am fascinated to know about:

e: none of the above

I thought this too, working for the DWP i see this quite often, one thing i will say is were not as stupid as people think, we dont let on we know/been told/or are suspicious so when the person finds out its TO LATE!

Benefit fraud is a crime!