Rent Dodgers Beware

molerat

A Dundee letting agent has affixed a sign to a house where they have had trouble getting the rent http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/8142882.stm

What do you think, fair or "draconian" as shelter have termed it.

tweetyshells

If they have no genuine reason for not paying then yes shame them

missile

I think it is a sign of the times. Landlords will become increasingly reluctant to let to social housing tennants now that housing benefit is not being paid to them directly.

sandraslice

Excellent!

chickmug

I am sure the tenants would rather have this sign than the heavies go in and break their legs:rolleyes:

Only joking!!!

princeofpounds

I think they are in danger of being sued for harrassment frankly.

I'm not a big fan of letting non-paying tenants off the hook, especially those who are receiving benefit but not paying for accomodation.

But the solution is in easier routes to eviction (2 months is not an unreasonable arrears schedule for section 8, I think six weeks is enough - it has to be more than a month in case it's temporary cashflow issues that can be solved by a payday. But it's the following court and eviction process that takes equally as long that is the problem) and money recovery for landlords in the case of non-payment.

It's simply unnecessary and quite disturbing to do things this way. Unless of course tenants get the right to post signs outside their landlord's house if they don't do things they think they are contractually obliged to.

But somehow I don't see LLs signing up to that, because who knows what kind of whim tenants may have? Same goes for LL.

If it's right, it should seem right when cutting both ways. So it's nice to vent, but if you think about this seriously, it's not so nice.

Mr_Matey

It's a good way to encourage the rent dodgers to trash your place, if they haven't already.

clutton_2

I see that Shelter are fudging their response to this theft issue - there is never any excuse for getting money for housing from the state and then spending it on something else

Jowo_2

I do understand the frustration and anger felt when tenants receiving local housing allowance do not pay their rent with it but I don't support this practice.

Remember the hypocrisy at the centre of LHA - tenants now receive the benefit directly instead of private landlords because the government wants tenants to take responsibility for their personal budgets. However, the local authority and social housing landlords receive their rent directly so aren't prepared to take this risk and champion the claimant taking responsibility themselves.

The local authorities will only pay the landlord directly once the tenant has built up 8 weeks of arrears. This is completely daft considering that is the trigger point whereby the courts will always award possession back to the landlord for arrears of that size.

This is now probably having a negative affect with fewer private landlords than before willing to accept claimants as tenants. This will become a massive issue in the future once the government wakes up to the fact that private landlords are not willing to fill the vacuum caused by the lack of social housing.

The heart of the matter is that the state will not take action for the housing benefit being squandered, considering it a civil matter between landlord and tenant. The landlord cannot take action against the tenant because it's a waste of time persuing someone who has no income since the judgement can never be enforced.

Clearly there's a weakness which means there's no incentive for some tenants to prioritise paying their rent with the money they've been given to do it. Placards are not the answer to problems with systems and infrastructure.

clutton_2

but placards bring this LHA direct payment nonsense into the public arena - and we will need months and months of these publicity stunts to make even one whitehall mandarin sit up and take notice

tek-monkey

My sister is now on benefits and nobody would touch her, and it is precisely because of the amount of people taking the benefits and not paying the rent. It'll just make it harder to get a place when on benefits, which helps nobody.

I'm all for the signs, if you don't pay up and refuse to communicate why shouldn't you get shamed?