Directory of rent dodgers- good/bad idea?

tbs624

A Birmingham LL has begun a campaign to lobby the Govt for changes to be made to LHA
and elsewhere:

"A landlord frustrated by problems with the housing benefit system has set up a national ‘rent-dodger’ directory to name and shame tenants in arrears.

Mark Taylor, a partner at Taylor Housing in Bournemouth, which manages 100 homes, wants to highlight the ‘epidemic level of arrears’ among tenants receiving the local housing allowance. ....

Anyone can register on the directory and search for ‘rent dodgers’, who are listed by their address and the amount owed. More than 200 landlords have registered so far."

Source:Inside Housing (The report, in line with many other press reports, regrettably misquotes the results of the NLA member survey- see http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=23368373&postcount=31)

Whilst recognising that a minority of LHA claimants *do* persistently fail to pay their LLs, I don't agree with the "anyone can register and search" facility which is clearly open to abuse. DPA?

Not all those who fail to pass on their LHA payments are simply of the "won't pay" variety - some will be vulnerable Ts and IMO it is clearly wrong that their failings should be made publicly accessible in this manner.

It surely offers a fantastic opportunity for loan sharks such as this one link to fine-tune their target market.

Your views?

theartfullodger

It'll never happen... slander, libel & DP laws amongst other things..

Someone did set up such a service, last I heard the information commission was investigating them..

Cheers!

Lodger

PS Compulsory registration of Landlords would of course be a very useful first step to identifying & listing the rogue Landlords...

mchale

theartfullodger wrote: »

It'll never happen... slander, libel & DP laws amongst other things..

Someone did set up such a service, last I heard the information commission was investigating them..

Cheers!

Lodger

PS Compulsory registration of Landlords would of course be a very useful first step to identifying & listing the rogue Landlords...

Id be happy for a non paying tenant to take me to court for slander/libel it would give me the opportunity to sue him/her for my loss of rent.

as you say works both ways have a bad LL listing as well

g_attrill

theartfullodger wrote: »

It'll never happen... slander, libel & DP laws amongst other things..

Data protection would not be an issue if the person is informed at part of their rental contract that their details will be registered if they fail to pay. Likewise new renters should be informed that a search of the database will take place. This is exactly how credit reference agencies work. That said, it doesn't look like it's happening here.

theartfullodger wrote: »

Someone did set up such a service, last I heard the information commission was investigating them..

I can't see it being legal in the manner described, but it could be done properly. One significant recent DPA prosecution was a company who ran a register of union "troublemakers", however I think lists like that are prohibited by law outright.

robpw2

could we have a database of landlords who do not complete maitenece work .. do not return deposits etc .. i mean it works both ways no ..

delain

tbs624 wrote: »

A Birmingham LL has begun a campaign to lobby the Govt for changes to be made to LHA
and elsewhere:

"A landlord frustrated by problems with the housing benefit system has set up a national ‘rent-dodger’ directory to name and shame tenants in arrears.

Mark Taylor, a partner at Taylor Housing in Bournemouth, which manages 100 homes, wants to highlight the ‘epidemic level of arrears’ among tenants receiving the local housing allowance. ....

Anyone can register on the directory and search for ‘rent dodgers’, who are listed by their address and the amount owed. More than 200 landlords have registered so far."

Source:Inside Housing (The report, in line with many other press reports, regrettably misquotes the results of the NLA member survey- see http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=23368373&postcount=31)

Whilst recognising that a minority of LHA claimants *do* persistently fail to pay their LLs, I don't agree with the "anyone can register and search" facility which is clearly open to abuse. DPA?

Not all those who fail to pass on their LHA payments are simply of the "won't pay" variety - some will be vulnerable Ts and IMO it is clearly wrong that their failings should be made publicly accessible in this manner.

It surely offers a fantastic opportunity for loan sharks such as this one link to fine-tune their target market.

Your views?

Housing in bournemouth is just silly money anyway!

A house in Pokesdown, Boscombe (!!!!! place) £950pcm! for a three bed house with a tiny kitchen :rolleyes:

The ones with letting agents are the worst IMO. The one and only time i dealt with one i was left to live with horrible damp (which they lied about the severity of) holes in the walls (to outside) and upstairs almost dropping in from the ceiling due to shoddy repairs

I think we should have a bad letting agency directory

The agency that left me in that hell hole was James & sons, Poole (near bournemouth)

tbs624

delain wrote: »

I think we should have a bad letting agency directory

The agency that left me in that hell hole was James & sons, Poole (near bournemouth)

Try here www.allagents.co.uk ;-)

tbs624

g_attrill wrote: »

Data protection would not be an issue if the person is informed at part of their rental contract that their details will be registered if they fail to pay. Likewise new renters should be informed that a search of the database will take place. This is exactly how credit reference agencies work. That said, it doesn't look like it's happening here.

There is a key difference in that the databases used by credit referencing agencies are not accessible by all and sundry. If you follow your initial suggestion through though, any one of us could be asked to sign an agreement that states "I consent to my personal financial shortcomings ( or any other info which personally identifies me )being posted up on hoardings at the end of my street" and it would be allowed to stand as not contravening the DPA?

g_attrill wrote: »

I can't see it being legal in the manner described, but it could be done properly.

Any suggestions on how?

Jowo_2

I don't support a 'rent dodging' database for tenants - the conventional tenant screening process should flush out 95% of poor tenants. I support the switch under LHA to paying it directly to the tenant rather than the landlord though its hardly a surprise that some of the claimants squander it rather than pay the rent.

Nobody forces Landlords to rent their properties to risky groups of tenants, such as students or HB claimants. If they are averse to risk, they should take the appropriate action to mitigate or avoid it.

What seems to have happened is the buy to let boom has released hundreds of thousands of amateur landlords onto the rental market supported by equally poor unregulated agents in a period when there is a dearth of social housing and a boom in population that housebuilding hasn't kept pace with.

Private landlords are now expected to be a branch of social services so have the choice of either resisting this or forced to cope with being exposed to some tenants that lead such chaotic lives that can't/won't prioritise payment of their rent with the HB they've been given to do this.

For some reason, landlords who let property are now expected to distinguish between 'good' arrears from the deserving poor who have a good excuse why they've spent their LHA on something else or where the Local authority is slow to pay or 'bad' arrears from the 'can pay/won't pay' brigade. From the perspective of running a business, all arrears are bad. Landlords aren't letting property from a sense of social responsibility so its pointless expecting them to distinguish between 'real' dodgers and 'accidental dodgers'.

My only wish is that local councils and social housing bodies had the same payment set-up with LHA/HB as private landlords, meaning they experience the same tussle in getting the tenants to hand it over. If they were exposed to the same risk, it may have improved the LHA system and led to an understanding why some landlords have withdrawn from letting their properties to LHA claimants. Perhaps its more the case that the people running the payment systems and legislation are the real 'dodgers'?

N79

Such a database already exists and can be searched quite easily - just search for outstanding CCJs against Ts.

If LLs are too lazy to persue their Ts for outstanding money (given that all they may lose is the court fee plus they will lose some time) then they only have themselves to blame that there is no comprehensive system.

Of course, actually getting any money owed is another problem.....

So no, I do not think that this is a workable idea. It is just a system for LLs who are too lazy to use the existing system, which of course has all the necessary safeguards against libel, slander and false accusations.

tbs624

Jowo wrote: »

....Private landlords are now expected to be a branch of social services so have the choice of either resisting this or forced to cope with being exposed to some tenants that lead such chaotic lives that can't/won't prioritise payment of their rent with the HB they've been given to do this.

You say elsewhere in your post that LLs do have a choice of whether or not to go into that end of the private rentals market, so they are not "forced".

Jowo wrote: »

For some reason, landlords who let property are now expected to distinguish between 'good' arrears from the deserving poor who have a good excuse why they've spent their LHA on something else or where the Local authority is slow to pay or 'bad' arrears from the 'can pay/won't pay' brigade. From the perspective of running a business, all arrears are bad. Landlords aren't letting property from a sense of social responsibility so its pointless expecting them to distinguish between 'real' dodgers and 'accidental dodgers'.

Not sure if this is a response to my comment above but, if so, you have perhaps misunderstood. My point wasn't that *either* category of non-paying T should be excused their contractual obligation to pay their rent but that some would clearly suffer more than others from being stigmatised by an ill-conceived database to which all & sundry may apparently have access.

Unfortunately, some LHA-accepting LLs *do* seek to dress it up as though they are renting to LHA claimants as a philanthropic act but the fact is that LLs absolutely wouldn't invest in that part of the market if the sums didn't add up in the long run. Socrates seems to have managed the system well enough.

I agree with your comments on the discrepancy between what is applied to social housing LLs( esp Councils themselves) and what is applied in the private sector: this one is across the board, for example, private sector LLs can be pursued for repair failures by a Council officer, when the Council's own Ts are waiting for equally serious ommisions to be rectified.