renting to DSS

Euphoria1z

HI All

When renting to DSS, is it on a short term lease like your typical AST or is it different? Is there a yearly contract? Do the council inspect your property and check it complies with all rules and regulations? Can you issue a notice for tenants to leave at the end of the lease like with AST?

just need to know the main differences between AST and renting to DSS?

Thanks

clutton_2

you can use a normal AST for benefit tenants, but i suggest you do a lot of reading over on www.landlordzone.co.uk forum to see the difficulties you can encounter. Most Benefit tenants these days receive their own benefit and then have to pay their landlord, and LHA is going down quite dramatically over the next 2-3 years..... LHA is paid in arrears, (while rent is due in advance), and can often take many weeks to come through. Many professional landlords like myself dont know if we will continue to house benefit tenants... it is about to become even more difficult than it was.....

adg1

Bear two things in mind with Housing Benefit:

1. The government are capping it very soon at a max or 1700pcm for a 4 bed. No more money and no larger are available for tenants unless they are very cheap. This price is the top and your local LHA allowance is still able to be checked online.

2. The council will always advise the TENANT. They are the 'client' of the council. You merely supply a home. They will not help you serve notices/evict tenants and will actively encourage the tenant to stay put if they fall into difficulty making you have to go through the eviction process alone.

Jowo_2

There is no difference in landlord obligations, tenant responsibilities and housing law between tenants who pay their own rent and those whose rent is paid by the state. It is nothing to do with the council who consider tenancy agreements to be between landlord and tenant and who tend to have the only relationship with the claimant by administering their benefit to them.

There is a difference in risk - LHA claimants are considered a higher business risk. This includes the perception that it is harder to get a LHA claimant to honour the notice to end the tenancy because they are more likely to find it harder to find onward accommodation, so more likely to complete a homelessness application with the local council and potentially be advised to stay put until the landlord takes them to court to gain a possession order. They should not do this but this gate-keeping practice may still be taking place.

The minority of landlords that accept LHA claimants often demand a guarantor to mitigate the risk.

zaksmum

My husband's friend has rented houses out to what used to be called DSS tenants for many years but whenever one of his properties becomes vacant now he will no longer accept them as tenants.

Apparently rents are now being paid direct to the tenant who in most cases just does not forward it to the landlord. When no rent has been paid for 2 months the landlord can then issue a notice to quit and so many of the tenants just take it for granted that the 2 month period is a rent free one. They just spend the rent on themselves.

My husband's friend then has to either start the process of evicting them and finding another tenant who'll probably pull the same stunt, or get the existing tenant to inform the authorities that he wants future rent to be paid directly to the landlord. Throughout this procedure the landlord is treated with total contempt by the authorities, who refuse to speak to him about any aspect of the house he rents out, and the tenant too who is just laughing at him while celebrating his good fortune having an extra few hundred quid in his pocket.

A lot of hassle he can well do without.

So now he takes private tenants only, and while there are no guarantees they will continue to pay their rent he's had no problems so far. Out of the 15 houses he owns and rents out, only four are now DSS.

missdee85

Can i just say i have in the past claimed LHA and may have to in the near future, i can in all honesty say that i have never kept any of the money for myself and never would be tempted to. I think it is all down to character i am aware that quite a lot of the LHA tenants do keep the money and they ruin things for the people who genuinely need the help.

I think also that quite a lot of land lords are aware that very few will let to people who are on LHA and exploit the situation i feel they prey on the desperate and often have very poor standards of accomodation as they know these people have no other option than to take whatever they can.

Just thought i would stick up for the minority of LHA tenants who are honest and dont choose to be milking the system for their own benefit.

Personally we never had a property inspection done but i am wondering why you want to know this, is your house in a reasonable condition? Would you live there yourself? We did have to complete a section of the form however that asked how many rooms were in the house for example bathrooms, bedrooms etc we were also asked basic questions like what is covered in your rent silly things like gardening costs, ground rent, laundry but if you are just renting out the house with nothing else included in the price there is nothing you should really worry about in there.

Our lease is a short assured tenancy agreement just the exact same bog standard lease that is issued regardless of how you are paying the rent.

Good luck xx

Sammy85_2

I think all the tenancy bits have been discussed above already, but just wanted to add:

Please check with your insurers before taking on a DSS tenant, they may not cover you if you have a DSS tenant.

I just renewed my landlords buildings insurance and found that most insurers i contacted imposed some kind of financial penalty, such as increased premiums or increased excesses. Some wouldnt provide cover at all for DSS tenants.

clutton_2

missdee says ""Just thought i would stick up for the minority of LHA tenants who are honest and dont choose to be milking the system for their own benefit."

AS a landlords with several benefit tenants i would Definitely say the Vast Majority of DSS tenants pay their rent.... sadly its the few who get into the headlines....

Tulip09

I claim housing benefit, and dont see why it is relevant to disclose it to all potential landlords, is there a legal obligation to do so?. I pay my rent as requested on time in advance and have not wrecked the house, keep the grounds neat & tidy, and treated the property with respect as well as decorated and had some carpets fitted. If my landlord wanted to come and inspect the home with a days notice then he is more than welcome to. I have recieved help towards my rent in various forms over the past 10 years and never not paid my rent to the landlord or kept the money i recieved. Just because some people take LHA money and keep it does not mean the majority of people would. Surely your a current application process/ reference check/ visit to their current home would help landlords choose the right tenants?

HappyMJ

There is no legal obligation to tell your landlord that you are on any benefits. As long as you pay the rent every month the landlord doesn't care either.

Jowo_2

HappyMJ wrote: »

There is no legal obligation to tell your landlord that you are on any benefits. As long as you pay the rent every month the landlord doesn't care either.

Except that if the tenant is on benefits at the outset of applying for the tenancy, most landlords undertake screening which will identify that they are not receiving employment income that's sufficient to pay the rent...