Tenant with housing benefit

lfckerry

Hi
ive posted before about problems with the housing office sorting out my tenents claim.
Well she has been in the house over 9 weeks and they have still not sorted her claim so therefore i am not getting any rent. i filled in some paperwork with her before xmas to get an interim payment directly to me but i have yet to receive this. Does anyone know how long these payments usually take? i dont know how much it would be for either. the whole thing is just shocking. how can they expect landlords to keep letting tenants live in a house when no rent is being paid. it really does put me off renting to people on housing benefit.
im stuck now as what to do. on one hand i feel sorry for the tenant and i know its not her fault but at the end of the day it is her duty to pay me the rent and i do have a mortgage to pay. i havent given her any demands yet as ive just been waiting but it cant go on much longer. its just frustrating because she is a good tenant apart from the lack of rent lol

BitterAndTwisted

A tenant who doesn't pay rent cannot be considered a good one, especially at the start of a tenancy where there is no long-term relationship or any goodwill built up.

Get back onto the housing dept and check out what's causing the delay. In the meantime send your tenant a rent-statement showing the rent paid in advance and the arrears building up and remind them that should they fall into two month's of arrears you could apply to the court to have her evicted.

Now you can understand why many landlords will not rent to those claiming benefits.

lfckerry

i know what you mean, i can see she is really trying to get some money together and has given me £150 in the last few weeks but i really need to stop being 'nice' and get it sorted as im now owed over £1000.
but then i think-is it worth waiting a bit longer because it will take time to evict her and find a new tenant. im sure once the housing is sorted it will be fine but i just dont know how long to wait

BitterAndTwisted

It's entirely possible that the tenant is receiving the rent from the local authority and is prioritising other commitments with the money instead of the rent. If you're not being assertive enough this could encourage the tenant to continue doing so.

Once a tenant is in two month's-worth of arrears you can ask the LA to pay you the rent direct. I would urge you in the strongest possible terms to ensure that this is done.

In the meantime, send your rent-statement with the warning and keep a copy for future reference. You might have to go down the eviction-route and you'll need all of your ducks in a row.

Did your new tenant pay you rent in advance, a deposit, how much were they and have you protected the deposit in one of the three approved schemes?

lfckerry

I have rang the housing office and they confirmed that her claim has not been dealt with and confirmed they received her application on 4th Nov.
I did not get any rent in advance. i did receive a deposit which is nearly the same amount as a months rent and it is protected by the DPS.
she has told me she is goin to the housing office this week to chase it up so may give her till then and then send her that letter next week. my patience is wearing thin!

marleyboy

If its any consolation (albeit not much), although admittedly the Benefits agency run at a snails pace, rest assured that it will get backdated once its sorted out.

I really dont think this is the tenant pulling a fast one on you, maybe if you ask the tenant to inform them of a threat of eviction unless it is dealt with by a certain deadline , it may help speed things up a little.

Alternatively be more firm and give the tenant a deadline to pay the rent by whatever means necessary or vacate the premises within 28 days. This could give the tenant the nudge to realise the seriousness of it, pushing them to go to the office themselves to demand action.

BitterAndTwisted

NO RENT IN ADVANCE!

Please, please, please keep on top of this: once the application is processed your tenant could be receiving two month's rent as an absolute minimum. Let's just hope and pray that they pay it all over to you immediately.

BitterAndTwisted

marleyboy wrote: »

Alternatively be more firm and give the tenant a deadline to pay the rent by whatever means necessary or vacate the premises within 28 days.

Don't be daft! This advice is poor, misleading and inaccurate and I would advise the OP to ignore this completely.

marleyboy

In what way would 28 day notice be misleading or inaccurate?

If I stopped paying my rent, I am 99% certain, my landlord would give me a deadline to pay up or vacate. I can guarantee he wont give me a 12 Month notice.

dmg24

She needs to get her MP onto this - a two month delay without an interim payment is unacceptable. A quick call to the LA from her MP and she'll receive something within days.

lfckerry

yes i know having no rent in advance was daft but i was under the daft illusion that i would receive my first payment 2 weeks after she moved in-lesson learnt there!
does anyone know how long interim payments usually take to be dealt with??