Housing Benefits - Feel discriminated??

giraffejoe

I never said that I would advise tenants not to disclose it. I said that it is the tenants decision whether or not we can. If they say we can't then the Data Protection Act says that we can't.

LadyMorticia

I hear what you're saying.

At the moment OH and I live with his parents because we can't get a home with a private landlord. For council houses, we have a bidding system here and we're on that too. We really want our own space but private LLs don't accept DSS and council properties are very hard to come by.

At the moment we don't claim HB or LHA as we live with parents and we wouldn't anyway because the rent we're charged here is very low (£200 a month) but if we were to move into private or even council accommodation we know that the rent would be alot more than this and so we may need to apply for HB or LHA if we couldn't afford the rent each month.

pandaspot

i work in hb too and agree that its up to the claimant if they want to disclose the fact that they claim benefit.

Also l/l's might be more willing to take hb claimants after april due to the fact that la's will have more discretion to pay l/l's direct.

zagfles

giraffejoe wrote: »

By the way I have never heard of anyone in my department "instruct them to ignore the notice served by a landlord, forcing them to take them to court and get a court order". There is a separate section called Housing Advice who will give the tenant their legal rights but that is available to everyone.

The "legal rights" are the problem. The fact that it can take several months and great expense to get a non-paying tenant evicted means landlords have to be very careful who they rent to, and results in blanket discrimination like this.

There aren't many other things in life where the supplier of the service is forced to carry on supplying the service for months after the user stops paying for it.

If housing worked in the same way as buying any other product or service, ie you stop paying and you stop getting the product or service immediately, then there would unlikely be any more discrimination against benefit claimants from landlords than from supermarkets or pubs.

kelloggs36

I was a landlord once - never again! I was unlucky, but I can see why some LL won't take HB tenants - my experience (very limited and I am in no way suggesting that you are such a tenant) was so bad that it has put me off for life! The tenant I had was found through a dodgy agent who ran off with the deposit - yet I was legally responsible for returning it to the tenant at the point that she was to leave - I was to return a deposit I never received, so I started out out of pocket. Next, she seemed really nice to start with = her housing benefit was being paid to my ex who was supposed to pay the mortgage (another story!!) but she had to pay £15 per week towards the rent. She never paid and so the mortgage fell into arrears - the full rent didn't cover it all anyway! THEN she complained that there was a leak in the roof, but REFUSED to let the agent (new one by then) in to assess the damage or to sort it out. I drove past the house and saw what had been the fitted dining room carpet hanging over the back wall - she did not report the leaking radiator which had apparently caused the damage. She owed so much arrears that we had no choice but to take steps to evict her. After a few months, I noticed that the house looked empty, so after checking by peering through the letter box, I went home and got my key and let myself in. When the property had been let to her, it was in perfect condition. I could have cried. The kitchen cupboards were hanging off the walls, there were huge gouges in the walls where she had hung shelves and ripped them off. She had painted over the Laura Ashley wallpaper without having sought permission, the bathroom sink was smashed in half, the bath was full of rubble. I could hear hissing, which I traced to where the washing machine had been plumbed in; she had taken the washing machine and not turned off the water, so it was pouring out everywhere. The back door wouldn't open properly because the small garden was so full of black bin bags that it prevented the door opening. The cellar: the bottom concrete step had been smashed to pieces - and was again full with bin bags. Upstairs, there was a huge hole in the ceiling where there had been the leak she had refused to let me get sorted out. To cap it all, there was masses of post - some from the mortgage company advising of pending reposession (ex had not paid mortgage at all!) but worst of all I found evidence that she had taken out credit in my name!!!

The house was already in negative equity - hence the reason we rented it out in the first place - but she had devalued it even more. House was eventually repossessed with £25k outstanding after it was sold at auction. It was the worst thing I had ever done, and it was caused by a complete chav with no respect for other people's property.

HOwever, my sister is a HA tenant as is the model tenant - pays on time, keeps the house beautiful but sadly benefit tenants get labelled as being like my one and landlords try to play as safe as possible. I do wish you very well in your search.

cakey

hi, i do agree it may not seem fair, but i am a landlord myself and i did take someone on HB, unfortunately they didn't pay me rent, i had to get them evicted, they pee'd on the carpets, ripped the kitchen out and left it in the garden, put holes in the walls and kicked the toilet to pieces. i thought it would be a one off but my friends mum also rented to a girl on HB whom trashed her house too and dint pay rent. i know its may come across harsh to not accept HB, but the people we had in didnt care because it wasn't 'their money' as they called it (well my tenant said that anyway).it costs thousands to put right what they did and i cant afford that i also took 3 months to get them evicted through the courts.

kelloggs36

I didn't return the deposit I never had, but she paid no rent for a few months so she could recoup it that way!!!!!

dseventy

I am also and don't lend to people who can't pay the rent themselves and rely on others to pay it (ie claim housing benefit).

Its a fact that people on LHA generally have more problems with arrears.

All this talk of "not telling the LL" is dangerous territory as some LLs insurance is invalid if they are on benefits (and some BTL mortgage terms).

I just don't touch them, sorry.

D70

BodyElectric

Don't LL's have to give 3 months notice to quit to anyone in receipt of HB? Well any benefits really.

dseventy

BodyElectric wrote: »

Don't LL's have to give 3 months notice to quit to anyone in receipt of HB? Well any benefits really.

No specific rules for a private let, its whats in the tenancy agreement.

D70