friends struggling to get a rented house

gingertips

Hi there,

My friend is currently private renting a 3 bed house. Her partner moved out recently & she has made decision that she needs to downsize to a 2 bed property (she has a child)

She works 16 hours a week & qualifies for housing benefit, but that doesnt cover even half the current rent she pays - hence why shes decided to find something smaller.

However, she is really struggling to find a 2 bed place - the landlords are turning her down because she will be receiving housing benefit - apparantly their Landlord insurance dictates that they arent allowed to take on tenants who receive housing benefit?

Is this correct? Will all agents & landlords do the same, or is this just landlords who have a certain type of insurance?

She has contacted local council but she doesnt qualify for Housing association property - apparantly there are at least 600 people above her on the list...

She has offered a guarantor & also a larger deposit up front if required - just wondered if anyone had experienced similar & whether there is anything else she can do. Can local authoritues help in these type of situations - say providing a guarantee?

She has been a model tenant for past 7 years - always paid her rent on time.

Thanks

Matt1977

gingertips wrote: »

Hi there,
She has contacted local council but she doesnt qualify for Housing association property - apparantly there are at least 600 people above her on the list...

She has offered a guarantor & also a larger deposit up front if required - just wondered if anyone had experienced similar & whether there is anything else she can do. Can local authoritues help in these type of situations - say providing a guarantee?

She has been a model tenant for past 7 years - always paid her rent on time.

Thanks

She could retry the Housing Associations and speak to their 'private lettings' dept. Some Housing Associations now offer rented properties on an Assured Shorthold Tenancies.

There are no waiting lists with these and they should be able to accept Housing Benefit claimants in the same way they do with their social housing tenants.

Good luck to her.

Benji

Well it is true that some insurers charge more for properties with benefits claimants, and some (like Directline - one of the biggest) refuse to insure such properties.

TBH though it will be more than just that, landlords are in business, they are there to make money and for many the risks involved in accepting benefit claimants is too great. It is a lot more than just 'will they pay next months rent'.

Some local authorities do offer support in the way of help with deposit or guarantees, but usually only for the homeless and, anyway, most landlords will not accept the latter because they are very difficult to deal with should problems arise.

Your friend sounds like she has everything in place to make the difficult job of finding a 'benefit friendly' landlord as easy as possible. It is worth remembering with agents that they work for dozens, if not hundreds, of landlords - all who will have differing requirements. So an agent who has no 'benefit friendly' properties this week, may have one next week. But don't expect them to call back when one lands on their books - agents so rarely do.

Finally, your friend may have seen these, but they are useful places to look for suitable properties - especially in major cities.
http://www.tenantstips.com/Home/DSS-DHSS-properties-to-rent-on-housing-benefit2/DSS-search-for-houses-and-flats-accepting-DSS-DHSS-and-housing-benefit
http://rentdss.com/
http://www.gumtree.com/flats-houses
http://property.vivastreet.co.uk/real-estate
http://www.houseladder.co.uk/UK/Property_To_Let.aspx
http://www.spareroom.co.uk/flatshare/search.pl? (select other search options)

Evansangel

Her local council may be able to provide her with a list of LLs/Agents that accept people on HB.
Thats how we have found our new house, we had to pay a higher deposit but only £200 more than the one we paid for our current house.

When she moves the council usually re assess the HB claim and suspend the paymenta whilst doing so, so she will.need to have money saved to cover her rent whilst they do this.