MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Should Jenny kick them out?

M9bhs

Stick with the family for now. If you kick them out you've still got to find someone else and as long as your place is empty you won't get any rent anyway but still have to pay the mortgage. And if they've been good tenants then that's worth a lot too. You could end up with the family from hell. Buy to let always has its risks and at least you should get your money eventually.

Justamum

cala99 wrote:

Landlords have worked hard to earn their money to be able to buy a property to let out in the first place. They shouldn't be cheated out of rightful earnings simply because they have "more".

Cala

Landlords may have worked hard to earn the money to be able to buy the property they live in. The property they let out is on a mortgage, paid for by the hard-earned money of the tenant who is paying the rent. So they only have "more" because someone else is buying it for them.

James_N

Sorry, I've been here, been "sympathetic" and been taken for a ride. Take very effective action to remove these tenents immediately with no excuses or delay.

chivers22

There are a lot of replies that i agree with on here, i would say that many believe that renting out properties is an easy way to make money which it is but only if done properly.

It is very unfortunate situation that jenny finds herself in and one as a letting agent i see a lot, however as much as you want to help people sometimes they dont not help themself. As an investment you have to look after yourself as number one but give the tenants help to sort themselves. You must realise that there is proper procedures to regain possession of a property and if you do not follow these then it can make the situation far worse. I always think that if you have given the tenants ample chance to help themselves then the judge will look favourble on giving a possession order. This all means that employing a good letting agent if you dont have any experience yourself is paramount.

We must all realise that due to councils selling off all there social housing people who are in jennys situation dont get a lot of help anymore and the private rented sector is expected to take up the flak which is unfair on those landlords that are fair and have a conscience as no one wants to force a family out of a home.

looby75

the hb system is a joke. When my husband left us out of the blue I had to go on benefits which included HB, by coincidence a good friend lost her job at the same time and had to go on JSA etc.

We both started a claim for HB at around the same time (about a weeks difference at the most) I rented from the council, she rented from a private landlord.

My claim was sorted in less than a month, 3 years later she is still waiting for her claim to be finalised. She found a new job 5 months after she was made redundant so didn't have to use all her redundancy money on rent, but she was one of the lucky ones. If she had to rely on HB she would have been up that well known creek without a paddle long long ago.

meher

MSE_Martin wrote:

Jenny's a landlord with a buy-to-let property and a single parent family has been renting for nine months. They've always paid on time and been model tenants. Unfortunately, three months ago the tenant lost her job, and hasn't found another. She hasn’t been about to pay the rent for two months and is speaking to the Citizens Advice Bureau about help. Jenny has a mortgage on the rental property and, while she can keep afloat, life is more difficult without the rental income.

Jenny has a choice to go by the letter according to the tenancy contract, likewise their current tenants have a choice to seek for benefits that they're entitled to from the council. To make an allowance of a few weeks while seeking benefits is not too much to ask of Jenny but the tenants had three months to have considered the problems. So to expect any further from Jenny would be burdening her with their problems. Even if they cannot pay rent of the past two months, that could be excused but the very least they could do is vacate the premises and seek shelter by contacting appropriate agencies - they should help themselves.

looby75

meher wrote:

Jenny has a choice to go by the letter according to the tenancy contract, likewise their current tenants have a choice to seek for benefits that they're entitled to from the council. To make an allowance of a few weeks while seeking benefits is not too much to ask of Jenny but the tenants had three months to have considered the problems. So to expect any further from Jenny would be burdening her with their problems. Even if they cannot pay rent of the past two months, that could be excused but the very least they could do is vacate the premises and seek shelter by contacting appropriate agencies - they should help themselves.

if only it were that black and white!

I take it from your post you have never found yourself in the position of having to deal with housing benefits/council.

in a lot of cases there is no such viable option as seeking shelter "by contacting appropriate agencies" often those agencies say it's not their problem, help yourself etc.

so what do you do then? find a nice park bench somewhere, with a handy foster home for your kids maybe, which btw, will cost the gov a heck of a lot more per week than an adequately efficiently run housing benefit system.

Freeness2006

Life's hard and Jenny and her tenant need to wise up. Listen, Jenny has that property to make wonga - not to give to the poor and destitute. Social services can do that - after all that is why we pay our taxes. So Jenny's Tenant better get down the social and sort it out or else it is curtains for her. She is an assured shorthold tenant and she is already in the land of the outright possession order being more than 2 months in arrears of rent. Anyway with 3 kids she will be getting housing benefit et al faster than you can say "homeless".

Freeness2006

nej wrote:

As an aside, what would happen if Jenny couldn't pay the mortgage and the bank repossed the house?

Would the bank be able to immediately kick out the tenants? No contract was signed between the tenant and the bank who now own the house.

Edit - Post 666! Evil!

The bank would start repossession proceedings immed. and it would not have any qualms about arguments re HB taking forever. Poor single mother and kids would be OUT and the bank would be having that property on the market at an undervalue but at no less value than the amount of its charge without any concerns about Jenny or the tenant. Jenny and the tenant would be served with possession proceedings - to which there is no defence in these circumstances - possession order will be given and Tenant better be out by the date she is to give the mortgagee possession or it's the bailiffs for her and her stuff. The bank would not give a hoot for the fact that Jenny was a good payer on her mortgage previously or the dilemma of the Tenant. The Tenant has no legal relationship with the bank which gives her rights to be protected save that the bank needs an order to take possession of the property so that it cann enforce it's charge and get its wonga back in its vaults.
Like I said before - Life is hard

Herb

Mics_chick wrote:

The tenant has already started the ball rolling for claiming benefits by going to CAB - so I wouldn't kick her out.

Talking to the CAB is a world away from going to the HB Office and filling in a claim form. The CAB is a worthy voluntary service and will just offer advice (hopefully good advice). But they do not process HB claim forms for payment. That's up to the council.

The tenant still has to get to the HB office - and sadly that's where it may fall down. I have many properties and this is my experience: when I ask the tenant "when are you going to the council office?" the reply is ALWAYS - "tomorrow" - Why not TODAY ????? - it's not as if they are busy!

Phone them tomorrow and get ready for the excuses.

The ball is definately NOT rolling.