Renting with LHA

elaina79

I am looking to rent a house in the West/North Yorkshire area. I am on benefits due to illness and am looking for agencies/landlords that accept benefit claimants.

I'm not having much luck at the moment.:(

mchale

http://rentdss.com/ ????????????

Mummytotwo_2

I will also be in a similar position soon and I've been wondering about rentals that state 'No H/B' how the landlord would know :undecided

And if the advertisement states 'No H/B' does this also apply for Local Housing Benefit?

Sorry for hijacking your thread:o

flabbyapronbelly

I work in housing benefit. Any HB you are entitled to would be paid straight into your bank account.The only exeptions to this would be if you rented through a housing association or if you got more than 8 weeks in arrears and the landlord requested payment to them. So there is no way of a landlord knowing you are on HB unless you tell them so long as you are able to pay the initial deposit etc. Good luck with the move

Yorkie1

Surely the LL / LA run credit checks, which will include your income and its source?

Mummytotwo_2

flabbyapronbelly wrote: »

I work in housing benefit. Any HB you are entitled to would be paid straight into your bank account.The only exeptions to this would be if you rented through a housing association or if you got more than 8 weeks in arrears and the landlord requested payment to them. So there is no way of a landlord knowing you are on HB unless you tell them so long as you are able to pay the initial deposit etc. Good luck with the move

Mmmm - that's what I thought, I mean, as long as the landlord gets his rent on time.
How ethical is it to hide the fact that I get LHB, though?
And why don't perspective landlords want tenants in the receipt of LHB?:(

PasturesNew

Mummytotwo wrote: »

And why don't perspective landlords want tenants in the receipt of LHB?:(

Three main reasons:
1] Some lenders do not allow mortgages to LLs where the tenants are on benefits.
2] It can be harder to get the tenant out because their options are limited due to relying on handouts for income, and the Councils' advice to them is to stay put until the bailiffs turn up if they want the Council to help them get re-housed.
3] It's not their money they're paying with, so a lot of tenants are careless with the property as it's seen as a "freebie" and they've no vested interest (their own money) in keeping it nice.

mchale

PasturesNew wrote: »

Three main reasons:
1] Some lenders do not allow mortgages to LLs where the tenants are on benefits.
2] It can be harder to get the tenant out because their options are limited due to relying on handouts for income, and the Councils' advice to them is to stay put until the bailiffs turn up if they want the Council to help them get re-housed.
3] It's not their money they're paying with, so a lot of tenants are careless with the property as it's seen as a "freebie" and they've no vested interest (their own money) in keeping it nice.

And also rent monies are paid direct to tenant, so LL has to rely on tenant to forward monies to him/her, which some tenants do not do.

tbs624

flabbyapronbelly wrote: »

I work in housing benefit. Any HB you are entitled to would be paid straight into your bank account.The only exeptions to this would be if you rented through a housing association or if you got more than 8 weeks in arrears and the landlord requested payment to them. So there is no way of a landlord knowing you are on HB unless you tell them so long as you are able to pay the initial deposit etc. Good luck with the move

My bolding. What you are saying is true if a working T moves in and subsequently needs to apply for HB/LHA, but will not usually be the case if a potential T applies for a new tenancy and is a current HB/LHA claimant /will be claiming from the start of the tenancy.

Do you know of many Ts who have applied for a PRS tenancy and not been asked by the LL/LA to provide information on their income as part of that application process?

tbs624

mchale wrote: »

And also rent monies are paid direct to tenant,..

As they should be, since the T is the claimant and the in turn the LL has a contract with the T

mchale wrote: »

so LL has to rely on tenant to forward monies to him/her, which some tenants do not do.

LL has to rely on any category of Ts to "forward monies" on. As many LLs know to their cost, it is not only benefit claiming Ts who sometimes fail to cough up on time.

One of the other reasons that some LLs are reluctant to let to those known to be claiming LHA/HB is that there can be delays in payment (benefit paid in arrears whilst rent is usually required to be paid in advance).

That said, there are many LLs who only operate in this sector of the private rentals market and they manage to run a pretty good business out of doing so.

Mummytotwo_2

tbs624 wrote: »

Do you know of many Ts who have applied for a PRS tenancy and not been asked by the LL/LA to provide information on their income as part of that application process?

Exactly what income information would I have to provide in my application process? Is this standard procedure?