Advice on renting out to DSS tenants

dsmann

I was considering buying a house for investment purpose and renting out to DSS tenant. I would appreciate if someone could advise me how this works?

What would be pros and cons of such tenancy?
How much rent can i expect from a 4 bed house in Leicestershire area?
Is it advisable to buy a new house and give it to a DSS tenant?

Any advice/tips would be great.

Cheers

Tassotti

Is this a serious post?

shellsuit

Ask for previous landlord references......the more, the better!

clutton_2

if you have 4 unrelated tenants in one house, it will be a HMO and you will have to register it with the local council - £20,000 fine if you dont.

Tassotti

Not sure where the previous two posts have come from...but hey...we're all drunk. :beer:

Seriously, if you rent to DSS, then take 3 months rent upfront and 3 months deposit (in other words don't do it)

I have nothing against people on benefits (most of my clients are), but dealing with the council is a nightmare. They seem to live in a different world.

eg..market rent for 2 bed flat £650.....flat...

council rent officer says it's £575....tenant has to find £75 per month...from where

The other way is to see if you local council have a scheme where they rent your property off you for five years at market rent and return it in the same condition

After five years of ASBO seekers and other scumbags, don't expect it back in the same condition.

Happy New Year All

jembie

Tassotti wrote:

Seriously, if you rent to DSS, then take 3 months rent upfront and 3 months deposit (in other words don't do it)

That prices me out of the market then

I have been trying to get out of this god awful dump for 5 years but because Landlords discriminate against people on benefits, I am stuck here

Tassotti

It's not desciminating against benefit people, it's dealing with the council that causes the problems.

Tassotti

aussielovell wrote:

its against the law to take any more than equal to two months rent as deposit so wouldnt try that.

Can you show legislation to prove this?

georgiasmum

So glad someone mentioned the councils!! it seems that they are often the root cause of late rent payments for many dss tenants thus giving them a bad name.

us,thecat&thedebt

dss tenants can be just as good as private tenants

i working in a letting agent as a property manager..

i have 150 approx managed properties (we have only been open 18months)

approx 60 of those are dss tenants and i can honestly say hand on heart that i have not had any problems with them.

i have however had numerous problems with some private tenants.
onetenant is currently 4 months in arrears (court date for possession is 5th Jan)

i deal directly with our local council to ensure the tenancy runs smoothly.

you need to keep to the following guidelines..

always get a working guarontor who earns 3 times the annual rent.
always take a rent in advance and at least 1 months deposit
visit the property regulary so you can keep an eye on who is living there
obtain a pre tenancy determination prior
do not allow a shortfall of more than £30 per month of the pta if the tenant is unemployed
and finally insist on recieveing the benefit direct.

lastly good luck

clutton_2

there are two schools of thought about landlords receiving benefit direct - one is that if the rent is paid directly to the landlord, the local council will claw all the rent back from the landlord if the tenant is found to have been fraudulently claiming Housing Benefit (and yes councils do this every day of the week), but if the rent has been paid directly to the tenant, then the landlord cannot be forced to reimburse any HB which was wrongly paid. Some councils are also insisting that any clawback from landlords can be taken from ANY property they own and which receives HB directly !!!! So if Mary at number 10 starts working and is caught, the HB she was paid is then clawed back by the council by way of stopping paying you the rent on numer 120 where Jim lives !!!!!!

ALso a local market rent is coming into force this year, which will "standardise" rents, so all tenants in the same circumstances will be paid the same amount of money.

Also, the current welfare bill which is going thru Parliament as we speak, contains a clause whereby all DSS rents will be paid directly to all tenants, unless a tenant is willing to declare him/her self "vulnerable and incapable of managing their own affairs".

So, a pretty difficult time ahead for landlords of DSS tenants.

Having said all that, my best tenants are DSS.