Moving house on HB: just a myth?

Naf

Hi, I could really do with some pointers, advice or suggestions here, as I can't believe that there's nowhere else I can go with this.
Essentially we really need to move house: myself, wife and 2 kids in a house that the council housing list have even agreed is too small for us (although 2 bed. on paper, second room won't sleep 2 kids); not to mention number three on the way (came as a shock to us too:o). I work full time, wife takes care of the kids; but even as manager where I am, it's still not much more than NMW so we rely on HB (about £280 of our £500pcm).
We've been looking at properties, and there just seems to be no chance to get anything at all in our position.
We're on the council housing list, but have only been on for a year so still way way
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Down the list, even though we have been given some priority due to needing an additional (or, rather, larger) bedroom.
We have access to a deposit and first month's rent to move privately, but this is riddled with problems also. Firstly that here in York LHA rates don't actually reflect the price of any available properties. The place we have is tiny: a maisonette with nothing but a hallway on the ground floor, and our bedroom is in the draughty, poorly insulated attic conversion. Frontage is still single glazed, second bedroom is tiny, no separate kitchen: just units along one wall in the living room. Despite this, the place still fetches £500pcm: which is bang on the LHA rate here in York. A quick search indicates that 2 bed properties just don't go for less than £500 here, so how can this rate make any percentage affordable to people on HB, if properties which would come within the scale just don't exist? [/rant]
Moving on.
Instead we look privately & find a handful (one in particular) which we could stretch to, only to be stonewalled by letting agents who refuse to deal with anyone receiving HB: as if we have some kind of plague. It just doesn't seem fair that we're completely stuck between a rock and a hard place, does anyone have any experience in this? Is there any possibility it could be worth pushing the letting agent over the HB issue: I have a guarantor more than happy to stand (he does for this place), and my current landlord can be contacted: I've not missed any rent in the 3 years we've lived here. But i guess that counts for nothing. I even considered getting the details from the land registry of the owner of the properties and contacting them directly...
Also, quickly, does anyone know if there is any provision for getting HB increased prior to the birth of a child? Obviously once the baby is born this place is immediately unworkable; we just won't fit.

onetomany

u could try a exchange?

BigAunty

Yes, it's worth persisting with this property by offering a guarantor, telling the agent you are in full time employment and get LHA as a top up and reminding them that you are a good long term tenant who can provide an excellent reference. Hopefully the debts you cite on your footer don't involve CCJs or a bad credit record?

No, you can't get extra LHA until the baby is born (who can stay in your bedroom until you move). This is from a DWP site

Q. If a woman is pregnant, does this increase the LHA size criteria?
A. No. This would only potentially increase at the point the newborn baby becomes an occupant of the property.

Allegedly, the LHA rate is set at the bottom third of local market rents (used to be bottom half), known as the 30th percentile.

Yes, there is considerable resistence from landlords in accepting HB claimants for many reasons but generally because they are considered high risk. This is due to anything from the very slow processing of LHA claims by local councils which lead to rent arrears, the fact that LHA is paid to the tenants directly rather than to the landlord which used to be the case in the past, the belief that it is virtually impossible to get arrears or cost of damage paid back by benefit claimants even with a court judgement as basically there's no point in trying to get money out of someone on a low income with no assets.

Also, those on LHA are more likely to approach a local council when they are served notice by the landlord - councils have the reputation of telling the tenants to ignore it, telling them they won't be housed under their homeless rules if they leave and will be considered to have made themselves intentionally homeless. This forces the landlord to take them to court to regain possession, adding some months and some costs onto the process. Therefore benefit claimants have the reputation of being much harder to evict as being served notice by private landlords is perceived as the main route into social housing via the 'homeless' high priority route.

Emmzi

have a read of all the threads where the parents get a sofa bed in the living room and give the kids the bedrooms.

might be time to move jobs, wife to work p/t, or think about a cheaper city to live in.

some insurance companies won't insurance where tenants are on benefits btw, nothing to do with the landlord.

skint-student-nurse

It might be nothing personal on the LL/LA front, when I switched my standard mortgage to a buy-to-let one, one condition was that I was not allowed to accept HB tenants because they were considered a high risk. My friend found herself in a similar situation, my suggestion to her,and you, is to contact all the letting agents in your area,which can easily be done via rightmove,explain your situation,stress the fact you have a guarantor ad you should make some progress. Good luck!

poppysarah

Ring shelter and ask for advice on getting housed by the council.

The council route is hard because it's the preferred option because of lower rents and security of tenure.

Naf

I'm going to try some reversed sales tactics. I have a viewing on Monday, and I noticed that this morning the asking price was dropped by £50pm as well as half price on Agency fees. It seems like they're having a hard time finding a tenant; maybe the storage heating puts people off. Anyway, plan is to get them counting on me as a tenant and not bring up HB unless/until I have to. Obviously they'll query my income, but the fact I have a guarantor ought to quiet them down again I hope. Hopefully, then, they'll be incentivised at the prospect of finally getting a tenant in that they'll be much more interested in finding a way to help us.

*peridot*

I don't know if this is any use to you, but my LHA, ( not the same as yours, unfortunately), has private landlords who rent to the LHA, people on benefits, etc. I found one very approachable landlord who was willing to " bypass " the aherm, official system, as they had some concerns who they were renting to, ( previously had their property trashed).

They did everything they possibly could, to help me rent from them - said i could pay the deposit in instalments, as i didn't have it up front, but realistically, even with any HB, i would have struggled to pay the rent and the outstanding deposit and decided against it.


Its definitely worth looking around as many ha's as you can, and take the tel no's of the private landlords who rent to them. Seemingly, there's the odd one, willing to come to a " private " arrangement.


cough, splutter