The Bedroom Tax

Tangoman642

With all the changes the LHA/HB have made in the last 2years I decided to make a change to our private rental agreement when it came up for renewel in april this year.

ok so here is how we USED to pay it.
On the basis of the 14th of every month it was £349 that we paid.
The rent paid to us fortnightly from LHA/HB was £150
net result..over 12months that meant we had 2 free payments per year with a huge gap to fill in any other month...
(seriously work it out its shocking)(it was a lot less in the prior 2 years untill the Gov started tweaking it)

Once the Gov started tweaking it that "gap grew to about £40pcm we had to find.

So i made a deal with the land lord back in april.
I would fix some stuff in the house for free( i could do for a quarter of what he was quoted by a repair man and do same exact job) if he would give us a 1 year contract that would let us pay him our rent EVERY 2 WEEKS.

this was a perfect solution.the bridgeing gap was destroyed
we went from finding £40pcm to bridge all the way down to £11.25 per 2 weeks and the only thing we lose was those 2 free paymenst per year which were nice in summer but caused us pain at any other time.

epic deal i think.
£150HB+£11.25 per 2 weeks equals almost same as he would get per year on a PCM basis:j


untill i read in something about the bedroom tax back in may.then i started to worry... and i started to dig..

now im just plain worried.
I live with my partner in this 2 bed house im 33 shes 39 heading to 40 in feb.If the new LHA/HB rules forced us out the house it would NOT be big enough for what they call "an average family size".

i went to my rental agency/landlord to see if we found another house before the contract expires woukld they let us out of it knowing what id told them about the bed room tax.

they said NO.
my contract says i can...but...if i leave before the contract runs its course i must pay there "reasonable costs" for advertsing and re-letting and then if it remains empty after were gone we still have to pay the rent on it...regardless of us at that point living elsewhere..

i need help and guidence
we barely make ends meet at the best of times i do the best i can by my partner as shes not very good with the "math side of things"

but everytime i try to stablise things the Gov has shot me down this year and put in new rules that will screw all the work iv done at somepoint in the next year

any advice or help or info on this bedroom tax and how badly were going to be affected would be appricated.

there is NUMEROUS posts all over the internet and i cant find any straight answers for our situation

helpppppp before i go nutz!!!:(

angelsmomma

I thought the bedroom tax is for council properties not private rentals.

Tangoman642

angelsmomma wrote: »

I thought the bedroom tax is for council properties not private rentals.

State your source and make my day cos I havnt found anything that says that.

24skins

Angelsmomma is correct, bedroom tax relates to social housing only.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Nl1/Newsroom/DG_192415


"Housing Benefit will be restricted for some people who are!living in a property that is larger than their household size.!This will apply to working-age customers renting from a social landlord."

angelsmomma

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3874391

This is one of the threads discussing it

Tangoman642

24skins wrote: »

Angelsmomma is correct, bedroom tax relates to social housing only.


"Housing Benefit will be restricted for some people who are!living in a property that is larger than their household size.!This will apply to working-age customers renting from a social landlord."

please help me make sense of that...
im paying private landlord as you see above.
im not worried about this years changes..i already fixed that
its next years Bed room tax tgat worrys me
consider me stupid and need it spelling out
social = council house yes or no?
private = ??

24skins

Tangoman642 wrote: »

please help me make sense of that...
im paying private landlord as you see above.
im not worried about this years changes..i already fixed that
its next years Bed room tax tgat worrys me
consider me stupid and need it spelling out
social = council house yes or no?
private = ??

Social housing means a Council or Housing association property and the bedroom tax only affects these properties.

As you are in a privately rented home you will not be affected by these changes.

nannytone_2

the new changes dont affect private tenants ... just those in social housing

marybelle01

24skins wrote: »

Social housing means a Council or Housing association property and the bedroom tax only affects these properties.

As you are in a privately rented home you will not be affected by these changes.

But isn't that because it already applies to people in private rents? LHA is paid to private rented tenants based on a maximum amount allowed for rented properties in an area and the number of rooms that you require to live in. So people who "under-occupy" in the private rented sector are already penalised for doing so.

sniggings

marybelle01 wrote: »

But isn't that because it already applies to people in private rents? LHA is paid to private rented tenants based on a maximum amount allowed for rented properties in an area and the number of rooms that you require to live in. So people who "under-occupy" in the private rented sector are already penalised for doing so.

the difference is even if the social housing is covered by the allowance allowed, the person will still be deduced 14/25% if they have spare bedrooms, whereas in the private sector they won't be.

marybelle01

sniggings wrote: »

the difference is even if the social housing is covered by the allowance allowed, the person will still be deduced 14/25% if they have spare bedrooms, whereas in the private sector they won't be.

Yes - but it's swings and roundabouts because rents in the social sector are significantly lower than in the private sector, so in the latter the penalties are inbuilt. In all but the worst areas of our city, the cost of a one bedroom property (if you can find one - there aren't that many) averages at £86 per week, but the LHA is only £80 - the cost of equivalent housing in the social housing sector is £80. The LHA for a four bedroom property is £126 per week, and again this would only get you a 4 bedroom in the worst part of town. The equivalent rent for social sector housing is £126. So a working age couple whose children have grown up an left home in the private rented sector may be paying £120 a week or more (£120 being the average rent in the private sector in this area for a 3 bedroom property - a typical family sized home), but still get only £80 per week in LHA.

This leaves them in exactly the same position as tenants in the social sector will be in, except that tenants in the private sector have been in this position for a long time already. They must either find the balance or move to a smaller property. Except for the fact that they will struggle to find a property of the deemed "appropriate" size at the amount paid by the LHA anyway because the average rent on a one bedroom property is £86 per week - higher than the LHA allows for anyway.

By the way - I am not defending the changes, although I do think that under occupancy is a problem that has to be tackled (I just think it could be tackled in better ways). I am just pointing out that the higher rents in the private sector are having the same impact on people who are effectively left with the same choices now facing tenants of social housing - but they have none of the other benefits of social housing either, often living in more expensive housing, with little or no security of tenure, in worse conditions, and still, when they fall on hard times, facing the loss of their home or the "privilege" of paying for under occupancy simply because in times past they had been able to afford their rent. And many of these people never had a choice of social housing available to them - the waiting lists in our area have been so long for many decades that working families never had any realistic option of obtaining social housing because it was reserved almost exclusively for families who were out of work.