MSE News: Tenants forced to use payday loans to beat rent hikes 14 March 2013 at 11:18AM edited 14 March 2013 at 11:42AM in House Buying, Renting & Selling 34 replies 3.7K views

Takeaway_Addict

TopQuark wrote: »

This hits the nail on the head. No-one is saying that private landlords are charities but there needs to be limits.

I personally couldn't sleep at night if I knew that my rent increases meant that my tenants struggled to feed their kids each month (assuming that they had already cut right back to the basics). What kind of life is that for anyone?

What if your mortgage increased though and you were struggling?

ragsandme

Rent/mortgage, food, energy bills etc should be paid for first and only then should anything else be bought. My husband and I were unemployed some years ago and like today, living in private rented property. We were only given a set amount of rent and had money deducted if there was an extra bedroom, we didn't realize this 'bedroom tax' did not apply to council tenants. We had to move a few times until we were lucky enough to find a landlord who excepted whatever rent the council paid us (very rare!) but he has retired now. The way we have survived is never ever borrowing money. At one stage we didn't even have a land line phone let alone a mobile. The first car we bought as soon as my husband found work was a cheap second hand car which, believe it or not we had saved for. We do not have sky, mobile phones, credit card debts in fact we never get anything on credit, we go without until we can pay cash and believe me its a good feeling. We finally bought a computer the other year. Another point is I strongly object to any comments being made about private tenants being this that and the other, does being in debt with a mortgage make one more honest, I don't think so!

Kiwi_g

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Universal Credit.

When this comes in (October this year possibly), local housing allowance (LHA) will be paid monthly and, most likely, direct to the tenant. Previously, there were many instances when it was paid directly to the landlord. This monthly payment will be made in arrears, around 7 days after the month end. Bearing in mind that rent is usually paid in advance, this is going to cause cash-flow problems to the tenants.

I believe that many housing associations are budgeting for an increase in rent arrears.

ragsandme

Kiwi, over a decade ago LHB was paid directly to tenants and I know some people chose to spend that allowance on anything but rent.
This will always happen. I know of people not paying their mortgage and getting into more debt to have the latest model of car etc. Both examples will lead to loss of home but I'm sure the blame will be aimed at government, banks etc, never themselves.