landlords of tenants on benefits

nat38

well, we took the risk and are now having a bad experience....:(
what do you do when they are 8 weeks in arrears?
get the Council to pay you directly or serve them an eviction notice straight away? Can you actually evict them later on if you request to get paid by the Council? If we go for the eviction now, will we get paid during the months that may take all the process?

thanks!

Also, how does it work - if a tenant gets his/her housing benefits stopped can they move houses and get get reinstated immediately?

thesaint

Call the housing benefit tomorrow and get the tenants claim suspended.
This will ensure the tenants do not receive any further payments whilst the housing benefit investigates.

Serve a Sec 8 and Sec 21 notice.

The housing benefit department will continue paying you whilst the tenants have a valid claim at your property.

There is no reason to wait 8 weeks in future. As soon as the tenants rent is a day late, inform the housing benefit department. They have the discretion to pay the landlord directly immediately.

I don't understand your last question.

nat38

many thanks for your reply!

thesaint wrote: »

Call the housing benefit tomorrow and get the tenants claim suspended.
This will ensure the tenants do not receive any further payments whilst the housing benefit investigates.

have done this already.
our main doubt was whether we should serve a Sec 8 now, or we should wait and see if the tenant tried to sort things out to avoid eviction.
althought she's obvioulsy not very reliable, we would still somehow benefit if she stayed long term as initially thought.

thesaint wrote: »

The housing benefit department will continue paying you whilst the tenants have a valid claim at your property.

even if they have been served an eviction notice?

thesaint wrote: »

There is no reason to wait 8 weeks in future. As soon as the tenants rent is a day late, inform the housing benefit department. They have the discretion to pay the landlord directly immediately.

They have actually said that they have to wait a month to give the tenant the chance to appeal and that they will make the desicion after this.

thesaint wrote: »

I don't understand your last question.

I'll try again
Say the tenants get their benefit stopped, you serve Sec 8 and then it goes to Court proceedings etc etc, can they during this process move to a different house and get their benefits reinstated to pay that other property?

Werdnal

They haven't been served an eviction notice as there is no such thing. The S8 warns them that you will take them to court for the breach of their tenancy (ie whichever grounds the notice used) and seek to end the tenancy under those grounds.

Beware, that some grounds are discretionary and will not guarantee you possession, and if you are only using the rent arrears, the tenant only need pay off enough to get them below the 2 month's value owing threshold before the hearing to invalidate the rent arrears grounds.

Until you gain possession of the property through a court order, the tenancy is still in force and rent is still due, so if you get direct payment of benefits to you, they will pay you until the tenancy ends.

If tenant leaves, they take their benefit entitlement with them, so it will transfer to the new property, either direct to LL there, or back to them. If you request direct payment, the benefit should not be "stopped" as they are still paying, but direct to you rather than via the tenant. Benefits will not make up the arrears due to you, and you will have to seek these either from the tenant's deposit if there was one (does tenancy agreement state it can be used for arrears), or by separate claim direct to the tenant.

Also be aware that the tenant can counter an S8 notice by claiming disrepair of the property, so ensure any issues they have reported about the property which are your obligation to maintain are attended to. However annoying it is to be owed rent, your repairing obligations are unaffected by the arrears and still apply.

I would serve S21 aswell as a back-up. When does fixed term end, as obviously S21 requires 2 month's notice, but would not come into force until FT ends. However, it would guarantee you possession, provided any deposit paid is correctly protected of course.

nat38

many thanks werdnal that was really clear

nat38

so you would serve S8 and S21 at the same time?

Werdnal

nat38 wrote: »

so you would serve S8 and S21 at the same time?

Yes you can, they can run parrallel and independently of each other. Do you know how to serve them correctly, particularly the S21, as it will guarantee you possession, but many fail at the court stage through minor errors and you can waste 2 months thinking your notice is ticking away, only to find you have to start all over again with another S21 at the end of it!

Do I gather from your previous post at the end of last year, this is your first let?

If you are at all unsure about the notice process, this might be helpful:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=52421475&postcount=6

nat38

Werdnal wrote: »

Benefits will not make up the arrears due to you, and you will have to seek these either from the tenant's deposit if there was one (does tenancy agreement state it can be used for arrears), or by separate claim direct to the tenant.

I have been told that claims to tenants on benefits, even if won, could mean only £5 a week. Is this £5 per week of arrears, ie 8 weeks = £40 total??

Werdnal

nat38 wrote: »

I have been told that claims to tenants on benefits, even if won, could mean only £5 a week. Is this £5 per week of arrears, ie 8 weeks = £40 total??

What people mean is the tenant will plead poverty and get a payment order for £5/week or another minimal amount, meaning it would be months before they paid off the total owed - if at all, as they would likely default on it again later.

This is one of the reasons why people are wary of HB tenants (not that I am generalising as any tenant is just as likely to cause arrears), but if they have no substantial assets and little income, claiming anything owed is hardly worth the effort!

silvercar

4 years ago I was in your situation. phoned the council and they stopped payments to claimant immediately. Within 3 weeks they were paying me direct. Now in my mind the rent arrears are lost - tenant hasn't got the money to cover it if they are living on benefits, so your chances of getting the money are thin.

Moving forward there were 2 options, evict tenant and replace with new one. Hassle factor and who knows how good the new tenant would be. Of keep the existing tenant, safe in the knowledge that the rent is being paid direct from the council. Of course it depends on the tenant, but mine keeps the place clean and tidy and is reasonably easy going. When she eventually leaves the deposit ( protected) will cover a lot of the rent arrears. Of course it grates that the money she was paid in HB disappeared, but on the other hand, unless her circumstances change, I have a safe tenant with the council ensuring I get most of the rent.

The sad thing is that should she get a job and not be eligible for HB, the less keen I will be to keep her.

CKhalvashi

Werdnal wrote: »

What people mean is the tenant will plead poverty and get a payment order for £5/week or another minimal amount, meaning it would be months before they paid off the total owed - if at all, as they would likely default on it again later.

This is one of the reasons why people are wary of HB tenants (not that I am generalising as any tenant is just as likely to cause arrears), but if they have no substantial assets and little income, claiming anything owed is hardly worth the effort!

However if they default on a CCJ, there is far more that can be done.

I've had both LHA and non-LHA tenants cause arrears before now, so there should be no generalising here for this reason.

CK