NO DSS: is it technically illegal

LADYXXMACBETH

We are selling our house and going into rented as we need more space and we cannot get a mortgage. Anyway, we are struggling to find a 4 bedroomed house as they are too expensive and as a bit of a laugh I did the calculator on our councils website to see if we would be able to get Housing benefit. I wasn't expecting to qualify but they would give us £60 a week and I can only assume it is because we have a disabled child.
Anyway we have now thought that we might be able to afford a bigger house but they all say NO DSS. Could this be technically discriminatory since the benefit is paid because of a disablilty.
i can understand why LLs do not want to let their houses to people who do not work but my husband works hard and I am a carer for my son and I have 2 other children.
What would stop me from taking on the tenency and then applying for HB and not telling the LL? Doesn't it get paid to the person claiming and how would they know? My husbands wage is just 2.5 times the rent so we would be allowed to rent it so to speak.
Our council are launching more houses for people on DSS but I don't want to take up housing stock that genuine people need because they are not working at all. Is there a way around it. It seems bonkers to me.

phill99

There is a difference to DSS and someone paying their rent but receiving a contribution from HB. Want no DSS normally means is they don't want tenants who receive 100% of their rent from HB because they are unemployed.

G_M

Since 'DSS' does not exist and has not for decades, no.

The modern equivelant might be 'No Benefits claimants'. This also would not be illegal.

If it said 'no disabled' or 'no disability claimants' THAT would be illegal.

haras_nosirrah

I don't think it is illegal

there are many reasons

some mortgage providers won't allow mortgages if the tenants are housing benefit tenants

a lot of landlord insurance policies don't allow letting to housing benefit tenants so the landlords insurance policies would be invalidated.

Housing benefit tenants are more unlikely to leave when being issued an s21 and more likely to hold on for a council house (so the council will tell them not to move till the bailiffs arrive which costs the landlord potentially thousands in lost rent and expenses

If the landlord goes after a housing benefit tenant for costs for the above or rent arrears they may get £1 a week - it is easier to get money from a working person


Now the above doesn't necessarily apply to your situation as your husband is working so I would think you would be ok however people who are solely on housing benefit struggle to get private lets generally for the above reasons

LADYXXMACBETH

So you think if I told a Lettings agent that I was thinking of applying they may be sympathetic to my situation

BitterAndTwisted

If you get accepted for a rental based on your family's income then it's no-one's business but your own whether you apply for a contribution towards your rent via LHA or not. What most landlords and agents are interested in is AFFORDABILITY, so if you patently cannot afford to pay the full rent without LHA you are likely to be declined.

theGrinch

people can choose betweeen employed and unemployed, student or professional, single or couple

LADYXXMACBETH

theGrinch wrote: »

people can choose betweeen employed and unemployed, student or professional, single or couple

Yes but there are laws against disabled discrimination. I can treat someone who is employed, unemployed, student or not anyway I like within reason (I wouldn't because I'm nice) but if they are disabled I cannot. Same way you can't put up notices saying NO BLACKS OR IRISH. People do try to stipulate but it is illegal not to mention wrong.

jackomdj

LADYXXMACBETH wrote: »

Yes but there are laws against disabled discrimination. I can treat someone who is employed, unemployed, student or not anyway I like within reason (I wouldn't because I'm nice) but if they are disabled I cannot. Same way you can't put up notices saying NO BLACKS OR IRISH. People do try to stipulate but it is illegal not to mention wrong.

I think that was what the grinch was implying since he left out disabled from his list of things you can choose.

nidO

LADYXXMACBETH wrote: »

Yes but there are laws against disabled discrimination. I can treat someone who is employed, unemployed, student or not anyway I like within reason (I wouldn't because I'm nice) but if they are disabled I cannot. Same way you can't put up notices saying NO BLACKS OR IRISH. People do try to stipulate but it is illegal not to mention wrong.

People advertising No DSS are not discriminating against a disability, they're discriminating against having a (potentially) unreliable tenant and a (definitely) unreliable income.

The fact that you are getting housing benefit due to your child's disability is, from the point of view of a landlord, totally incidental and irrelevant, these landlords are not refusing to rent to you on the grounds of having a disabled child but on the grounds that at least some of your money is council-funded.
This is fraught with issues for landlords, two of the most glaring are:

1) Many mortgage lenders won't allow properties to be let to benefit claimants (nothing the landlord can do about this one, this is for you to take up with the banks)

2) Councils have pretty much all-consuming powers over money that is paid in the form of benefits, pretty much forever.
If you claim housing benefit and use this to pay your landlord for 5 years and then the council discover you've been fraudulently claiming and were either paid too much or shouldn't have been receiving anything at all, the council can reclaim ALL of that money straight back from the landlord - No ifs, buts, or appeals, just a fat bill for the landlord that can be sucked straight from their bank account if need be (housing benefit falls into a category alongside care fees in this regard, where the council has pretty much a carte blanche to recover any money they feel they're owed at any time however they like).

Individual councils will have their own rules on this (some will only ever seek to recover money directly from a landlord if the money was paid straight to the landlord and/or if the council can demonstrate the landlord was/should have been aware of a change in circumstances that would affect benefit payouts, for example) but this is up to individual councils and rules can change, in general though any money paid by a benefit claimant is "risky".
This issue of income being unreliable also then feeds back into 1) as a reason mortgage lenders will sometimes prohibit rentals to housing benefit claimants.

thesaint

LADYXXMACBETH wrote: »

What would stop me from taking on the tenency and then applying for HB and not telling the LL? Doesn't it get paid to the person claiming and how would they know? My husbands wage is just 2.5 times the rent so we would be allowed to rent it so to speak.

There's nothing to stop you.

If your husband earns enough, then the agent won't usually care about your income, or lack of it.

If your husband does earn an amount that still allows for you to get a contribution from housing benefit, then it suggests that this is not the case.