Britain's Benefit Tenants Ch4

societys_child

Talc1234 wrote: »

Are you all having fun sneering at people less fortunate than yourselves?

Less fortunate? They put nothing in. They take everything out - a scourge on society.

debrag

mrginge wrote: »

As a male, white, middle class, daily mail reading imbecile who did not watch this program I am clearly livid about these scumbags.
I can only suggest that these people should be sent back to whichever country they came from.

unfortunately they were all British.

jaylee3

Chav scum.

#sorrynotsorry :cool: Rant away lefties.

Viberduo

I am on benefits and I am quite OCD with cleaning but cluttered, at a property I moved from last year I had the keys for 3 weeks after moving house(due to notice period and council paid rent for 3 weeks at original property) I spent about 3-4 hours a day for the first week cleaning and so there was no rubbish there at all, I scrubbed all the bathroom tiles, spent £30 on cleaning products, hoovered windowsils, moved wardrobes and sofas and hoovered behind them, even touched up paintwork on a few scratches where the sofa was, I was even hoovering the skirting boards and LL still claimed it was filthy dirty pointing to a hand print on fridge door and hand print on kitchen sinks taps! I remember even borrowing a proper carpet cleaning machine worth like £200 from a friend and cleaning the white carpet so it looked almost as good as new(and as had been there 3 years says a lot)

It is bad when you have good tenants and bad landlords, I always think back to the times when I had been turned down for properties because I am on benefits and find out the person who took the property damaged it in whatever way and was disrespectful, I also remember a time that I laughed about when my neighbour got a job so wanted to move out of her dingy bedsit and took me with her to a viewing, we spoke to the LL who was polite but said they didnt rent to people on benefits(but would to my friend as she was starting work) since she was worried they go to bed middle of the night, may have friends round keeping the working tenants awake etc, then we spoke to the other tenants who said they had parties every weekend and a few cans of beer every night, somehow the LL didnt see that as a problem!

DaveTheMus

Watching it just now......the people on it are pathetic......I'll be buying one or two BTL's in the future and I will never rent to anyone receiving benefits.

Viberduo

DaveTheMus wrote: »

Watching it just now......the people on it are pathetic......I'll be buying one or two BTL's in the future and I will never rent to anyone receiving benefits.

Why not? do you have the misguided notion that only people on benefits are bad tenants? here is some advice then don't rent to students as they are just as bad if not worse unless you just take advantage of the fact students dont know the law i.e if a landlord says they are keeping deposit they let them, or landlord says they have to leave as they had a complaint despite having a tenancy agreement the student leaves.

Had you seen some of the WORKING peoples properties I have lived in since I left home you would be disgusted, I lived in a flat with all Polish cleaners and the kitchen looked like a squat, every pan soaked in fat, the cooker itself so soaked with fat that when you lit it a flame went up, the amount of times I would see them try and put fire out, was lucky a fire never happened, constant food getting stolen, toiletries, drunken people slamming doors, had one person get drunk and then shout at me as I left my food to boil too long so smoke went in kitchen so he punched door frame cracking it and told LL it was my fault, the same guy used to steal things like alcohol from my cupboard from my 18th birthday.

Worse was when my flatmates(who were from middle class families) got drunk one night and phoned up premium chatlines from about £1-£4 a minute then ganged up and said it was me.

Point is a bad tenant is a bad tenant regardless of financial situation

Freecall

debrag wrote: »

unfortunately they were all British.

I took mrgringe's comment as a joke. I never considered that it might be serious!

BitterAndTwisted

I thought the programme was very interesting. The real story wasn't about tenants on benefits per se but about only one letting agent and the very particular kinds of tenants they chose to service. The people working for the agency were acting almost like social services/the tenants' parent in order to get them in properties and collect rents for their landlords. Considering the kinds of problems the tenants had, it seems as if there are far more properties to let in Easington Colliery than there are decent tenants to take them or why bother with all the hassle?

DaveTheMus

Viberduo wrote: »

Why not? do you have the misguided notion that only people on benefits are bad tenants? here is some advice then don't rent to students as they are just as bad if not worse unless you just take advantage of the fact students dont know the law i.e if a landlord says they are keeping deposit they let them, or landlord says they have to leave as they had a complaint despite having a tenancy agreement the student leaves.

Had you seen some of the WORKING peoples properties I have lived in since I left home you would be disgusted, I lived in a flat with all Polish cleaners and the kitchen looked like a squat, every pan soaked in fat, the cooker itself so soaked with fat that when you lit it a flame went up, the amount of times I would see them try and put fire out, was lucky a fire never happened, constant food getting stolen, toiletries, drunken people slamming doors, had one person get drunk and then shout at me as I left my food to boil too long so smoke went in kitchen so he punched door frame cracking it and told LL it was my fault, the same guy used to steal things like alcohol from my cupboard from my 18th birthday.

Worse was when my flatmates(who were from middle class families) got drunk one night and phoned up premium chatlines from about £1-£4 a minute then ganged up and said it was me.

Point is a bad tenant is a bad tenant regardless of financial situation

And you couldn't clean the kitchen because....

Morglin

To be honest, I never know whether to laugh or cry at these programmes, as all they ever appear to show, to me, is one side of the equation. :wall:

I have always lived in social housing, by choice, simply because I have never been particularly worried about owning property. (Obviously, I first got a council house, in the 70's, when it was pretty simple, and I realise it's different now)

I have always been happy, where I have lived, and tenants, along with homeowners, come in all shapes and sizes! Benefits or not has never really come into it, where neighbours have been concerned.

The examples shown on this programme, to be fair, were obviously socially inadequates, who weren't the full ticket. The letting agency, colluded with, I assume, by the landlords, appeared happy to just keep moving the worse of the tenants around the area.

The couple, for the sake of the child, if nothing else, needed social services input.

I always worked, always vastly improved any property I rented, and always paid all the rent. The places were always clean, tidy and I caused no hassles to anyone

I am now disabled, receive disability benefits alongside my private pensions, have vastly improved the property I am in, and pay all of the rent! The place is clean, tidy and I still cause no bother.

Nothing change simply due to how you are receiving income! :doh:

I have high standards, and what we cannot do/maintain, due to disabilities, we employ others to do - simple.

It's not about benefits, it's about who, how and what you are. I know some pretty manky homeowners, and there are also inadequate souls living in their own properties.

Then, of course, we have the lazy, slum and greedy landlords, not mentioned too often by the media - perfectly cheerful to exploit people, not willing to do repairs, and then whining about 'benefit tenants'.

A little more balance in the media might be good!

Lin