Finding landlords who accept Housing Benefit

themightypierre

My wife and I are separating. I am staying in the house we rent as I can afford it and she is moving out.

Unfortunately she was made redundant a few months ago. She can't find landlords willing to take people needing housing benefit.

Does anyone have any ideas on finding them. Are there places to specifically look? Right Move does not really have anything.

marliepanda

Councils usually have lists.

FutureGirl

Openrent.

Some on Rightmove do.

Gumtree have some (just be careful of the scams)

Cakeguts

Can you continue to live in the house that you rent until she gets another job. (There is more choice if she is working.)

theartfullodger

I can only suggest you scour the Zoopla & RightMove rented property offers, contact agents and explain your position: Probably a very depressing process...

Many landlords offer properties through On-line agents (eg Upad, openrent..) who then advertise on Zoopla, Rightmove etc.. When you contact the agent he just passes the request on to landlord).

You may find, sadly, the only properties available is claiming HB are the much-lower-standard ones. Sorry, good luck.

daphnemoon

Hi,
We've been in the same boat for the last few moves, the only thing we could do was look at Rightmove daily and call up about any property we liked the look of. Finally found an overpriced house that had therefore been empty for a while, I have to top the rent up over the HB amount but we have a lovely home now.
You can always offer to pay some extra months up front, for example 3 or 4 months worth of rent at the start of a 6 month contract. This has worked for us in the past when we've not had a guarantor which LA tend to insist upon if you're on HB.
Hope this helps, there are places out there you just need to call many times till you find the right place.

MyOnlyPost

One of the first things you need to do is see what the Local Authority rate is for housing benefit for a single person and then compare that to properties that are available to rent and see whether it is even affordable. Just like rents the rate paid varies across the country and in some areas you may find lots of affordable houses and in others you may be extremely limited.

Once you know your price point you can concentrate your search on properties up to that price

Miss165

Could you provide a guarantor?

vansboy

As mentioned, local authority will possibly help, BUT better than just the general enquires desk, talk to their Homeless Prevention Team as well.

Also, if you have agencies who support homeless, or better still a homeless welfare centre, they WILL have contact with landlords who can accept some less conventional clients and do it a lot faster than estate agents, with all their costs and expenses.

It may appear daunting, visiting these places, were some people have regrettably found them at some of the lowest parts of their lives. Don't judge on these, as there are some gems of properties available, to 'selected; tenants.

You may be entitled to the Local Authority providing a deposit guarantee, as well.

So ask, ask and ask again - there is help out there!

VB

System

Part of the issue isn't a reluctance of a landlord to take a DSS tenant rather that their insurer won't allow them. I use Direct Line and they won't cover for DSS tenants even though I've not got any insurance for non payment of rent. Seems unfair given a DSS tenant is no more likely to wreck a property than one working and a working tenant isn't guaranteed to always pay the rent.

silvercar

Tarambor wrote: »

Part of the issue isn't a reluctance of a landlord to take a DSS tenant rather that their insurer won't allow them. I use Direct Line and they won't cover for DSS tenants even though I've not got any insurance for non payment of rent. Seems unfair given a DSS tenant is no more likely to wreck a property than one working and a working tenant isn't guaranteed to always pay the rent.

I stopped using Directline for the same reason.