Landlords Not Accepting Housing Benefit Tenants

ERICS_MUM

A family member receives HB but is having difficulty finding a rental property for this reason. She's in a property at the moment for which the landlord does accept HB but she HAS to move (safety concerns sadly).

Another relative and I are in positions to supplement her HB to provide a decent rent, and would also act as guarantors. This is still not enough according to various lettings agents I've spoken to.

Does anyone have ideas please, or preferably can speak from experience, what more we can do to help resolve the problem ?

Thank you.

coffeehound

Have you looked on

http://www.dssmove.co.uk/

All properties on there should accept benefits claimants, though some will require a guarantor.

LocoLoco

It is very difficult when you're on Housing Benefit. Firstly, have you checked whether there is any local authority help available if the move is necessary for safety reasons? I don't know what the situation is - and help is often very limited - but it might be worth checking with organisations such as Shelter or Women's Aid, depending on the situation, if you haven't done so already.


I have found there are more housing benefit friendly landlords if you go for landlords who manage their own properties or those who use small letting agencies rather than the large high street ones.


There is a website that landlords who accept housing benefit advertise properties on; I can't remember the name of it (edit: just saw someone had posted the site while I was typing ). Generally I've found you have more luck if you look at properties advertised on Gumtree and on cards in newsagents windows and boards up in gardens. Asking around in the area you're looking can sometimes get you a suggestion but it means a lot of leg work.



I tend to get all my paperwork in order - proof of benefits received, income and expenditure, proof of deposit, details of referees and so on (and in your case proof of your income if you intend to supplement and act as guarantor). I also usually contact by email in the first instance and explain our situation (I'm professionally qualified and had to stop working in order to care for my disabled son) and state that I have all the paperwork mentioned above ready and available to send in.


I've generally heard from landlords that a lot of Buy To Let mortgages and insurance policies prevent them renting to people on HB, it's one of the conditions (landlords will jump in to correct that if it's wrong, I'm sure). So a lot of landlords wouldn't be able to accept your relative even if they were happy to. But it is possible (I've been on Housing Benefit for sixteen years now and have rented privately for most of that time). It's hard work though and involves getting knocked back a lot, which isn't pleasant. I hope you find somewhere soon x

theartfullodger

Even if insurance prevents HB tenants it's easy & usually only slightly more expensive to get insurance that covers such tenants . Those landlords are either lying or stupidly mean

ERICS_MUM

Thank you so much for helpful answers ! I especially like the idea of e-mailing rather than phoning for the initial contact.

Cakeguts

Some houses are just too expensive for enough of the rent to be covered by housing benefit for the landlord to want to take the risk.

ERICS_MUM

Cakeguts wrote: »

Some houses are just too expensive for enough of the rent to be covered by housing benefit for the landlord to want to take the risk.

Spot on, we’ve discovered that. That’s why 2 of us have decided we can add something toward the HB to get a decent place.

I can understand the reluctance to let to HB tenants. Our family member keeps her flat lovely but she tells us some horrific stories of her neighbours. Some people are worse than animals and don’t realise they are fortunate to have a reasonably decent place to live.

Mela322

A few years ago, we went through the same thing. We ended up with my husband finding a new job that paid more so we no longer needed housing benefit. The ironic thing is, we still qualified for HB but could just scrape by without it. We've been doing that ever since.

It's very difficult to find a home when you get housing benefit and it doesn't even matter how much you get. We were only getting £80 a month but it helped pay the rent. The biggest reason we got it was for help with our council tax as we were struggling at the time.

I met a lady recently, her daughter and grandson needed to find a house local to family. She was turned down everywhere due to housing benefit. Her mom put a post on the local Spotted facebook page about her daughter's position. She needed the housing benefit because her job paid only minimum wage and it wasn't enough for them to live on. A landlord of a house that had turned her down earlier offered to let them rent her house. She has been there over a year now and still paying her rent.

You might try the same thing. I think it helps that this young mum was working full time. I believe there is always a landlord out there willing to give you a chance, it's just difficult finding them. It's sad that this happens but I also understand under certain circumstances.

ERICS_MUM

What compounds the issue is that this town is growing rapidly and the supply of rental property is outstripped by demand, by people who are working. This is pushing up rents to well over the HB limit. For a reasonable house my relative and I have to be prepared to pay £200 each per month to top up HB.

ERICS_MUM

Yes, good idea about advertising locally and looking on local websites. Luckily I’m retired and have the time, this is hard work !

Thanks again all

elsien

If you trust the person to pay you back and are able to put the money together, paying a chunk of rent in advance can sometimes help. A friend was told by a letting agent that if she could pay 6 months rent in advance that would give her more options.