Blanket ban on renting to tenants on benefits in rental property ads - lawful?

Pixie5740

pinklady21 wrote: »

Here is a prime example of the type of enquiry I am receiving:

Do u take dss? if u do, can I have a look?

I then respond politely along the lines of:

"The LHA for the size of property in the area is X. The rent for this house is Y. Can you advise me how you will fund the shortfall?"

There is then total silence from the other end.
The rent is clearly listed in the advert, so I cannot fathom why anyone on a (presumably) low income would think the property would be affordable.

I sometimes drool at wildly expensive houses on the internet, but wouldn't bother wasting my time enquiring about them as I don't have the cash to buy 'em!

How long has the property been on the market? How many applicants not in receipt of any housing benefit have you had?

pinklady21

Pixie5740 wrote: »

How long has the property been on the market? How many applicants not in receipt of any housing benefit have you had?

3 weeks.
Total of 15 enquiries so far.
4 of those from people in employment.

Pixie5740

pinklady21 wrote: »

3 weeks.
Total of 15 enquiries so far.
4 of those from people in employment.

People in employment can also be in receipt of housing benefit.

Are any of the 4 applicants who are in employment suitable candidates? How are there applications progressing?

Old_Git

I advertise working tenant preferred. However most have either been on benefits or lost their job and had to claim benefits at some time. I have two on benefits at the moment both good tenants .The last property I rented the tenant had been in a job for 16 years .Within 6 weeks he had lost his job.

pinklady21

"Are any of the 4 applicants who are in employment suitable candidates? How are there applications progressing?"

Thank you for asking.
We have two viewings arranged for this week with applicants who appear to have sufficient income to afford the rent. Other applicants either seem to think that HB will pay their full rent, which is unlikely, while others seem to be unwilling to provide any background information in advance of a viewing including giving their full name and address!

Pixie5740

Then soon enough you'll be able to take the advert down and the enquiries will stop. It's the same with selling anything online. It doesn't matter that all my adverts on Gumtree and Facebook say "cash only" and "collection only" I will some have some eejit asking me if I'll deliver something hundreds of miles away like the lady who expected me to drive from Aberdeen to Wakefield or they will want to use PayPal. :doh:

Pixie5740

You don't even need to ask how they will make up the shortfall or mention LHA at all. Just fire them off an application form. Chances are you won't get it back or if you do you can legitimately turn them down based on affordability, more suitable candidate, etc without running the risk of being accused of discrimination.

pinklady21

Pixie5740 wrote: »

You don't even need to ask how they will make up the shortfall or mention LHA at all. Just fire them off an application form. Chances are you won't get it back or if you do you can legitimately turn them down based on affordability, more suitable candidate, etc without running the risk of being accused of discrimination.

That is another thing - the number of folks who think that they can just rock up and view a property without giving any background info at all.
The surprise that is expressed when I email an application form and ask them to fill it in and return it and then we can arrange a viewing......
One had the cheek to ask me if I could bend the rules, just this once!

Cakeguts

pinklady21 wrote: »

Here is a prime example of the type of enquiry I am receiving:

Do u take dss? if u do, can I have a look?

I then respond politely along the lines of:

"The LHA for the size of property in the area is X. The rent for this house is Y. Can you advise me how you will fund the shortfall?"

There is then total silence from the other end.
The rent is clearly listed in the advert, so I cannot fathom why anyone on a (presumably) low income would think the property would be affordable.

I sometimes drool at wildly expensive houses on the internet, but wouldn't bother wasting my time enquiring about them as I don't have the cash to buy 'em!

I think there are a couple of reasons why they are asking. They are so used to seeing "no dss" on adverts that when they see yours and they don't see this they assume (wrongly) that it will be suitable for someone claiming the LHA for the area.



They don't look at the rent because if you are claiming the LHA that part of the rent doesn't have to come from you so you are only ever looking at the difference between the LHA and the rent. Your rent is out of the norm for a house that appears to accept housing benefit so they don't think about the fact that they can only afford 1/2 of the rent.



The people who are employed but can't afford it know how much they can afford to pay so they don't apply if they can't afford it.


I would love to know how many people apply to buy cars that they can't afford and don't realise until the financial checks are done?

Annisele

Well, I wouldn't be filling in an application form - or giving you much in the way of my personal details - before I'd even seen the flat.
For all I know, it's not even your flat and you're just out to steal deposits from every prospective tenant. I appreciate that that's extremely unlikely (and you wouldn't be posting here if that was your plan), I'm just giving a reason other than laziness or poverty for a prospective tenant not wanting to give you background information.