BTL Lenders reviewing attitudes to housing benefit tenants

seashore22

My daughter is currently in a woman's refuge, is on universal credit and will be moving into her first privately rented flat in December. She couldn't take the strain of bidding for social housing any longer. She is sharing a tiny room and a bunk bed with her 2 children. Not moaning about this by the way as we are incredibly grateful that the refuge exists and the help has been amazing.

After reading various threads on here, it felt like a miracle when the first estate agent she approached was happy to let to her and the landlord agreed straight away too.

Admittedly she left an immaculate 5 bed house a few months ago and is very presentable and articulate. Hardly the mental image some people have of someone claiming benefits. I imagine having her dad as a guarantor was the real clincher.

Other women in the refuge aren't quite so fortunate, often due to financial abuse leading to debt and having estranged families. On the whole private rentals are completely out of the question for them.

On a side note, I have a wry smile when reading the comments about social housing on here. Some posters seem to have a chip on their shoulder about the "free/subsidised" housing that others are "given". My daughter has been on the housing list since arriving in the refuge and many of those posters on here would turn their nose up at the majority of the properties that are listed. Those on the housing list are choosing their homes on the basis of a postcode and a grainy photo of a row of houses or block of flats and most of those are in areas that many wouldn't touch with a barge pole. The one flat that my daughter viewed from a housing association (8 people above her had turned it down) had a roof leak into what would have been her children's bedroom, ceilings that looked like they would fall down any minute and no space for a washing machine or fridge/freezer. So when you think about envying those in social housing perhaps have a think about what a desperate situation they may have found themselves in and how badly they need a roof over their heads. Not all of them are scroungers who will trash the place. Some will be like my daughter and the rest will be somewhere in between.

Edit - Just for your info, the difference between the housing benefit she can get and the cheapest 2 bed she could find was £125 a month. It's going to be a huge struggle and we expect to be helping out financially until she can get back on her feet again.

[Deleted User]

Agree with above post. As a carer on benefits, never ever fell behind with the rent even when half my money was taken away for two months due to a mistake. We didn't eat well, but the rent was paid. There are tenants who don't care about a property and leave it in a disrupted state but that can happen whether working or on benefits, working doesn't automatically make you appreciate a property more.

Social Housing rents are cheaper than private rents but in no way are they subsidised. Decades ago, yes they were, but that was put a stop to many many years ago. Social housing has to be fully funded by tenant rents. Somehow this subsidised idea persists as part of the 'you are on benefits so must be undeserving of the free handouts you get and generally reprehensible' view persists.

Certainly in my area, with private rental, costs are £1,200 for a private rental, HLA is just over half that. So one way or the other, private rental just isn't an option for benefit dependent tenents. But certainly in my area, there are repairs on social housing that just don't happen. I have a 40 year old kitchen, that is literally falling apart and it'll be two years til its replaced, even though its going to be a partly adapted kitchen. However, in private rental I wouldn't even have the partly adapted option. So there are advantages and disadvantages to both, as always. I know in my case, I was forced to move here (I was in emergency housing), "we are making this one offer, if you don't accept it you will be regarded as making yourself voluntarily homeless". So regardless of whether it met our needs (we all have special needs) we had to take it. It is a roof, and thank god, the one thing that does work is the central heating so we are warm (which I do appreciate having lived in a private rental with an old and inadequate heating system). Not everyone has even that. And I won't be getting stressed every time the AST term is coming to an end wondering if I am going to be evicted with a LL saying for years he wanted to sell. But obviously social housing is no longer 'housing for life' either.

Thank you OP for the link. It made interesting reading. I also read https://www.mortgagestrategy.co.uk/landlords-lack-of-legal-knowledge-revealed-urban-co-uk/. No surprises there either lol.

Norman_Castle

deannatrois wrote: »

Social Housing rents are cheaper than private rents but in no way are they subsidised.

Referring to social housing rents as being subsidised is often wrongly assumed to mean the rent is being partially funded by someone other than the tenant which is incorrect. The subsidy is in the form of the non profit rent. Social housing rent covers the costs whereas private rent covers costs and provides a profit for the landlord.