Tenant posted key to me - and it hasn't arrived....

clutton_2

thanks guppy - i try to be fair, but, i get more disillusioned as the years go by

i have a young single parent mum leaving me at the moment after 2 and a half years - she was on HB and paid a small top up - she started work recently on a part time basis, and now that some of her benefit has been withdrawn, her income is so low she cannot afford the rent - and has given in her notice. BEcause HB take so long to award a changed HB amount she now owes me a considerable sum (she also declined to make top ups until we knew the exact amount of HB) - and guess what - all of a sudden i am now hearing every excuse in the book as to why the house was/is/never-will-be worth the rent she has been paying for such a long time -

she seems to think that it is ok just to leave and not pay the remaining rent "cos i'm skint"

sooner or later, i may well become world-weary and cynical - but not just yet awhile.

so which Act of Parliament do Shelter use to substantiate this key advice ?

or maybe its just like the many OFT "Recommended Unfair Terms of Contract " - wherein every tenant i every talked to seems to forget the "recommended" bit and tell you that these OFT clauses are law they aren't !!

takoo

Hi Clutton

Re Clutton #17 : Could you please specify the source of the regulations, ie the number of the statutory instrument, that you are referring to and give the specific numbers of the "insanity" ones.

I am trying to understand responses to LHA and yours is the first real negative comment that I have come across.

clutton_2

takoo - the LHA is part of the new welfare reform act - and i dont know the specific reg numbers. My knowledge comes from Landlords professional bodies forums and reading articles in various magazines - NLA lobbied long and hard against some of the proposed new measures.

some "insanities" from my point of view are

1) all tenants will have rent paid directly into their bank accounts : -

several issues with this : -

There are tens of thousands of tenants on HB who do not have bank accounts.

Many high street banks simply will not offer HB claimants bank accounts as they will not make any money on such accounts. My local HB office is contemplating visiting local banks to plead with them to allow claimants to have accounts - is this degree of care going to happen nation-wide ? i doubt it very much

Even if banks do offer them basic accounts, they may well be accounts with no S/O facility - so how does the tenant get the rent money to the landlord ?

When HB offices take a MINIMUM of 2-3 months to get a new HB claim sorted out - there will, for sure, be a small number of unscrupulous tenants who will simply take the large cheque and abandon the property, leaving a landlord with no rent for 2-3 months. A landlord will probably then stop accepting HB/LHA tenants as tenants at all, and who would blame them.

"Vulnerable" tenants may have their rent paid directly to the landlord, but, the criteria for "vulnerability" is not clear, and their vulnerability will be re-assessed every 3 months - for example, is a mentally ill person (who cannot handle their own affairs/money) going to get better in 3 months time if they have suffered this condition for years - and who is to decide if the are "fit" to handle their own affairs ? Are we now getting into doctors reports etc etc

LHA will be set at the same level for each type of property in the area - (same rent for all 2 bedders, same rent for all three bedders etc) irrespective of condition (HB applicants were at least protected by a Pre Tenancy Determination inspection - so that shi*te properties were awarded lower rents). Tenants may now pay top rent for rubbish accommodation. Equally shi*te landlords will be getting top rent also.

It is my view, from discussing matters with parliamentary lobbyists and professional landlord bodies, that LHA tenants are now going to find it increasingly difficult to find decent accommodation.

Sadly i am looking at my own portfolio, and am wondering whether to reduce the number of single parent mums i house. As they leave, i may decide to go for professional tenants instead - who are far less bother in terms of my time and administration.

This Act alleges that it is about giving tenants "self-determination" - its nothing of the sort, its a calculated money-saving exercise. One example - although the Act does not come in until April, (and we still don't know the LHA levels - nor will we till March - as the government has decided to announce them all nationwide at the same time) - Rent Offices (which administered PTDs) are already closing down and staff being transferred elsewhere.

Finally on a more personal note, most of my single parent mums have always told me that they don't want to handle their own rent - "i'm likely to spend it if i have it".

As a compassionate mum, i fully understand that when they do have their own rent money and a crisis occurs with a child - if it is a choice between keeping the rent money safe, or helping the child, the landlord will not get paid in full.

I think what faces us all from April 2008 is what housing policy was like decades ago, and i think it will cause chaos and will further reduce not only the amount of property available to LHA tenants, but also the condition.

The 2004 Act, which came in last year, only legislated around HMOs - so there will still be sh*ite landlords offering regular housing who will not be prosecuted. :Local councils are too busy trying to License all the HMOs and Selective Licensed Areas to be worrying about individual landlords who are not abiding by the law.

The law prior to the 2004 Act allowed Local authorities to prosecute landlords offering sub-standard property - but their staff were so overloaded THEN, that few prosecutions took place. They had the teeth then - they just didn't use them often enough.

olly300

clutton wrote: »

so which Act of Parliament do Shelter use to substantiate this key advice ?

or maybe its just like the many OFT "Recommended Unfair Terms of Contract " - wherein every tenant i every talked to seems to forget the "recommended" bit and tell you that these OFT clauses are law they aren't !!

Clutton councils around England including Plymouth and Manchester City give clear advice on their private renting webpages that a tenant is entitled to change the locks and not give the landlord the key.

So while it may not be law it can be easily argued that from the tenants right to quiet enjoyment of a property the landlord does not need to have a key to the property as long as the tenants allow the landlord reasonable access to do repairs.

clutton_2

Olly - councils are not the "gods some folks think they are - they give "advice" which may or not be what the law says. Councils incorrectly interpret Housing Law every day of the week to suit themselves - i have challenged them several times and won.

its what a person does with the key that matters

if a tenant is afraid of the landlord having a key, rather than being pleased that there is someone else (who has a key) who can help out in an emergency if keys are lost, or if the tenant locked out - then that fear says something rather sad about the landlord-tenant relationship.

If a landlord does not have a key and the tenant has to break in to get back in (after losing his key) - i can imagine the conversation

landlord "are you going to pay to repair this door"
tenant "no its your door !"

heads you win tails i lose ? !!!

i'm not going on with this key conversation, its been done to death on here

life is too short for nitpicky arguments

i'll keep my keys - you continue feeling afraid - happy crimbo - i'm off for a holiday tomorrow - first one in 3 years .....

lynzpower

Enjoy your holiday clutton, you make an excellent contribution on here