Private Landlords

Grumpy_chap

Personally, benefits must be as good as not benefits.  I mean, if you are only receiving benefits but can still afford the rent, it is not as though you can lose your job or something.  It is the insurers that impose the restriction as they won't cover the rent if there is any benefits involved.

Jeremy535897

Having seen the number of times a council can issue two letters on the same day to a landlord, one saying that the payment for a property will be £200 a week, and the next saying the payment will be nil, I am not surprised that insurers are cautious.

Galloglass

The court case that @Jeremy535897 referred to earlier is a lower court decision. It is seen a persuasive but not binding on other courts. You do get some hype with these cases which are termed as a breakthrough or ground-breaking but in reality a landlord can choose who they want as tenants. There is a risk of a blow back but until, as has been suggested earlier, the insurance companies reflect the ground-breaking case then it is [discriminatory] business as usual.

justwhat

Galloglass said:

The court case that @Jeremy535897 referred to earlier is a lower court decision. It is seen a persuasive but not binding on other courts. You do get some hype with these cases which are termed as a breakthrough or ground-breaking but in reality a landlord can choose who they want as tenants. There is a risk of a blow back but until, as has been suggested earlier, the insurance companies reflect the ground-breaking case then it is [discriminatory] business as usual.

its stupid and long term it will make things worse and is just  deflecting from the real problem.
If NO DSS gets made illegal then LL's will stipulate an affordability check. 
This whole situation regarding social house , has been made worse by the government stopping housing benefit going straight to the landlord.  They no longer have good housing stock and are attempting to force landlords to provide social housing.
Already many LL do an affordability check.  You will see Affordability checks more common place in the private rental market in the coming years, 

Galloglass

They no longer have good housing stock and are attempting to force landlords to provide social housing.

Social Landlords, the ones that have taken over council housing, have access to and use a wide variety of credit/affordability checks. It is in their interest to have tenants who can afford the rent and will be long term residents. It is called being professional.

Private landlords that can't run a business to a certain level, should not be in business. No point in blaming the tenants for the shortcomings in the business model.

justwhat

Galloglass said:

They no longer have good housing stock and are attempting to force landlords to provide social housing.

Private landlords that can't run a business to a certain level, should not be in business. No point in blaming the tenants for the shortcomings in the business model.

Many agencies and private landlords can and do affordability checks.  These harder checks have come about over the years due do some of the changes the council and the government have made. Its a perfectly good business model until manipulated by government  and councils. Ultimately/long term  the tenant will loose out .

Grumpy_chap

The real issue is that private landlords seek to manage their business risk by insuring and the insurers will not allow DSS.  If the insurers change their policy terms, Landlords will be happy to let anyone who can pay rent.

mattyprice4004

justwhat said:

Galloglass said:

The court case that @Jeremy535897 referred to earlier is a lower court decision. It is seen a persuasive but not binding on other courts. You do get some hype with these cases which are termed as a breakthrough or ground-breaking but in reality a landlord can choose who they want as tenants. There is a risk of a blow back but until, as has been suggested earlier, the insurance companies reflect the ground-breaking case then it is [discriminatory] business as usual.

its stupid and long term it will make things worse and is just  deflecting from the real problem.
If NO DSS gets made illegal then LL's will stipulate an affordability check. 
This whole situation regarding social house , has been made worse by the government stopping housing benefit going straight to the landlord.  They no longer have good housing stock and are attempting to force landlords to provide social housing.
Already many LL do an affordability check.  You will see Affordability checks more common place in the private rental market in the coming years, 

There's already affordability checks - but it's much simpler than that. 
Don't want a DSS tenant? Just ask all applications to include income details, and bin the ones that include benefits. 

Not something I'd do, not even something I'd endorse but there's zero way this can be enforced. 
As I've said before, my DSS tenants were lovely.