Is it a good time to rent your house out?

Fred1_2

Bungarm2001 wrote: »

"I don't understand the prejudice against DSS tenants."

The reason why LL's are wary of taking on people who are on benefits is the LHA rules that came into force nationally on the 7th April this year.

Part of what this means is that anyone in receipt of housing benefit will now have it paid direct to them instead of directly to the LL. It's not difficult to see why LL's are very wary of of taking on anyone on benefits (it's the DWP not DSS by the way;) )

As far as I know, it applies only to new rental and LHA agreements.

You're right, LHA is paid direct to the tenant (as is my tenant's HB). In my mind this is an improvement. If the "old" HB is paid direct to the LL, then the LL is responsible for paying back any overpayment. That's not the case if HB is paid to the tenant and obviously not the case with LHA. In this area, LHA is higher than HB and I'm trying to find out if my tenant can switch from HB to LHA - it would be a £50 pcm boost to her income.

I really don't see why LLs are wary of ppl in receipt of benefits. IMHO, it's pure prejudice. When I chose my tenant, the fact that she was in receipt of HB was not a factor. Her previous landlord provided a glowing reference. I made a point of visiting her at her old address to fill in the credit check and guarrantor forms, so I could see that she kept her home clean and tidy and had chance to meet her children. I'd recommend doing that regardless of the employment status of your prospective tenants - some employed ppl can be less than meticulous about housekeeping.

In this area, the vast majority of people wanting to rent are in receipt of benefits, so a blanket "no DSS" (yes, I know it's DWP, but DSS is still the parlance for some reason) is cutting off the majority of potential tenants. No wonder houses stand empty for months round here if they are rented through agencies.