The Social Housing crisis and Landlords

This highlights just how important it is for Government both Local and Central to work with Landlords.

We also have this problem, recently we took part in a scheme through the Council to let some of our properties (which fall into the benefits cap level) to cases that had been vetted through the local Lettings Partnership. We took on 4 tenants, 3 single males and a young couple with a baby.

The three males have been no problem and we would have been good advocates for the scheme to other Private Landlords. Unfortunately the couple are another matter. The Council checked the flat over before granting them access to it. They moved in, trouble followed almost immediately with the couples relationship. Social services are involved as there is a baby too. Then doors were punched, the top up DHP amount wasn't paid, don't forget all rent is in arrears and the deposit is bonded so we have no actual real money for the damage. Finally we served notice on them for the end of the 6 months, after terrorising other tenants of ours and we await their exit.
We have now been contacted by another department in the Council who are issuing us with formal proceedings as they say we are not attending to repairs. Of course the girl has lied through her teeth and we were given no right of reply, just ordered to do works that didn't appear necessary when they moved in!
We now dread the usual route of bailiffs costing us hundreds of pounds to get her out as the Council won't rehouse her until she is being made homeless.

Funnily enough we have left the scheme now and made it very clear that the Council have not helped themselves or us. We own 130 rental properties in our area, they will never be available again to benefits, privately or through the Council.

It's a shame in the wake of a housing crisis the very people that need help will not get it and we will not be a good advert to any other private landlord that is thinking about doing it.

Oddly enough I received the B2L Spring magazine this morning. Apparently the Universal Credit scheme has already been rolled out in Ashton under Lyne, Wigan, Warrington, Oldham, Rugby, Hammersmith and Inverness. Bath, Shotton and Harrogate due to follow very shortly and the remainder of the country by 2017.

I have written to my Council (Bath) regarding one of my tenants who is nearly £2,000 in arrears asking whether I can continue to receive the rent direct because he has already demonstrated his inability/unwillingness to deal with his finances.

I fear I know the answer but will let you know the outcome.

Direct payment alone is not the answer.

Under the benefit caps of Welfare Reform many tenants are having the housing element of their benefits reduced to bring them under the capped rates. The benefit cannot not be taken away but the payment may be reduced to as little as 50p. Those who have this level of payment may also have reductions of other benefits and their overall income may well have been reduced by a large amount. Which landlord wants direct payment of 50p? Who wants to chase tenants for the balance when they have had their total benefits reduced?

We should be fighting to make Government recognise that a person who is homeless will remain jobless too and that it is totally inappropriate to put their Housing Benefit payment at the top of the list of benefit reductions when they reach the caps. A home is the most fundamental of all human needs and it should be protected from reductions in benefits AND the ambition to make people on benefit financially responsible - they need to learn those skills before the safety net is taken away and direct payment of the full LHA amount should be paid directly to protect them from their lack of skills no matter who the landlord is.

Paul

I'm assuming the tenants did not have kids and therefore you were not sued for serving a notice at 7 a.m. ?

Reply to the comment left by "Industry Observer " at "23/04/2014 - 13:59":

You are able to serve notices at 7am in the morning, best time to try and hand serve, especially we they are being evasive to a landlord and not paying £4k arrears.

Paul

Not so sure that early is that acceptable to the Courts, but you must know best. I understood best time to serve was between 7pm and 8pm at night as 75% of the nation is watching Emmerdale, Coronation Street or Eastenders by then.

Out of curiosity what is the lagal authority that says 0700 in the morning is OK to serve?

£4000 arrears - was this the case with the flash cars parked outside?

“….currently we have council waiting lists running from 10-20 years and not enough properties being constructed. It is currently estimated that we need 200,000 extra homes a year to be built, which has never been achieved.”

Unfortunately, when the forthcoming (26th April) Mortgage Market Review on residential lending criteria takes hold in a few months’ time thousands of people across the country will start to find that they can’t obtain mortgages needed for first or next-time buys so the market will stagnate and the building of new homes will come to a grinding halt as it did in 2008.

This situation will also fuel a massive rise in tenants seeking rental properties within the private sector so LHA tenants will find themselves even further down the pecking order with Council waiting lists growing ever longer.

I've got a tenant in Halifax with kids. She gets over £25k a year in benefits, so her benefits are now capped and my housing benefit has been slashed. So as Mary Latham states, direct payment is not always the answer. She is now being evicted - because out of the £25k tax free, and free council tax/prescriptions etc, she 'has no money'.

"Statistically an LHA tenant will look after a property better and stay longer, which landlords like."

Hi Paul - what source does this information come from. I know from my own experience that LHA tenants stay longer due to social immobility issues, but they don't look after their houses as well as private tenants. That's the trade off in my experience.