I know that this topic has come up a few times, but in light of the most recent court judgement about the legality of having a ‘no DSS’ policy and the fact that Rightmove and Zoopla have now banned adverts which say no DSS and that with Shelter’s help a few other prospective tenants have now recieved out of court settlements from landlords, has Openrent taken legal advice on retaining its features button allowing landlords to reject ‘DSS income accepted’? On the face of it, this would appear to put landlords selecting this option at risk of being sued.
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no landlord should push the button ,to be on the safe side, BUT we can take all the details and if we dont wish to proceed so be it . . Its our property ,we decide who to have not the goverment and certainly not shelter
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Everyone should have the right to live in a property, if they have the funds to pay for it and good references. I am on benefits due to an illness that is at present, has no cure.
I’ve worked all my life and had my own house, until I got sick.
I am outraged that I am deemed a risk to a landlord, who judges me purely by my income status! My income is currently MORE then when I was working and I am more than capable of managing my bills and keeping my HOME, in good order.
I want to move to be nearer my family but can’t get on any list. Not even the council waiting list.
A simple check with previous landlords is all it takes.
My money is guaranteed now. When I was self employed it wasn’t but I was still able to rent a house. Now I am being ignored.
Please don’t assume people on benefits are lazy, drug taking, irresponsible people. We are not.
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Agreed but my landlord insurance specifically states no DSS. So I need to be very careful in selecting a new tenant.
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You may have misunderstood my post J113. The risk to landlords that I am referring to here is the risk that they will tick the box that says DSS income not allowed because its easy and tempting to do so and that would likely put them in breach of equalities legislation.
I was responding to Colin’s comment. Sorry.
In reference to the comment about insurance. Landlords should be telling the insurance companies that they shouldn’t be selling ‘no DSS’ insurance, due to the court ruling. Don’t buy insurance from companies that do this maybe?? It’s all wrong!
There is no reason to exclude people that are ill or injured, due to know fault of their own. DSS does not mean dosers. The benefit system has been abused by some people but it is actually there to help people like me, that need help and landlords and estate agents should be mindful of that.
Sorry to rant but it’s very frustrating.
May you have many good tenants 
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OK thanks for clarifying. I don’t disagree with you either, although I would make two points:
- Universal Credit is a huge risk for a landlord as there are several ways in which funds can either be paid very late, witheld or clawed back due to either tenant default or inherent administrative features.
- Any tenant, working or otherwise can get into debt or have accidents which cause damage to a property. If this damage is greater than the value of any deposit, then a tenant who has no money of their own and no savings will be unable to pay and there will be no point in suing them as the courts will not award more than a token weekly payment.
I disagree with having a blanket no DSS policy or for using it as a proxy for the problems above, but I beleive that even after proper referencing and credit checking, a working tenant will almost always score more highly on a risk assessment basis than one who is not and if we are to remove bias and emotion from this process then risk assessment seems the only legitimate basis on which to select tenants.
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we are ALL judged on our income status. I was when i went for a mortgage on my house. Whatever anyone thinks the Landlord decides who he wants in his property, not anyone else. The goverment ,years ago allowed local councils to sell or transfer all the housing stock .No wonder people cannot get on the list . Private landlords cannot be expected to take up the slack. Note in previous posts I have said that there are good and bad tenants either in work or not and good and bad landlords
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Landlords have Bill’s to pay ,no one else will pay these Bill’s.
No Grant’s no schemes no back up reserves all Landlords are on their own.
If the Landlord doesn’t pay the Bill’s the tenant who wouldn’t pay their rent becomes homeless.
It’s not rocket science.
If the government guaranteed UC rent with no booby traps for the unsuspecting Landlord this would never have been an issue.
But they decided that they would go with this half baked system that causes misery to countless innocent people.
So Shelter have wasted more of your donations on pointless legal challenges helping no one and encouraging people to waste their time looking at properties they are never going to get.
Their time and our donations would be better spent lobbying the government to revise UC so the rent always goes to the Landlord regardless of the claimants behaviour.
Job Done!
All UC claimants get homes from stress free Landlords.
NB It’s still not rocket science!
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Jim well said but we have to dream on
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Some mortgage companies also have a no DSS policy
A landlord reference and and a guarantor is a must UC or employed
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I wouldnt quite say job done Jim. They have to scrap clawback, late payment and the short month problem at the very least.
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Its a shame you are tarnished with the same brush as the bad people.But thats what society does in many areas instead of dealing with the issue. I cannot walk my dog on the beach as previous owners have left dirt, they should be fined not make me suffer. We had a playpark for the local kids,it became vandalised so instead of dealing with the vandals the council removed it. I could go on and on but thats society you are judge by other peoples actions. The Govt allows people on benefits to stop paying rent without penalty, thats the problem.
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Hi J113
Sorry to hear but it’s not because the what landlords think of tenants in benefits but problems they have to deal with it.
As there are no protections for landlords and laws are not landlords side.
I have recently given a flat to a person on benefits because has been furloughed. Also talking to to UC said they will pay directly to landlord but UC have declined paying directly to me. Also UC have not paid anything yet to tenant either.
I know that they might many landlords like me in same situation.
Landlords would have been better off and rent paid in advance like other tenants do instead of in arrears if the government become a guarantor then there would have been less issues.
I just wanted to say that please note that landlords donot want to get into stress and become homeless by losing what they have created the full time work for themselves. There is a limit where landlords can take a risk. So please try to understand if some landlords who do want not accepting people are on benefits for short and long term reason.
I wish you all the best. But as tenants should not blame if some landlords also should not feel sorry for themselves and instead think positive there must be a reason if that did not work out. Please try to understand from the landlords points of view too what would you do if you were landlord.
I just wanted to say that I lost my job as a research chemist and dedicated to my work because of my health issues.
I know how the government rules are and I was asked by government doctors that who was the prime minister of the country and was told that I was fit for the work. Even I was seeing the two specialist in the hospital and not fit for the work. I was not stupid to leave the work nor my company wanted to leave me and tried to help me before we came to decision that I needed a time off.
So please try to understand and try to look some.
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I agree it needs to be removed altogether now. I put on my ad that they MUST pass the referencing to enable rent insurance guarantee. If they don’t it will not be offered. Unfortunatelylandlords now have to pay for this and can be done several times without success. I am considering asking the applicants to have their own credit checks before referencing them as they can have a credit check for free.
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Hi Colin
You are right just not push button.
But I think it’s should be just like tenants have to disclose all information in an application form for applying for jobs.
I was talking to a friend who lives in Switzerland and she was saying that when she was renting place that all tenants have to fill an application form then there would be an open day for viewing when landlords/agent would allow the only the applicant want they would prefer.
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I understand your predicament but you must understand that we rely on this for our own income. We have had all the same problems throughout life of losing jobs and illness with far less government help to get through it. At the end of the day we all have to take responsibility for ourselves helping if we can but within reason.
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Agree.
If the tenants get the credit check report and should able to disclose before viewing the property.
That would save money, time to both landlord and show how genuine they are interested in renting property
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What is very frustrating is the government have shown they can act fast and decisively but they seem to be just sitting back on this issue.
In my opinion time is running out, this shambles needs sorted fast.
Where I work we have people being made jobless next month, these poor souls are about to be cast adrift into this hellish system.
I have to ask the Government can they provide the houses we are going to need for free?
If not why do they think that landlords can?
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the good tenants would get their own report and the bad ones wont do it. But how would we know reports are genuine ?
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