I read a comment in ‘The Guardian’, that exactly mirrored our experience, and made me wonder whether this is a general scam that landlords need to be warned about? The guarantor presented as the wealthy Aunt of a niece whom she was kindly supporting. Aunt was in fact the mother of a drug dealer who was due to come out of prison and ‘niece’ was his girlfriend. They soon stopped paying rent and it transpired that Aunt had given a false address. They didn’t allow anyone in including the Gas Safety people, which they knowingly did to block section 21 eviction proceedings, as not having a valid GSC is a defence even though we had tried to get the check done repeatedly. They played every trick to stay in and didn’t pay a penny for 18 months. When we eventually got the keys the house was trashed. They tried to halt the eviction on the day the bailiff was due, which is also increasingly common. We had to pay for our solicitor to go (we were so lucky he was free) and it was stopped with 5 minutes to go. The five minutes between the girlfriend who attended court being told she couldn’t stop the eviction and the bailiff gaining entry to the property where boyfriend was, left him just enough tine to kick 3 large plaster holes on his way out. They also caused antisocial incidents, causing the neighbours so much distress they left and they had to sell at a significantly reduced rate. What really surprised us was that the case we read was identical to ours; beware of ‘kindly Aunt’ guarantors.
Did you not reference the Guarantor?
That’s a really interesting question. We used an agent so I’m not sure but I will ask.
It sounds like this type of scam is getting increasingly popular. I think it is important for reference checks to be carried out on the would be tenants. Identity, previous address, credit history, current employment, affordability etc. If the would be tenant fell short on the affordability check but passed on all the other checks you could then suggest using a guarantor. Ideally, the guarantor should also be reference checked as if they were the tenant.
I am a new LL with a mortgage. A condition of the mortgage is that tenants must be employed or self employed. It has made me think that this condition would also apply to any guarantor.
Interesting topic which we can all learn from. Thanks for sharing.
Interesting, who’s the lender?
Reason I ask is legally you cannot discriminate against disabled people. This would be classed as indirect discrimination.
Personally I do not let to people who do not work, although I do have a non working disabled tenant on HB. There was a case where agent was fined because of blanket ban on DSS and reason cited was amounted to discrimination against disabled.
In my broker’s on-line application which is basically an on-line price comparison site, they ask what type of tenants you will be letting to. If you select employed and self-employed your application will meet the criteria of more lenders and you are offered the best rates. If you select those on housing benefit the amount of lenders willing to lend reduces significantly and those that are willing to lend will do so at higher interest rates.
This is also the situation when purchasing LL insurance. This is definitely indirect discrimination by the banks and insurance companies. An agent who posts a sign in there window “No DSS” would be direct “in your face” discrimination which would be illegal.
No rent for 18 months and having to repair all the damage would bankrupt most of us. If the agent hadn’t carried out due diligence before letting your property then they should be liable.
Its a common clause Mark. In many BTL mortgage conditions.
It sounds like you have an Agent thats either useless or complicit. I would dig a bit deeper with a view to a formal complaint.
Thank you. I will follow that up
To be honest we’re really struggling and will probably have to sell to clear the debt. I think your comment is one we need to explore further. Thank you
I had read several years back that lenders would have to remove this so surprised it’s still so common.
I have only been a LL for two weeks. My purpose is to supplement my income in retirement. I am eager to learn how to avoid the kind of situation you found yourself in and stories like yours send the shivers up me. I am not from a a business background so recently did a LL e-learning course with one of the national LL associations which I found to be a great help. I got it on a black Friday deal £110.00 for a years membership and the e-learning course. Well worth it.
Regards
Cheis
The best advice I can give is . Do not believe everything a prospective tenant tells you .Many will lie Ask questions verbally , make a written note of them Then get it off them in writing and check , check, check, If they have lied once ,reject them there will always be someone else . Head not heart and no sob stories
Meet them yourself. Gut instinct goes along way. If they have poor credit don’t pick them regardless of guarantor.
I am starting to always request a guarantor as standard.
An agent won’t care too much about who they put in there.
I speak with employers myself.
A good reference from current landlord can’t be trusted and is worthless.
I am generalising here, but when speaking with the men I found that the very friendly smiley fast talkers always had something to hide!
Mark 10 spot on about the fast talkers
Well done @Chris, I think that was a good move. The trick now is to embed the learning with constant reading for a while.
Thank you, that’s sound advice. I shall certainly be much more careful in the future. It has been horrendous. I think I thought the agent’s process would protect us better too
nothing beats doing the job yourself and trusting our gut instinct We will still make mistakes ,but not as many I hope
So sorry to here about your experience. However it has led to an interesting dialogue about such cases relate to current legislation. Yes we can no longer say no DSS but like many of you I want working tenants unless I am specifically seeking a student let. There are many disabled people who work so the discrimination card in this instance is a dud deal. This does not mean to say that people who receive benefits would not make good tenants. Indeed we are now living in the world of zero hours contracts- not good for landlords but current reality. They are the ones that need the support of government. The DSS should guarantee their rent and that they will be good tenants- not accuse us of discrimination. I used to have to ask for id by law and verify a tenant’s right of abode. The Cameron government then said that this was being racist and legislated against it. All the government want to do is shift the financial pressures of the housing sector to private landlords instead of themselves. I dont even know if I can still do so but I need to know who I am letting a property so I ask for passport or driving licence. If the employer confirms them as employees you can 99.99% guarantee they are who they sat they are and dont need worry. However, I once had the tenant from hell who worked for the DSS confirmed to me by letter. They were on long-term sick leave and stole my furniture on leaving after not having paid a penny in rent or bills for 5 months apart from the first month. Thank you DSS.