Hi all. Long time listener, first time poster.
Left school 16, Apprenticeship same year. Full 4 years in college, exteded by company to complete HNC. Youngest, most qualified electrician at Company and college.
Industrial, commercial and " house bashing" domestic. Installations then maintenence and more revent years testing comissioning and verification.
Then hips went!
After 6 years on waiting list, first one replaced.
Knowing it was the end of my practical career, gained a teaching qualification.
Guess what? No one wants to employ a 60-year-old man with bad hips.
On Universal Credit, with Limited Capacity to Work extention, higher rate PIP and standard DLA.
Discrimination only counts when you can prove it.
My family treated me well, but need own place.
If youāre going to drive up cost of housing for your own future investment. Pushing the property balloon further from the reach of young people making a start or progessionals like myself, finally, all out of luck. Give us a chance to rent off you.
Does no DSS mean no one on State Pension?
In a world with Zero hour contracts, and āgigā economy, when will the HAVES give a hand up to the HAVE NOTS?
I know its not easy being a landlord, and getting harder. The āslackersā on DSS, lets update DWP, are already working council and social housing. Meaning the " out of luck" wanna be tenants, the business losers, the injured trades people, the single parents for numerous reasons. Need less government money and more government supported housing. Try not to limit their potential by denying them a bed.
In an ideal world Iām sure most of us would. But when it takes 12 months to evict anyone with little chance of getting any money back, itās hardly surprising the shrinking pool of landlords want only āAAā tenants that they can insureā¦ many of us insure against getting no rent paid and having to evictā¦ and the insurance companies will not cover dss.
It sucks. But landlords behaviour is driven by such circumstances. Iām sure youāre great, but Iām not risking 20k on people that sound great, I need to insure it.
Re state pensionā¦ generally anyone on only a state pension would not pass affordability checks. But it will be taken into account for payment as will any other private pensions and verifiable incomeā¦ but not benefits such as housing benefit.
Richard, I think you will find that is incorrect. It is against the law for a landlord to discriminate against a benefit tenant because of insurance because now 58% of insurance companies do accept benefit tenants and it Is unlawful for a landlord or letting agent to reject a tenant because they suggest their insurance wont cover it. They can be sued because they would be expected to change their insurance. 99% of mortgage companies have removed no DSS from their criteria. The RRB will make this a lot clearer for landlords to understand is my understanding from my MP.
erā¦ 100% of insurance companies Iāve ever used in decades of renting have accepted tenants on benefits. Had they not, Iād never have been able to insure a property.
Richard does not know of what he speaksā¦ presumably because heās avoided anyone on benefits. Maybe this will reassure him that there is no need to discriminate solely on this basis.
Yes tatemono - it also begs the question for RGI - I believe (correct me if I am wrong) that this will be rejected if a tenant is on benefits without guarantor?
I donāt know. I donāt use RGI. Iāve always suspected that a reliance on RGI means Iād be less scrupluous in who I let to so Iāve avoided it. In the long run, itās much cheaper to get the right tenant than put in an RGI claim even if they do pay out.
Ok tatemono, are you running all of your benefits tenants thru openrents referencing system? Because you seem so sure I am wrong.
They always fail on affordability, and you cannot then use the rental insurance for them. Openrent even tells them outright that LHA payments will not be enough if they insist on applying.
Louise, it is correct, we are not talking about building insurance, we are talking about rental insurance.
Your mileage may vary if you are a slumlord providing cheap HMOās, but I can assure you they cannot afford a nice flat in my area on bennies. And itās not going to get any better. Hope you donāt get left holding the can.
horses for courses mate. There are no ānice flatsā where we have rentals. I can assure you that there are at least four nice houses though, and that they affordable for people who depend on benefits to a greater or lesser extent.
The fact that you choose to rent accommodation in places where LHA caps mean that āniceā places arenāt affordable doesnāt mean that there arenāt other places in the country where they are.
I hope nobody gets left holding the can. But you and I can afford to hold larger cans than the poorer in our society who are being priced out of the rental market by LLs raising rents, more stringent eligibility criteria and frozen LHA rates.