Landlords are very quick on here to complain about potential tenants not responding or answering questions correctly. I have been reading on here, potential tenants have been referred to as garbage and idiots. And individuals on benefits are not worth the time of day. I am always polite when making enquiries about properties, and a lot of the landlords respond with ‘No or nope’ or do not respond and prevent you from responding with their magic button ‘Landlord Declined’ It works both ways. I feel when I get that response I have had a lucky escape of having to deal with a landlord with that temperament.
Any tenant, regardless of whether or not they receive DSS, has the potential to be disruptive and cost you a lot of time, effort, energy and money. There really are no guarantees as it ultimately comes down to an individuals character, which is why I communicate with potential landlords on an honest, personal basis.
The fact that people receive DSS does not mean that they all share the same character traits. The same applies for people not receiving DSS. Not all of those people are trustworthy, organised, reliable or kind, regardless of how they earn their money. Every case is individual.
My advice to you would be that you aren’t actually protecting yourself as much as you think you are, as you are always going to be vulnerable to your tenant’s personal character, regardless of how they receive their income.
I will state this does not apply to all landlords, there will be those that will sit back and relate to the content…
Thank you for an educational post. We stand corrected. We’re sorry. We didn’t know better. Now we do - thanks to you.
Keep posting. Keep searching for a place.
Thank you, it has come from personal experience not only reading contents on here, I am on UC, but I have not forgotten who I am and my morals and principles.
@Donna28, your post is well said and is of course correct. I do feel sad when I read the way that people on benefits are often characterised on forums, with very little respect. As you say, there is also a growing risk that landlords can be prosecuted for refusing a tenant solely because they are receiving state benefits. However, even if we can overcome the prejudice, there are a couple of issues that mean that landlords are not going to immediately stop ticking “No DSS”.
The first is the problems with Universal Credit. There are endless stories on here of landlords not receiving payments when they should, DWP refusing to deal with landlords and even clawing back rent that they have already paid when the landlord is not at fault. This presents a significant risk to landlords whose margins may be small and who don’t have the cashflow to deal with it.
The second is that whilst any tenant can get into financial difficulty and miss rent payments, or cause costly accidental damage to a property, those without any funds of their own are not going to be able to repay the landlords losses. As a last resort, landlords would normally look to recover any funds through the courts, but there is no point suing a tenant with no income beyond benefits as the funds will never be able to be paid. This does, of course apply to many non-benefits tenants too, but sadly if the landlord is doing a proper risk assessment of all the applicants he is presented with, it seems unlikely that many tenants without a decent regular income or substantial savings are going to make the cut.
I also agree with you. But then you have the situation where someone in full-time employment could unfortunately lose their job and only have the option to apply for support via benefits. Bare in mind that new claims can take up to eight weeks. With UC they do not pay back pay. It is a terrible situation for a landlord.
Though I think and feel preparation does help as a potential tenant, but again that comes down to the character of the individual. I personally knowing that I have to move, have saved deposits, and on top of that in the event of a problem with Universal Credit I have saved 3 months rent, though I have been advised on two occasions I will go straight from ESA onto Universal Credit, I never rely on others to control the outcome of situations I am involved in. What is the saying ‘Prior Planning Prevents P**** Poor Performance’ And when you also have someone else in your life you are responsible for, in my case my adult son, you should always be one step ahead of anyone that is coming into your personal space.
Thank you for taking the time to read my thread, and giving me an insight into what a landlord has to contend with.
Oh, I also wanted to say when it comes to UC the tenant can request at the time of applying that all payments go to the landlord and not the tenant, maybe a landlord should ensure that is put into place before a tenant moves in. Written confirmation is required. If the tenant wishes to move in then they have to pay the rent for the period they are waiting for their benefit to be put into place. But then again you do have the problem that the benefit system lets them down. It’s a hard one to try and put right, unless you have a tenant that keeps on top of everything to ensure their home is safe, and a landlord is respected and happy, it’s always going to be a problem.
The tenant may say " give the rent money direct to the landlord" Do you know they can cancel this at any time and the landlord can do nothing about it. ?
I was told when I made enquiries about UC, that once you have made a decision you could not go back on it. I have always just had a direct debit to a landlord every month on the same date.
I rented a property and of the 53 requests for viewings I received, only 20 replied to the Pre-Screening questions I sent them and of those 20, only 5 answered all the questions. The other 15 only answered what suited them or what they wanted to disclose.
Donna
The things is it isn’t just one UC applicant that has kept there living allowance & refused to pay their rent it’s “millions” & why would a landlord accept that risk when there’s a “button” that prevents that extra risk, there wasn’t this issue when landlords received the rent via the authority but… then paid the tenant who discovered they can “have their cake & eat it” & keep the property & the money-that’s why rhe button to “decline” is there because many, many have abused the terms but won’t accept them in reality & legally with very little consequence to themselves this has spoilt it for many others but you can’t turn the clocks back or change the wheel- Im sorry if you’re one of the minority who sticks to what’s agreed but landlords have worked hard for their property why should they take that extra risk, can I ask did you have a rent guarantor in place on your application? (Not on benefits).
All the best for the future.
