My daughter is single and has two children, she has been given notice to leave her flat as the landlord is selling. She is on universal credit but has rented for 2.5 years and never been late with her rent. Why won’t landlords/letting agents give her a chance! She has a deposit but no guarantor who earns enough. At this rate she will be homeless!
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In all honesty I started viewings for Universal Credit tenants since it was ruled unlawful to discriminate against them under the Equality act last year.
If I didn’t confirm 30 minutes before , they would not let you know they are not attending.
I ask them their income on the phone before I book a viewing. They don’t understand they have to earn three times the rent. I have sent them the how to rent guide on the message board. I had to explain to one prospective tenant that on £800 benefits per month for two people they were best off staying with their parents.
Another alleged he worked for JLR but did not provide paperwork to support this.
Yesterday a viewing took 16 minutes for a two up two down. The tenant parked their wet umbrella on my new wood flooring.
I stood outside in the heavy rains because I don’t want to be in a house with strangers because of COVID. The house was refurbed in 2018 with bells and whistles .
I stood wondering why this viewing was taking so long and had decided against the prospective tenant because it does not take 16 minutes to view a house and I was saturated. When I saw her stick her head in the washing machine and tumble dryer I thought about asking them to leave.
They eventually returned. They like the house as long as I change the doors. The doors were too heavy ( they were set up as fire doors with door closers and releasing the closer would resolve the issue).
I was amazed that they have no concept of cost and that they thought door changing is done as a whim like you change a garment in a shop.
I apologised and locked the door.
I am trying …
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I really appreciate there are people that just take the mick, it must be difficult at times being a landlord. This is the problem we have in that we find everyone tarred with the same brush, my daughter is literally the model tenant, the property she has to leave has a damp issue and she actually lost a lot of her possessions through it (turns out to be a cladding issue) it has very old storage heaters that she couldn’t use because of the cost and other issues but still she dosent complain because she’s grateful for it. She pays rent smack on time and looks after her home. Now because of others on universal credit who don’t think like her she can’t find a landlord willing to let to her. It’s heartbreaking for us all because the homeless route that the social housing say she will have to go down is literally inhuman with two small children
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Wow. This is really all about kicking tenants in the teeth, or so it feels. People are in whatever situation they are in and we all need to live somewhere decent, but I agree on the affordability issue.
It seems to me, regard of someone’s credit report, the income is the most important thing. People can have black marks on a credit report for many reasons.
I am a high earning person who has bad credit because of an ex husband. I can put down extra rent and am willing to prove myself. I can prove all my income, but no one will rent to me unless I have a guarantor which I don’t. I am American and have been here for 20 years. Work in the City and have a British partner. I am desperately looking for someone to believe in me as I will be homeless in 10 days. I am looking from the Bridge/ Patrixbourne area, Canterbury to Ashford and over as far as Faversham also including Whitstable. Can anyone help?
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The answer to the question is basically that the Government are propping up the housing market in anyway they can, because it is intimately linked to the performance of pension funds. If the market crashes, so does the value of pensions. And a lot of hedge funds fail. Basically, very rich people would lose money, which can never be allowed to happen.
This has created a housing bubble that has lasted two decades. Add in the effect of selling off council homes, tax breaks for anyone owning a second home (which until recently applied to landlords with multiple properties - and they’re still moaning about it) and foreign “investors”, AirBnB and the like… you end up with very limited supply for people that have a need to live somewhere - and very selective landlords, just because they can be picky (tbf, who can blame them?).
So until the above is addressed, there will be limited supply - and private renters are hostage to a bunch of 50-70 somethings who have it ingrained into their psyche that they’ve worked hard for what they have and are therefore entitled to it, whereas the reality is they’ve had it better than anyone is likely to have for a long time, if ever again. I’d imagine they all think that final salary pensions are still a thing for everyone, not that some of us don’t actually have a pension - since the cost of renting is too high to even stay in a pension scheme these days…
Anway, good luck finding somewhere to live!
The simple and honest answer to why tenants who rely solely on benefits find it so difficult to rent is that they are not worth suing.
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make that 50 to 73 who have worked hard for it and ARE entitled to keep it ,No final salary pension for me being 50 yrs S/E. Hard work has made me a lot of money and the same chances are open to everyone.
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Has she reported the damp? The landlord has a responsibility to fix it. The landlord could potentially be liable to replace anything she lost from the landlord’s failure to maintain the property.
She should report this to the council.
She should make sure she contacts the council regarding council housing as well. They likely won’t get her any until the bailiffs show up, but they can help her through the process.
If she hasn’t told the landlord about the damp - then honestly she’s not a model tenant. A tenant just letting a home suffer from damp and saying nothing is any decent landlord’s worst nightmare.
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