Almost nine out of ten (87%) landlords who accept housing benefit tenants have had problems with rent not being paid on time, with one in ten (11%) saying they have had tenants who stopped paying their rent altogether.
Out of all landlords, more than half (59%) stipulate no housing benefit tenants in their advertisements.
The astonishing results emerge from a survey of over 1,000 UK landlords, conducted by flat and house share website Spareroom.
The majority of buy-to-let landlords (86%) surveyed were against the change to the benefit system which now automatically pays Local Housing Allowance direct to the tenant.
The change came into force in 2008, and 51% of landlords who take housing benefit tenants said they had mainly experienced rent issues since then.
As part of the survey, landlords were asked why they would not rent out their property to housing benefit tenants. Almost one-third (30%) said non-benefit tenants were more reliable, while 47% said they did not want the hassle of dealing with payment problems.
According to the poll, problems caused by benefit tenants included late payments, not paying at all, issues arising from the suspension of benefit payments and damage to the property. More than half (58%) of respondents said they had experienced more than one of these problems.
Three-quarters (74%) of those landlords questioned said they would not take a tenant on housing benefit even if the tenant had a guarantor.
One-third (34%) of landlords surveyed currently have housing benefit tenants in one or more of their properties, and a further 45% said they had previously taken in this type of tenant.
Matt Hutchinson, director of Spareroom, said: “It’s clear from this survey that a shake-up of the current system of paying housing benefit to the tenant is desperately needed, and reverting back to the old structure, where landlords could receive rental payments directly from the council would be a step in the right direction.”
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Comments
i want to know more information about that. how i get that? please reply as soon as possible…
Located in a turnkey rental desirable neighborhood, this property features huge open floor plan, finished basement, large back deck and wetbar in basement.
I have tried most of the organisation who have spoken on this forum and what they say they do and what they actually do are polarised. It is about time landlords kicked back at Government to either pay us a fair rent directly OR go house these people yourselves - and we all know that Government either can't house them themselves due to financial constraints or won't due to the effort required to manage LHA tenants which at times (not always)can be impossible.
many landlords were duped by the government and local authorities with "promises" that they would receive LHA paid directly to them in return in dropping their rent to the LHA level
The answer is direct payments only. For our low-end units we now say "LHA welcome, but tenant must qualify for x bedrooms and for direct rent payments."
Ironic really, because it excludes the "good" LHA tenants.
We at a sensible company appreciate the schemes KIS and Landlordreferencing offer insurance that is useless. The first 8 weeks are not guaranteed (after which you can claim from the council anyway) and as with most insurance policies there are get out of paying clauses. If they do pay, the premiums are so high, you have more than covered anything they pay out and their payments are limited. Both housing benefit and overpriced insurance policies are a waste of time.
Insurers - They will lend you their umbrella when it is sunny but take it back when it rains!
We at KIS Lettings have adopted a scheme which has reduced all rent arrears from LHA (local housing allowance) and private tennants by taking a gaurantor and our scheme is now backed by an exclusive insurance product. My experience in the lettings market ha taught me If tenancies are set up correctly and managed then wether they are LHA or private these problems shouldn't arise.
We @ Landlordreferencing.co.uk are seeing more members join every day who have had enough of their LHA tenants owing money to them.
Landlords are like an interest free loan Company to some tenants and that is why they are joining together and networking to stop these tenants using them and then just moving on without any recourse.