Sheffield landlords who let to Benefit-claiming tenants?

[elora* 10]

you're really lucky, it took housing benefit at least 5 months to sort mine out, i did manage to scrape the rent together so never got behind, but i can understand why landlords don't like to accept it. The bond is more for any damage that might happen to the house, kind of an insurance payment.

[baileys_mum 10]

5 months, wow. I've been on council benefit for 3 years now, It'd just be a matter of changing addresses. I just wondered because its so hard to find a place to accept the payments

[muddycoffee 10]

It is also generally thought that DHSS people spend much more time actually in the house all day. Compared to a working person this leads to much more wear and tear.

I have had lodgers in my house in the past, and professionals are much better than DHSS or students, because they go to bed at normal hours and tend to make less noise, and don't regularly have the house full of lots of friends.

[elora* 10]

i wonder if it's the difference between Doncaster and Sheffield councils, the amount of time that it takes? When i moved my rent was more expensive, and it took them between 2 & 3 months to sort it out. It's a shame that they won't accept DSS, and i think it would be fairer for them to ask your current landlord for a reference, so that they could confirm that the rent would be paid.

[chele510 10]

One of the reasons is also that dhss wont pay the rents at todays prices. Most properties are at least £400 pm but Dss will only pay a maximum of £75 (in Rotherham anyway).

[mifsit 10]

on the one occasion i did accept dss they stopped paying 4 times in just 18 months for one crap reason or another and the guy ended up owing me 9 months rent by the time I asked him to move out. Once bitten and all that..

[elora* 10]

in 2 and a half years of private renting, i've never missed a payment or been late. I spoke to the Landlord of the property next door to me after his tenants had moved out, and they were a supposedly 'professional' couple and he said that they had paid 2 months rent of the 7 that they had lived there, so i suppose it depends on the tenant's honesty.

[investigator 10]

I had a DSS tenant and I received letters every few weeks telling me that due to changing circumstances the amount they paid me was changing and I should get the difference off the tenant. That became a pain.

 

Also - I was forever having to sign forms saying that if the tenant was overpaid (or overclaimed) housing benefit then I would immediately be responsible for lumping up the lot and paying it back.

 

Plus he ruined my carpets and painted the living room a hideous pink.

[baileys_mum 10]

Its great to hear feedback from landlords, helps me understand why I'm finding it so hard

 

Sounds like a few of you have had the worst of the worst moving in, I'm a good girl I am

[Squiggs 11]

Why is it 99.99% of landlords now will not accept DSS payments? I have never had an issue with the council housing benefits being paid, anyone know why? Landlords?

 

 

I have when I was a claimant some years back.

 

Then I got a job that was piecework, varying hours which meant some weeks I was a claimant and some weeks I was earning over the threshold.

 

Then, after I got a full-time job, that ended when the company went bankrupt after a few months so I had to claim again.

 

Between myself and the landlord we never knew whether we were coming and going. Landlord had to keep waiting months for benefit for weeks when I wasn't working. Filling in the forms over and over...

 

Each claim was treated more or less as a new claim, each claim took between 3 and 6 months to process.

 

Then years later after I'd finally got steady employment, a housemate (DSS) just disappeared, never bothered notifying benefits office etc. Although I started paying council tax as a single person, because he never tied up the loose ends before disappearing to wherever he moved to (NFA) I ended up paying back 18 months of council tax benefit that he had claimed (legitimately at the time) and the landlord paying back 18 months of housing benefit. Yes, the tenant should have cleared up everything before leaving but over those 18 months the claim was legit so why the hell did both me and the landlord end up thousands out of pocket?

 

Thankfully my l/l was understanding of the problem but I wouldn't blame him after those experiences if he never took DSS again.

 

After my experience, as the landlord usually leaves it to me as a long-term tenant to arrange advertising and choosing suitable tenants, sadly the case in "my" house is also "Sorry, No DSS"

[hazel 11]

I only once took DSS in my rented property and did not get any rent for 18 mths, at the end when I eventually got paid out DSS still owed me up to a £1000 which I never got back.

Had no problems with private renting tenants.

hazel

[go4it 10]

Longest I have ever had to wait was 2 weeks, plus I thought thats what bonds were for, late rental payments?

 

No bonds are normally for any damage to the house. If say I left a house after renting it for 12 months, the landlord would check the house and upon it being deemed satisfactory would then return my bond. If not, the the bond would be forfeited to cover the cost of the repairs / damage.

 

Unfortunatley landlords cannot wait 2 weeks for a payment. People who work and earn money have a mortgage, which has to be paid on a fixed date. You can't ring up the mortgage company every month and say 'it's going to be a little late, can you hold on.'