You are not being penalised as such, but your situation does limit you – as it does in so many ways and that is something you have to accept – tried getting a 16k credit card limit recently? It is just life, the more you can afford to spend on housing, the better it is. Your landlord ‘can’ do something about it (evict) but he is unlikely to want to do so (finance) and life would be unbearable for you because it will take months to get troublesome tenant out.
The rest of this post wasn’t written specifically for your case, but may be of use. Why Don’t Landlords Want to Rent to Me? Landlords are business people, business people tend not to take unnecessary risks.
The majority of prospective tenants on benefit have no guaranteed income as benefits can be stopped and they also have minimal assets – this makes you a risky proposition because if you were to decide not to pay the rent, it would take a long time to evict you and, once evicted, the landlord would have difficulty getting back the unpaid rent from you.
In addition to this, most tenancy agreements require rent to be paid in advance.
Housing Benefit / Universal Credit is paid in arrears. Many claimants are not able to pay their rent until the Housing Benefit arrives – meaning they are always behind with their rent. For a landlord with financial commitments of his/her own, this is not a good situation.
Many buy-to-let mortgage lenders, and insurers, will not allow their customers (landlords) to rent to benefit claimants.
A final issue, although less serious than the others, is that you may not be easily able afford or find a new property when the landlord wants his property back.
Whereas the majority of tenants will leave at the end of their 2 months notice, a claimant with no where else to go may have no choice but to stay in the property, forcing the landlord into expensive legal action to evict the tenant.
These are generalisations, you may feel that none of them apply to you, but with 4.88 million Housing Benefit claimants, there are going to be 4.88M different sets of circumstances – generalisations will always happen. How can I find a property? You need to start by accepting that you are not regarded by landlords and agencies as ‘ideal tenant’ material.
A letting agent will deal with hundreds of landlords, most of them will not accept benefits claimants (see above), but some of them will.
So you need to telephone each agent in your town 2 or 3 times a week to see if one of their benefit-friendly landlords has had a suitable property come free. If they say “we’ll phone you when something comes in” ignore it because they won’t (see above). Benefit friendly properties are so scarce they get let very quickly – so calling once a week won’t be enough, something might have come and gone in between your phone calls.
If you don’t want to go through an agency, you may find private landlords in your local paper, free-ads or these websites – but again, check regularly because suitable properties will be let very quickly.
These websites may be useful:
ADZUNA / HOUSELADDER / VIVASTREET / GUMTREE / OPENRENT / TENANTS TIPS / DSSMOVE / EASYROOMMATE / SPAREROOM Can I improve my chances? Yes.
It is all a matter of reducing the perceived risk to the landlord. A reference from your current/previous landlord attesting to your regular rent payments and care of the property will help. What will help even more is if you can provide a creditworthy homeowner who will legally guarantee that you will pay your rent and meet all your obligations.
If you can borrow money, you may want to offer 6 months rent in advance, or offer to pay a larger than normal deposit.
Who can be a guarantor?
Firstly, what is a guarantor? It is someone who will legally say to the landlord this person is going to pay everything (s)he should, and if they don’t, I will, so you are guaranteed to get your money.
There is no legal definition of who can be a guarantor but, as a general rule, they must be creditworthy, employed and own their own home in England or Wales (not rent). The guarantors income must be sufficient to cover their own housing costs and those of the tenant.
A guarantor does not (legally) have to be related to you.
There are commercial companies that will charge you to be your guarantor.
What Will I Need to Pay?
For all properties, you will have to find at least your first months rent before you can move in.
For most properties, you will also have to find a deposit – this will usually be at least equal to a months rent, but is often more as the landlord will want extra security due to your status.
For all properties let through agencies, and an increasing number let by private landlords, there will be an administration/reference fee – this will vary enormously.
What if I Can’t Afford It? Some councils have schemes to help with initial rent & deposit/bonds. Unfortunately, due to the financial limitations of most local councils, this help is often only available to those who are genuinely homeless.
Using council bond schemes may make finding a property more difficult as some landlords are wary of such schemes due to the paperwork required if a claim needs to be made on the bond.
Some agents/landlords will expect you to take out an insurance instead of a deposit. This involves less initial payment BUT, unlike a deposit, you don’t get your premiums back.
If neither of the above are viable options, then you may have to review your aspirations. For single people and young couples, it is often possible to rent just a room in a shared house.
If the landlord lives in the same property, you would be a lodger.
Lodgers usually have less demands placed upon them for deposits, rent in advance, references etc because their rights are much less than those of a tenant.
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