What are your experiences of tenants on benefits?
I have a house which I rent out while working overseas. I have always previously declined tenants on benefits as I (maybe wrongly) think they are not as reliable as working tenants.
The last working tenants I had turned into a bit of a pain so I understand that there are good and bad renters and working or not should not come into it. However the agent has new prospective tenants who are self-employed and on housing benefit and I don’t have the experience to make an informed decision. So any advice and experience appreciated.
Cheers

my dad has 3 houses back in home town he self manages

2 of them have tennents on benifits – never been an issue in 4 years (same tennents all the time)

he rented to a working polish couple , all went well for a couple of weeks then there were reports of 15/20 people living in the place – they had moved all their friends into the 3 bed.

eventually got them out and found they had wrecked the place , repaired it, Replaced with tennents on benifits had no hassle since.

How ever he has one in a bad area of the next city over and had a benifits guy in and i spent 2 weeks one summer cleaning and refurbing , OMG – hazmatt required !

so as you said – good and bad …. id certainly want to be picking my tennent my self tbh….

it depends really…

that’s a bit like asking what do you think of tenants with blonde hair, or brown eyes (sort of)

There’s a very great many hardworking families in receipt of benefits in the present financial climate which blurs any possible distinctions even further

Tbh youmay have tenants on HB right now and not even know it. My sister gets her HB paid straight to her, the landlord does not know anything about it.

Oh and yunki is bang on.

Trail rat. Your dad didn’t own the house 2 doors down from me in Chorlton did he? The 15/20 polish people and completely trashed house sounds depressingly familiar. It was a bloody nightmare!!!!

no thankfully i didnt grow up in chorlton 😀

Yes.Twice. Fine both times.

Thanks for the replies all.
Good to see no one has said don’t do it!

I lived next to a flat that was let to people on benefits and it was a stream of chav scum, beaten abused kids, loud music, trashed flat, threats of violence, drugs, police.

Oh and remember the government in their infinite wisdom is moving to giving rent to the tenant to then pay the landlord to help make them more responsible!!! Now that isn’t going to go wrong at all is it.

Oh and being that they will probably be kidded up to the max getting them out will be a massive drawn out affair while you suck up months with no rent.

I would never rent to anyone on benefits, especially with money not being paid directly in the near future.

Their are obviously good tenants on benefits but even those when faced with feeding their kids and paying rent will naturally get into rent arrears.

Get a professional couple / family in with good references

My mate has four renty houses all with tenants on benefits, no problems.
I’ve got one with non benefit tenant & he owes me a fortune.

**** me, feisty is a happy soul

I did it when I was a single parent for two years. my landlord was brilliant, and I never defaulted with my payments and looked after his property, all sorted.

Tenant for 30 years, some on benefit and some not but either way I never did any damage and always paid. Unlike the letting agent at the last place who ran off with the money.

Good people do good things, bad people do bad things. The money doesn’t often affect this in my experience. I wouldn’t worry too much about that, more about how much you trust your agent to act in your interest. When I have had HB tenants, it has sometimes taken more than two months from making the claim to seeing the money (sent direct to me).

A lady I know rented her flat to two Police Officers who trashed the place & left owing hundreds.

Chap at work rents to HB Tenants, in Coventry. Luckily the insurance covered the fire damage when one of the places went up in flames. He seems to be constantly on the phone sorting out one issue or another.

Anther chap actively seeks out Eastern European’s, because he reckons they make the best Tenants. He’s always going on about the ladies being pretty, so I think that’s the real reason.

I’m renting on housing benefit a 2 bed flat with me, the misses and my little’un. I work 2 jobs (printer and retained fire fighter) to be able to afford everything. We pay on time in full every month. We even painted the flat and put a new kitchen worktop in because previous tenants left it in a bit of a state.

Feisty, come down off your high horse. If you lost your job and was redundant you’d suddenly depend on benefits perhaps…but what if everyone just shot you down because of that? Think how you’d feel. Not all of us are scumbags.

Can they supply references from former landlords ? DO they pass a credit check ? Perhaps try judging them on the facts rather than any preconceptions.

I had tenants on benefits and they smashed my house to bits, turns out they’d been in jail and everything, chasd them for money and didn’t get a penny.

I had one who wasn’t too bad. I got paid directly by the council in the end but was always chasing him for the short fall each month.

Mother in law had a non UK family recently in one of her houses. They just didn’t see the need to make up the shortfall in the rent each month from what the council were paying her. Just didn’t understand (or didn’t want to) that the council payment didn’t cover their whole rent and always pleading poverty. Funny how a 48″ LCD TV appeared over Christmas though. They left owing a lot of money when we threatened court. Carpets half removed, oven door smashed, fridge wrecked etc.

If you do, pick your tenant carefully.

See if your council runs a Private Sector Leasing Scheme

Takes away all the risk.

I think the point made about the changes to be made to the benefits system whereby housing benefit is paid to the tenant rather than the landlord.

This is going to lead to cases of arrears as some people (quite often by their own admission) cannot manage their money properly. Lets be honest, there are plenty of working people who can’t manage their money very well – me included.

I am not saying this applies to everyone on benefits and some will manage very well but others won’t and you may not know whether your tenants will be able to until the arrears start racking up.

Cheers

Danny B

As above really – depends on the person.

My present tennant is on benefits and has mobility issues. I didn’t enquire what benefits, as I didn’t feel it was my business. She gave references from her last place and has been great. Has made improvements, always asks first, pays by standing order always on time.

My previous tennant was working and an absolute nightmare. Had to chase money (she would then just pull out the cash), house left dirty, bathroom never aired and full of mould, garden abandoned.

It seems like a bit of a lottery. Good luck.

I think the point made about the changes to be made to the benefits system whereby housing benefit is paid to the tenant rather than the landlord.

A few years ago, I was bitten, when the council decided the guy hadn’t lived in the property… and as I couldn’t prove he did (how exactly? he didn’t pay any fricken bills), they took back the rent that had been paid directly, and it was up to me to get that back (sue) from the tenant.
I shan’t be rushing back to take in tenants on benefits