subject: How Private Land lords could protect themselves towards housing benefits deficits [print this page] How Private Land lords could protect themselves towards housing benefits deficits
Following on from recent news of Sir Stirling Moss being tricked by non paying tenants or renter, the Residential Landlords Associaton (RLA) has asked for laws to be reviewed which is considered to be unfavourable to private sector property owners and more so social landlords. The RLA have been warm towards the new white paper from Government, however the sticking issue for them is how housing benefits are handled moving forward.
At this point, if you are a private sector landlord and you have renters in your residence, your tenant or renter could be enjoying housing benefit allowances which are then not paid onto you. However, tenants of public sector housing schemes do not receive allowances themselves. Instead, the allowances are paid directly to the housing associations responsible for the property. This favouritism is something which the RLA want to squash as this is unfair to private landlords that lose thousands on rented properties each year.
Being a private property manager, yo have to make a choice on the kind of tenant or renter you select to rent your house. The simplest way to safeguard against losing out is to advertise that your property as not acknowledging any DSS or housing benefit tenants. By doing so, you are immediately reducing your risk of non payment, by only taking on tenants that are having a stable job and earning a salary. Depending on the location of your property and the unemployment rate in the area this may be a difficult decision, so you have to weigh up the time it will take to find a suitable (working) tenant, because the whole time you are looking for a tenant, your property could be empty and not earning you any money.
Upon having the tenant already, you will then require the services of an inventory clerk, who will come in and carry out a property inventory for you. This inventory will again aid you protect your interests as a landlord, by constructing an archive of the information and condition of the asset.
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