Squeeze the tenant dry – the latest cunning landlord stunt? – SPeye Joe
Last weekend the Guardian ran a piece about social landlords response to Universal Credit. They want their tenants – and note the possessive language they always use their tenants, which is why a tenant can never be a customer as they are captive and can’t move – to make additional rent payments to be one month in advance, writes Joe Halewood.
Let me put that into some perspective reader as aside from tenants struggling to even keep up with rent due to the bedroom tax and benefit cap and a range of other welfare cuts this would mean the UK’s housing associations sitting on about £1.68 billion of tenants money.
4.2 million rents at an average of £400 per calendar month is £1.68 billion which is what social landlords want to squeeze out of their tenants.
Notwithstanding the fact that the vast majority of tenancy agreements are weekly tenancies and tenants need to be a week in advance, social landlords are seeking to squeeze the tenants for a further 3.33 weeks of rent between now and UC coming online or in other words paying lip service to their own tenancy agreements as legally binding contracts!
£1.68 billion!
Read the rest on SPeye Joe’s blog.
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This country is crying out for rent control. What we need is a concerted campaign to show that it is not the tenants who are the scroungers and skivers but the landlords. It is only through their greed that cost of Housing Benefits has reached its current level.
Let’s just for once have blame focused on where it happens – namely with greedy middle-class landlords.
My rent is £150 a week. I rent privately. The house is very small back to back terrace, it is really a 1 bed house but been converted to a 3 bed. 1 bedroom on first floor an attic room and a room in the basement. The law says attic rooms can not be classed as bedroom unless have a fire escape, well i have no fire escape, but yet he rents the house as a responsible landlord according to the council. No way is the house worth £150 a week it is far too small for this rent.
All these landlords are charging what they like with disregard to its worth or safety and no one checks these house’s for reasonable rent or safety. We need a fair rents officer which we used to have and also these houses need checking for safety.
I have 2 smoke alarms 1 in the living room and one in basement, this is not right there should be more like on the stairs, also no fire doors in the property this is supposed to be against the law but again no one cares. And if you complain your contract is ended and kicked out. So tenants can not complain for fear of losing their homes.
When i moved into my house i was on sick as soon as i started work the rent i claimed was much less, my landlord called saying why had my rent gone down i told him i am working now, he went mad and said i should go sign on as i would be better off and he would get full rent. He said he does not rent to working people as its too much hassle getting his rent by being paid only half or less by council, he has no guarantee he will get rest from the tenant. I was in shock at his attitude. The landlord meant he would be better off not me.
Every week he is calling or visiting to make sure getting rent, he brings his family with him or friends etc. I do have some arrears. I have had enough now, but i cant move out, where would i go and it is far too expensive to move. If i complain about him i will lose my home. You see a lot of people who rent are trapped by these greedy landlords, they are buying houses via the benefits. This needs stopping.
Simple really non-payment of rent is guaranteed unstoppable eviction thus a handy way of removing tenants with an assured tenancy thus releasing the property for zero security tenants and ultimately release of the property for sale to building developers,
Profits and bonuses all round. .
Both of the earlier comments seem to have missed the point: the article is about social landlords.