How do I deal with benefit cap on single parent with 4 kids?

Reply to the comment left by "tony tony" at "24/01/2017 - 08:50":

I agree . HB direct to me as now and cap their other benefits. Its not our job to teach people how to manage their money. We are being used

The government can totally see this as well I believe ....but it doesnt matter ..
they have a different agenda

They want to not only reduce the welfare budget but they also want us in the the PRS to greatly reduce our influence on the rental marketplace. We are getting too big for our boots . They want us to struggle and not extend our portfolios. They want to stop us in our tracks. So they financially grip me by the throat . They use us and more so the beleaguered tenants as pawns to achieve their objective.

We are a more or less unregulated bunch and we wield too much power. Imagine in 10/ 15 years time when there would be so many more portfolio landlords in every city with maybe 50 /100 properties.
Powerful wealthy determined landlords but with little professional scrutiny.
Any regulation now is piecemeal and they struggle to enforce.
No one really checks up. The volume is too large. The task too great
We can hold the government to ransom if we were organised
If we didnt like some legislation we could unite and we could threaten to make 1000 people homeless in an area by serving a sec 21 . Nothing to stop us at all putting a tenant out on the streets It would send the councils homeless teams into chaos. Emergency legislation would have to be passed to prevent us. They dont want that and they are right to look at the wider problem. There has to be a balance

So I agree they needed to do something to curb the runaway PRS train
But the way they have done it is so very very wrong on so many levels
Its cruel and is and will devastate peoples lives.
I see the hurt they have caused every day
And it will get worse

Reply to the comment left by "Jonathan Clarke" at "24/01/2017 - 18:15":

If we are going to go ahead with a threat you need to be ready to go through with the threat of we don't get our own way.

Will the headline be "Landlords take action to highlight wrongs of housing benefit administration" or will it be, "Greedy landlords evict, make 1,000 homeless in rental ransom"?

I think that the rental sector gets enough bad press as it is. Fergus Wilson already evicted his HB tenants and he gives us all a bad name every time he opens his mouth.

How something that will show landlords in a positive light

Yes Jonathon,

We on the ground do see the hurt they have caused every day.
The Govt will say 'Oh, we have only made 500,000 homeless with the benefit cap & Universal Credit'. 1 homeless is too many.
If you are that one person, it is devastating.

Here's a thought for those of u Landlords who don't mind going on camera for the TV programmes. And to put to the Government if no one hasn't thought of it yet.

The Govt wish to cap the tenants benefit. The tenant hasn't been capped at all. Because they still getting the same money as the majority of tenants ain't paying the difference to the Landlord.

It's the Landlord that gets capped. As the tenant is getting exactly the same amount of money.

The tenant isn't bothered. Tenant getting a free house while Landlord has the costs and suffering and hassle of court and eviction.

So who is the cap against as it's only the housing part that has been capped?

Reply to the comment left by "H B" at "25/01/2017 - 07:37":

I agree any action would have to be very carefully managed. It could go drastically wrong. Its a PR battle more than anything else. The press support or turn on people on a whim. My actions every day could be seen on one hand as a generous deed in helping the homeless or just a money making scheme targeting the vulnerable. I like making money but i also like helping the vulnerable.

On one 3 bed my mortgage is £200 pcm. I was getting £750 pcm rent but now due to the benefit cap I`m getting £300.

Some would say .Why should the taxpayer pay you £6,600 pa you greedy so so ...be happy with £1,200 pa as you know your house will double in value in 15 years or so .

Others would say..... Bless him hes housing the otherwise homeless and by doing so saving the taxpayer from funding a council house and maintaining it... . £6,600 for that therefore is fair recompense

We are a disjointed group. It would take a long time and a great deal of effort to all align ourselves and take joined up action. The Judicial Review boys will no doubt confirm that.

Our image is poor - more akin to bankers than junior doctors . The doctors felt forced into action recently but it was not something they seized on at the first opportunity. They did only when government would not listen

I am not naturally militant but when you see a policy which `steals` £5,400 pa from me without any negotiation or notification and then hits me at the same time with a 5 fold increase in my tax bill due to sec 24 then my horns come out

Fergus yes did us no favours of course. I however work well with my tenants. We are fighting the same battle in many ways but with different agendas. Its been billed as the tenant tax which is true but its a joint landlord and tenant tax .

We should join forces and work as one with tenants - then all those whether left or right of the political spectrum and crucially the press would get behind us I`m sure. The press surely cant go against us both in a joint interview if we are both saying the same thing about the government and how it respectively affects us. They would be bound to support both landlord and tenants. We both need each other

Then the mood of the general public would gradually change. This would take years before that negative perception is changed. And to achieve that we would have to succumb to regulation and scrutiny. That is fine by me because then at least I have a recognised structure for my voice to be heard through working parties, board meetings and focus groups etc etc .

At the moment my voice is really only heard in my ramblings on 118

do not accept hb tenants=a solution. i do not accept any hb

Reply to the comment left by "Jonathan Clarke" at "25/01/2017 - 09:30":

You are on good terms with your benefit tenants Jonathan because you can afford to reduce rent by £450 per month. Most LLs are not in that position and you yourself won't be if interest rates rise significantly. If the highly educated professionals who front the Generation Rent lobby group can't appreciate that tenants need landlords as much as landlords need tenants then can we realistically expect benefit recipients to do so? I know some have been dealt a poor hand in life with disabilities and so on, but If people have always had everything handed to them with little effort on their part, they tend to expect that regime to continue for ever, even if they know the cost falls on all the mugs who've always worked for everything they have.

Reply to the comment left by "Old Mrs Landlord" at "25/01/2017 - 10:38":

I am on good terms with the majority of my tenants not because of the HB caps issues but because of good selection at the outset. They would work with me to fight HB caps but there is no organised joint structure to buy into.

I guess I can afford it in one sense as a temporary state but that is very different from accepting it long term. I wont accept it and they will be evicted. I went in to LHA to make a sustainable profitable business which I did. Now that structure has changed so dramatically I either fight and win or get out . There are no signs I am winning so LHA are being replaced with working tenants.

And yes many landlords will not be as patient as me because naturally if the cap means the mortgage can not be paid this month it focuses the mind sharper . So masses of Sec 21`s must be flying in now right left and centre . By being on good terms with my tenants and having good cash flow only means i might serve my sec 21`s over a cup of tea slow time .
I work with them to try and save their home but if I cant then I will still work with them while they lose their home

I agree If the tenants representative organisaton wont work for them its a real uphill struggle as many are dysfunctional and cannot form an effective opposition on their own. We could / should maybe take on that role and be the more motivated leading force for them to save our businesses

There is no reason why landlords and tenants shouldn't work in tandem together just like employers and employees do every day. Its just that there isn't a structure to do that effectively and historically its seen as an us v them culture

I also agree the tenants sense of entitlement is so in built into their mindset that breaking that will prove very hard in the short term. It may take a generation and a lot of hurt to change their way of thinking. I see it now more and more. Tenants get up the council the next day now whereas in the past they may have got around to it in a couple of weeks when they felt like it

They ring me now rather than me ringing them. The word has got around

Their survival instinct is kicking in

Fear is in the air
.