Landlord News on the BBC One Show at 7pm Tonight

Landlord News on the BBC One Show at 7pm Tonight

14:23 PM, 2nd May 2013, About 11 years ago 9

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LANDLORD NEWS – private landlord speaks out on housing benefit nightmare tonight on BBC’s The One Show 

A landlord from Bracknell, Berkshire, has spoken out about her nightmare ordeal after her housing benefit tenant failed to pass on the payments. This issue has been widely reported and discussed within the buy-to-let industry but now a landlord has come out publicly to talk about it. The non-payments left Mrs Trivedy and her self-employed partner in an extremely difficult financial position. As a result of the welfare reforms and implementation of Universal Credit thousands of ordinary landlords fear that they will see more of this kind of problem. It is expected to affect the whole country and BBC1 are covering the issue on The One Show tonight, Thursday 2nd May at 7pm. They will feature Mrs Trivedy and Landlord Action, the problem tenant specialists, who she went to for help.

After meeting her current partner, Mrs Trivedy decided to sell her four bedroom house in Bracknell from a previous relationship so that they could buy somewhere together. After failing to sell the property quickly enough, she took the decision to let it out, which for three and half years provided the perfect solution. When her previous tenants moved out and an acquaintance from her daughter’s school, with five children of her own, expressed an interest in the property, it seemed like the perfect solution. The prospective tenants explained that they had fallen on tough times but that the £1,200 housing benefit they were due to start receiving would cover the rent. They agreed to set up a direct debit straight to Mrs Trivedy’s account.

From the moment the family moved in (December 2011), the payments were not consistent and with the housing benefit being paid in arrears every two weeks, there was already a shortfall of £20 per month which the tenants were supposed to make up. Four months ago, the payments stopped altogether. On communication with the tenants, Mrs Trivedy was told to liaise with the local housing allowance office, to no avail. After attempting to speak to the tenants at the property to discuss the issues and try to work out a payment schedule, the tenants called the police to file a harassment case. Mrs Trivedy has since received abusive text messages from the tenants via her mobile phone.  In desperation, Mrs Trivedy called on the help of Landlord Action who have since issued a Section 8 possession notice, the process of which was filmed by The One Show.

Landlord News on the BBC One Show at 7pm TonightMrs Trivedy says “The tenants are now approximately £4,400 in arrears and that sum is mounting all the time. As a result, we are struggling to pay the mortgage on the house. My partner is self-employed so income is irregular and despite taking as much overtime at work as I can, we are living off next to nothing just to get by. What’s more, the house is a complete wreck after the tenants brought dogs into the property which subsequently had puppies. It will cost us thousands to get it back to a liveable state.”

Paul Shamplina, Founder of Landlord Action, says “The majority of social tenants do pass on housing benefit, but the cuts made in the welfare reforms are going to put many under increased financial pressure. Our experience in dealing with cases such as this is that most tenants would prefer to have their payments made directly to the landlord so that they can budget more effectively. Not enough has been done to protect landlords. Over the last few years we have seen a rise in these problems and  now with the new Universal Tax Credits monthly payments, our concern is that more and more landlords will see problems and many will turn their back on the social sector.”

More advice on evicting tenants HERE


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Comments

16:19 PM, 2nd May 2013, About 11 years ago

Sounds like the referencing was not very effective and the guarantor was missing!

James Noble

16:25 PM, 2nd May 2013, About 11 years ago

Will the Local Authority begin to pay direct after 8 weeks/ 2 months of not passing the Housing Benefit on to the Landlord?

Puzzler

16:57 PM, 2nd May 2013, About 11 years ago

Sounds like the landlady cut corners and didn't do her home work and is now counting the cost. I shall be watching tonight!

Sally T

20:25 PM, 2nd May 2013, About 11 years ago

We're a family of six, our weekly shops £100, we have gas electric and petrol to pay bla bla bla ....... Don't we all !!!!!!!!!!!!

23:20 PM, 2nd May 2013, About 11 years ago

The idiot tenant in this gave us the hard luck story about not having enough resources to pay for things apart from the rent.
Well tough you pay rent first and if you starve because of paying rent then tough.
Go live somewhere you can afford.
But of course this idiot tenant then stated he would prefer the HB to be paid directly to the LL!!!
So he can't manage when rent is paid to him but can when it would be paid directly.
He is just another example of the feckless useless layabouts who blame everyonne else for their problems,
5 kids and dogs.
I couldn't afford a budgie!
How does someone on benefit and 5 kids afford things....................................oh! yes I know; they spent the HB on everything else apart from what it was given for!!!!!
They can do this because it is given to them rather than the LL.................the answer to the situation is obvious.
Perhaps the idiot tenant might consider that having expensive mobile s--t machines is not as important as providing for the human element of his wonderful domestic arrangements.
Again these sorts of dysfunctional people do this because they are given the HB.
It puts temptation in front of them and they can't resist................................it isn't their fault it is in their nature.
Govt just has to accept this and then management of the problems are easy.

7:19 AM, 3rd May 2013, About 11 years ago

Surely the name says it all HOUSING BENEFIT not help yourself to dogs, mobiles etc!!! The govement needs to protect The LL? And the tenant equally

16:41 PM, 3rd May 2013, About 11 years ago

Am I mis- informed or are we NOT encouraging landlords to except benefits direct for fear of the providers attempting recovery of any overpayments from the landlord directly instead of the tenant!???

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

20:55 PM, 3rd May 2013, About 11 years ago

Attempting recovery from landlords and actually enforcing are two very different things. There are now many court cases whereby the rulings have gone in favour of the landlord where it there is no evidence that the landlord could have had any knowledge of the over payment.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

22:06 PM, 3rd May 2013, About 11 years ago

What gets me is that the people in the programme had a car! Surely a car is a luxury item? They are prepared to pay for a car and for petrol but not for the roof over their heads, undeliverable!

I agree with others who have commented on the lack of referencing and guarantors.

What's more sad; 1) that tenants think petrol in their car is more important than a roof over their family or 2) that amateur landlords are clueless on how to protect themselves from these types of tenants?

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