Private Landlords Turning Down Young Tenants

[cashinmattress]

link

Landlords are increasingly refusing younger tenants on housing benefit as they prepare for the Government's cuts to social housing funds.

One of the key changes planned for next January will be to encourage younger tenants to live together in shared properties rather than more expensive one-bedroom flats.

The 'shared accommodation rate' currently limits the benefit a single person under 25 can receive to the average rent charged for a room in a shared house.

This will be extended to the age of 35. But housing charities Crisis and Shelter have warned as many as 88,000 people will lose £47 a week each, triggering a surge in homelessness.

Private landlords claim they will be forced to stop taking social tenants – many are already doing so.

The National Landlords Association surveyed a third of its members who let to tenants on housing benefit. Of this group, 31% said they 'would reduce such tenancies now'.

Less than 1% said they planned to increase such tenancies during 2011.

Even before the General Election, private landlords were complaining about Labour's move to pay housing benefit to tenants rather than straight to landlords. This had caused growing rental arrears, landlords claimed.

There are also not enough shared properties to accommodate the increased demand the Coalition's proposed cuts will trigger. Shelter says 87% of local authority housing officers it surveyed already had difficulty finding places for under-25s on the shared accommodation rate.

It says this shortage will become acute when the net includes those up to 35.

Brothers Phil and Mark Stewardson are prominent landlords in the West Midlands, with more than 100 properties worth £12m.

Phil says: 'Like many landlords, we are already being extremely careful about taking under-35s and we usually insist on a guarantor.'

Phil says many younger tenants can switch from being selfpaying to receiving housing benefit if, for instance, they lose their jobs.

'We house many professionals under 35, many of whom have good jobs but are still paying off student debt and have little savings,' he says.

'Through no fault of their own, they can end up in real hardship. If they were to suffer redundancy, instead of covering their rent of about £400 a month, roughly the cost of a one-bed flat, they would only be able to claim around half that.

'The plans are badly thought out. It doesn't affect us massively as our tenants are mostly couples or families, but I don't like to see people struggle.'

The Government defends its proposals on several grounds. One argument is that the cut in benefits might encourage more families to take in lodgers under the rent-a-room scheme, where some of the income is tax-free.

Steve Webb, Liberal Democrat Pensions Minister, has said: 'As young people start to realise they cannot get benefit for a flat on their own and start to look for lodgings, another family who may have lost income through redundancy might wish to let their spare rooms.'

Other than the state, who is going to be a guarantor?

Good time to buy a dog, better quality security, etc...

Going to be lots of people struggling.

[Executive Sadman]

It will either mean that rent falls from around £100-125 a week to £75 a week, or else 25-35 year olds will move back in with their parents as sharing a house with parents is preferable to sharing with a load of strangers.

However, i reckon most landlords would prefer £75 a week over nothing, which is the alternative.

[Self Employed Youth]

"We house many professionals under 35, many of whom have good jobs but are still paying off student debt and have little savings,"

Professionals with good jobs under 35.

Where do they live?

In a B2L..

[porca misèria]

It will either mean that rent falls from around £100-125 a week to £75 a week, or else 25-35 year olds will move back in with their parents as sharing a house with parents is preferable to sharing with a load of strangers.

However, i reckon most landlords would prefer £75 a week over nothing, which is the alternative.

Good grief! Were you never a young person?

Of course when you're young you'd much rather share with strangers of your own age than with parents!

[RentingForever]

Private landlords claim they will be forced to stop taking social tenants.

Or they could just reduce their rents?

[libspero]

All of this squealing and gnashing of teeth from landlords means we must be doing something right.

If they could really make up the short fall from the private sector they would already be doing it.

Since when did landlords care about the plight of struggling tenants?

Pull the other one

[silver surfer]

Falling living standards are not just about affording an iPad. It's also about privacy expectations and personal space being reduced to that of the 1980's and 1970's.

[Orsino]

I'd wager that the vast majority of taxpayers in their 20s already live in shared accommodation. You know the country has gone mad when those on benefits have better housing than those who pay their way. This change is many years overdue.

[Cosmic Apple]

Of course when you're young you'd much rather share with strangers of your own age than with parents!

I'm 28 and even tho many around me say I act/think like an old man I can tell you the above is true.

Last year I did partially move back home for a total of around 5months split into 3 parts... it got more bearable but not something I could do long term. I think its worse if you have moved out and been independent as I had and then try to go back, your parents will instantly expect a personal slave/someone to boss about.

Even if I didn't live 200miles from my mum (moved 200 miles away at 18!) I would choose living with strangers than with that batty old cow (love you mum!)!

[OnionTerror]

So if a 30 year-old has a £600 a month IO mortgage, they will only get half of this amount?

There will be a tussle between landlords not reducing their rents and younger people being made homeless because landlords wont reduce their rents. They will have to reduce rents eventually, but there will be a period of time where it will cause severe hardship to younger ppl...

Its unfortunately going to be very painful for a lot of young people, but I think it probably has to be done...

Edited May 8, 2011 by Dave Beans

[eightiesgirly]

It will either mean that rent falls from around £100-125 a week to £75 a week, or else 25-35 year olds will move back in with their parents as sharing a house with parents is preferable to sharing with a load of strangers.

However, i reckon most landlords would prefer £75 a week over nothing, which is the alternative.

Most of the ones I know have gone abroad to work in a bar for the season. They can't afford anything here.

I still have two at home and it's difficult, I have to treat them as adults which means keeping my mouth shut, I was ill prepared for the 'mouth shut 'part of parenting. I usually have a lot to say about things.

I am hoping this will lead to lower rents so my shower can move out and I can speak my mind again.

[_w_]

However, i reckon most landlords would prefer £75 a week over nothing, which is the alternative.

They will after a period of delusion. By then they will be glad if they can get £75.

[Si1]

Or they could just reduce their rents?

not when interest rates go up,m rents will have to go up to otherwise savvy landlords will not be making profits young man!

[onesmallstep]

this is all incredibly sad and I have to admit it is totally because the previous government allowed a free for all on the HB gravy train.

[Mrs Bear]

Falling living standards are not just about affording an iPad. It's also about privacy expectations and personal space being reduced to that of the 1980's and 1970's.

What on earth's wrong with sharing a flat? For decades it's been what most have done after leaving home. Very few who are self-funding have ever been able to afford a flat all to themselves, certainly not for the first few years.

I don't see why those on HB should be any different.

[_w_]

this is all incredibly sad and I have to admit it is totally because the previous government allowed a free for all on the HB gravy train.

I don't think it is sad if kiddo stays at home with Mum and Dad until he has found stable employment. I would have thought this was perfectly normal.

[OnionTerror]

I don't think it is sad if kiddo stays at home with Mum and Dad until he has found stable employment. I would have thought this was perfectly normal.

That's not a viable option for some youngsters...

[cashinmattress]

this is all incredibly sad and I have to admit it is totally because the previous government allowed a free for all on the HB gravy train.

Not really. You can better understand the source of our current dire predicament with the implementaion of this:

Housing Act 1980

An Act to give security of tenure, and the right to buy their homes, to tenants of local authorities and other bodies; to make other provision with respect to those and other tenants; to amend the law about housing finance in the public sector; to make other provision with respect to housing; to restrict the discretion of the court in making orders for possession of land; and for connected purposes.

And of course this:

Gas Act 1986

An Act to provide for the appointment and functions of a Director General of Gas Supply and the establishment and functions of a Gas Consumers’ Council; to abolish the privilege conferred on the British Gas Corporation by section 29 of the Gas Act 1972; to make new provision with respect to the supply of gas through pipes and certain related matters; to provide for the vesting of the property, rights and liabilities of the British Gas Corporation in a company nominated by the Secretary of State and the subsequent dissolution of that Corporation; to make provision with respect to, and to information furnished in connection with, agreements relating to the initial supply of gas won under the authority of a petroleum production licence; and for connected purposes.

A single generation benefited greatly from this social housing selloff (handout), and the banks have been running amok with the debt perpetuated from it ever since. This ramshackle testament to a governments short sightedness and vote engineering policy has completely broken Britain from a social welfare point of view. With the oil, the government guaranteed a generation of blue bloods and foreign crony's income beyond their wildest dreams of avarice.

We're fecked now.

[OnionTerror]

Not really. You can better understand the source of our current dire predicament with the implementaion of this:

Housing Act 1980

And of course this:

Gas Act 1986

A single generation benefited greatly from this social housing selloff (handout), and the banks have been running amok with the debt perpetuated from it ever since. This ramshackle testament to a governments short sightedness and vote engineering policy has completely broken Britain from a social welfare point of view. With the oil, the government guaranteed a generation of blue bloods and foreign crony's income beyond their wildest dreams of avarice.

We're fecked now.

Didn't Maggie sell off our housing stock, as well as privatising virtually everything that moved, because our finances were in such a mess? We're back to this scenario again, but have no assets to flog off..

[onesmallstep]

Not really. You can better understand the source of our current dire predicament with the implementaion of this:

Housing Act 1980

And of course this:

Gas Act 1986

A single generation benefited greatly from this social housing selloff (handout), and the banks have been running amok with the debt perpetuated from it ever since. This ramshackle testament to a governments short sightedness and vote engineering policy has completely broken Britain from a social welfare point of view. With the oil, the government guaranteed a generation of blue bloods and foreign crony's income beyond their wildest dreams of avarice.

We're fecked now.

well yes there is that, that didn't help

[miko]

I don't think it is sad if kiddo stays at home with Mum and Dad until he has found stable employment. I would have thought this was perfectly normal.

Not now when for a million young people the prospect of finding stable employment might never happen.

[cashinmattress]

Didn't Maggie sell off our housing stock, as well as privatising virtually everything that moved, because our finances were in such a mess? We're back to this scenario again, but have no assets to flog off..

We certainly are.

There has been, lets say, 200 trillion USD sucked out of the UKCS in it's tenure.

Sadly, there is next to nothing to show for it at the state or national level.

We've made plenty of billionaires worldwide from it though.

[onesmallstep]

I don't think it is sad if kiddo stays at home with Mum and Dad until he has found stable employment. I would have thought this was perfectly normal.

yes but some will move away to get a stable job and quite a few stable jobs don't provide sufficient income to pay the rent, but yes

[onesmallstep]

We certainly are.

There has been, lets say, 200 trillion USD sucked out of the UKCS in it's tenure.

Sadly, there is next to nothing to show for it at the state or national level.

We've made plenty of billionaires worldwide from it though.

yes but these are the job creators of our generation we need to attract them and tax them less

actually they've all run off to tax havens.

[exiges]

I guess it's why I'm seeing many of these up for sale.. Apparently great yields.. But they're getting out before the cuts kill them stone dead

http://www.countrywidepropertyauctions.co.uk/content/Property_Search/Details/property-for-sale-in-Exeter-EX2-rpache-WCP110136-1303917944

An imposing end of terrace period property being conveniently located for the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital and the facilities and amenities of the Heavitree area of the city which is currently utilised as a licensed House of Multiple Occupation with fourteen letting rooms and two communal rooms, which we understand from the vendors is generating an income of £81,830pae. There are communal gardens to the front of the property and flats three and eleven are currently being utilised as 'common rooms'. Interested parties are advised to make and rely upon their own enquiries of the Legal Pack for confirmation of income and tenancy details. Guide £700-750k

Edited May 8, 2011 by exiges