1/3 of UK Landlords Will Not Be Accepting LHA Tenants
1/3 of Private Rental Sector Landlords Avoiding Tenants Claiming Benefits
A new Government report has revealed a growing concern about UK landlords, as an increasing percentage are now refusing to accept applications from tenants claiming housing benefits.
The situation regarding LHA tenants is set to get much worse, following the recent statements made by UK Prime Minister David Cameron and his party’s vision for further welfare reform. Read full story
The Government commissioned report was compiled by the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research at Sheffield Hallam University revealed that over one third of the 1867 landlords who agreed to take part, are already actively refraining from accepting LHA tenants or are considering avoiding benefit tenants in the future.
This change in UK landlord’s perspectives has developed since the government capped housing benefit payments in April 2011, meaning that many LHA claimants are no longer able to claim the entire rental amount from the local authority.
33% of the UK landlords surveyed admitted having severe reservations concerning the reliability of payments from LHA tenants, and as a result they were either planning to or considering no longer accepting benefit claimants as tenants.
29% of landlords had already gone through the process of tenant eviction with LHA tenants or had refused to renew the tenancies of benefit claimants when they came to an end.
36% also admitted that they were experiencing increased rental arrears from LHA tenants because of the changes to benefit payment levels made last year.
Landlords can safely and legally recover rent arrears/debts from all types of tenants, including absconded tenants by using Legal 4 Landlords professional services
Welfare Reform Minister, Lord Freud, didn’t see the results of the Government commissioned report as worrying, stating that: “The research gives us an early insight into what is really happening, and it shows that the many scare stories about the effects of housing benefit reform are simply not materialising.”
If that were true, why are an increasing number of UK landlords wrongly avoiding accepting LHA tenants?