Changes for social housing landlords
Would you be a social housing landlord?
Under the new Universal Credit system set to be introduced in 2013, tenants will be paid rent, for them to pass on to their landlord. The move is intended to simplify the benefits system. However, landlords in the buy to let sector are concerned that if tenants fail to pass on the payments it could result in tenants falling into arrears.
The Universal Credit system aims to give social housing recipients combining benefits into a single payment. It combines payments including housing benefit and employment support and pays recipients directly.
The reforms are part of one of the biggest welfare state shake ups ever seen and the decision to pay housing benefit directly to tenants’ not social landlords, has become one of the sector’s biggest and most controversial talking points.
If you get bad tenants who fall behind by just a month, it threatens a landlord’s mortgages and finance. If the tenant continues to fail to pay their rent then action will need to be taken.
It could lead to a number of tenants facing evictions as they get further behind on rental payments. We’ve seen a rise in landlords coming to us for our debt collection service in order for them to get the rent that is owed to them.
It’s a controversial subject but the message for all buy to let landlords is clear: get a professional company to carry out tenant checks on your behalf and as soon as there are any issues with rental payments, act quickly to ensure it is dealt with.
