Welfare Reform Is Bad News For Landlords And Tenants

UK landlords could soon be forced out of the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) market by the Government cap on housing benefit payments.

77% of UK landlords who currently accept tenants claiming benefits are already planning to, or are actively taking steps to reduce their involvement with DSS/LHA tenancies because they are physically unable to afford to continue letting their properties on lower rates of LHA.

A survey by the National Landlords Association (NLA) found that over a quarter of landlords who responded said they were already actively reducing the number of tenants who are currently receiving housing benefit payments, half of all other respondents also said that they were planning to reduce the number of DSS tenants.

UK households currently claiming Local Housing Allowance number nearly 1.3 Million, which accounts for over a quarter of Private Rental Sector properties.

The LHA rate is now subject to a cap on its upper limits including a maximum 4 bedroom rate, this will have a devastating effect for many UK landlords as they will face growing rent arrears and also the inevitable eviction of tenants who cannot afford to pay their rent.

Chairman of the National Landlords Association, David Salusbury, said “The capping of housing benefit payments will lead to more people struggling to pay their rent at a time when a shortage of housing is increasing pressure on the private rented property sector. The NLA urge the Government to monitor the impact of rolling out LHA caps to ensure vulnerable tenants are not placed at risk and landlords can continue to provide this accommodation”.

If the worst does happen and landlords have to evict bad tenants then they will need the services of trusted legal and eviction specialists such as Legal4Landlords who can handle everything for the beleaguered landlord.