Happy Chappy Posted January 17, 2011 Report Share Posted January 17, 2011 I am on posting on behalf of my parents. We were told at the start of the tenacy that the woman's x husband would be the guarentor. And have written confirmtion that she would be part of the TDS scheme and that she had a well paid job and could easily afford the monthly rent.. My mother felt sorry for her and was really pushed into this agreement without letting the other potentail tenants view aarrrhhhh!!!!!! She is now in rent arrears and we have been informed that she has never had a guarentor and is now on housing benefit and has no job!. We have served at section 21 notice. She is part of the local councils " Step Up Scheme" which is for people in housing need that need help with the first months deposit. She is not in the TDS scheme as we were told and have written confirmation of, yet she is part of the BOND SCHEME which only protects us if the tenant trashs the house. Can anybody help me please. We could have gone direct to the council and not paid a fully managed fee if we had wanted this sort of tenant! Do I make a formal complaint to ARLA and the other body (cannot remember the name to hand) that they are part of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPEEDTWIN Posted January 17, 2011 Report Share Posted January 17, 2011 A agent should not use the council deposit bond without asking the landlord first. 1 It cannot be used for rent arrears only damage. A cash deposit can be used for damage and arrears 2 A council deposit bond normally requires 3 tradesman quotes and depending on the council can be very slow in paying up. If the agent has stated in writing otherwise make a offical complait to the agent first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Chappy Posted January 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2011 A agent should not use the council deposit bond without asking the landlord first. 1 It cannot be used for rent arrears only damage. A cash deposit can be used for damage and arrears 2 A council deposit bond normally requires 3 tradesman quotes and depending on the council can be very slow in paying up. If the agent has stated in writing otherwise make a offical complait to the agent first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Chappy Posted January 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2011 Thank you for your information. We had put a complaint letter into the agents last friday. They have said they told us the council information by telephone call, this is not true!. And that they made a "mistake" in sending there standard letter out to us which had no information about the council bond, yet everything to do with the TDS money. We recieved this in writing from them today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trenners Posted January 18, 2011 Report Share Posted January 18, 2011 Hi, I appreciate I might get my head bitten off BUT ...... "Your mother felt sorry for the tenants etc etc" ... does imply that she was aware of the fact that they were either Council tenants or a low income family or both .... otherwise there would no need to be "sorry for them" as they would be standard tenants with a guarantor. Just because a tenant has a COUNCIL BOND does not make them a bad tenant. I have many tenants with Council Bonds in my properties that are working full time (albeit on low incomes) and are unable to raise a deposit and go the Council for help. We are in "tough economic times" - a phrase used by Lord Sugar - and a lot of people are losing their jobs. Even a tenant working for a Local Auhtority can lose their job (with 500,000 Civil Servants being laid off over the next few years). Having a benefit claiming tenant is something that many landlords are going to have to deal with. Anyhow .... how much money does this tenant owe you? How many weeks are they in arrears? Have you spoken to them about it? Have they offered a repayment plan? Is this plan acceptable? How many months has the tenancy got to run before the fixed term expires? My point is .... it is easy to try and pass the blame to the Letting Agent ... but this is not going to get you your rent (unless you can answer the other questions above) and it is not going to get you possession of your property. It is not unusual for DSS claiming tenants to have rent arrears .... some of them pay their arrears (and a lot of them do not) ...... and the press has been providing wide coverage of the fact that rent arrears are going to get worse before they get better because a) money is tight at the moment and the VAT increase isn't helping. Finally, it is not necessarily true or fair to state that you would have gone to the Council yourself if you wanted "that sort of tenant" as dealing with DSS tenants, completing the 35 page Housing Benefit claim form, tracking the claim through the system, negotiating the Council Bond etc etc etc are all skills that I would suggest you do not have - but your letting agent does probably have. In Summary, instead of complaining about the agent ... why not work WITH THEM to try and get all of this sorted out and your arrears paid. PS: I manage about 200 properties - many let to DSS tenants - and as long as things are tightly managed then we usually get our rent (although every apple cart has one or two bad apples and I hope your tenant isn't one of these). Good Luck, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fionaf Posted January 24, 2011 Report Share Posted January 24, 2011 I have DSS tenants, some with and some without the bonded scheme. With the bonded scheme it did not involve several hundred page documents as one poster has said, so don't be put off or conned into paying an agent by thinking it is difficult. I had a five page contract to agree and read, sign and send back to the Council. It wasn't too one sided either. My tenants purposefully chose to rent from me over other properties as they themselves had had nightmares trying to deal with agencies which slowed responses down, prevented things happening and generally didn't do much other than take their money. I am not saying this is the case with all agents and some landlords don't have a choice as their portfolio isn't nearby or they just don't have the time. It is too late for you now as the relationship with the tenant has broken down if you've served a notice, but in future, when you are informed at the outset that someone is a bonded scheme tenant, don't be put off. I was able to choose the tenants myself, advertised via free websites, warned the council they might get one of my future tenants contacting them, vetted the tenants, had two hours of back to back viewings and had my most recent property empty for one day only. The total time expended was about five hours. The advantage with the bonded scheme too is that they are often a minimum of 12 months, so you're not doing admin very often and statistics show they are less likely to move on than 'professionals', so lots of pluses. Also don't be fobbed off by agencies who tell you you can't have DSS tenants if you have a buy to let mortgage, like one tried to with me when we were investigating relief cover whilst on holiday (we have an arrangement with a friend now who does this for us and if there are no calls, all it costs us is a bottle of something nice!) , often the restrictions on the mortgage are limited to the sort of deals you might do long term with a housing association. If they are bonded you can apply to the council for the rent, depending on the terms of the bond and ask them to make all future payments direct to you. Although as another poster pointed out bonded tenants usually pay in arrears, it is pretty much the norm. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mortitia Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 I think the golden rule in letting - with or without an agent is to know who is renting your property and their status. Ask for written details from the agent on the tenant and don't agree any tenancy until you see these details, credit checks, proof of ID and the same for any guarantor. Had the parents followed this they would not be in such a situation now. Too much business seems to be done over the phone in undocumented conversations containing certain economies of truth and the landlord has to be sharp as a pin not to be taken in and used as a soft option for dumping benefit tenants on. Don't feel sorry for any would be tenant - put your business head on UNLESS you want to enter social letting not for profit. Mortitia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPEEDTWIN Posted January 26, 2011 Report Share Posted January 26, 2011 There is nothing wrong with taking on tenants with the council bond and i have a fair few on the books but i certainly wouldnt do it without the landlord knowing the implications of doing so. We send a letter to the landlord before any tenancy is granted giving full details of the tenant and move in dates etc (including deposit details) for their approval. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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