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Written by rosalind renshaw

Only a minority of private landlords will reduce their rents in return for receiving housing benefit direct, an expert has said.

Steve Perrons, managing director of Perrons Davis, a private lettings company that specialises in lets to housing benefit tenants, suggested that the Government’s incentive might backfire.

He said: “Those landlords who would have to reduce their rent to a large extent to meet the new lower benefit payments are likely to sell up or let to other tenants who are not on benefits.

“This concession is welcome and may be enough to encourage some landlords to reduce their rents to bring them more into line with the new lower benefit levels.

“However, those landlords who let more expensive properties to benefit tenants are unlikely to sacrifice the income for the security of direct payments.”

He added: “I also believe that the stigma associated with some housing benefit tenants needs to be addressed to attract more private landlords to the market.”

Comments

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    If they used online letting agents such as www.letpropertyrentproperty.co.uk they could save money and share this saving with tenants. For example for £19.99 they will landlords find tenants.

    • 28 December 2010 15:20 PM
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    Its great to be optimistic but its also good to remain realistic. House prices,rents and wages are coming down. Taxes,unemployment and the cost of living are going up. The landlords wont find huge numbers of private tenant willing to pay more. It the economy, stupid!

    • 07 December 2010 13:57 PM
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    Sickened by the begging bowl mentality of hb landlords here. We are all taxpayers and the housing benefit bill is WAY WAY WAY out of control.

    Landlords who based their business plans on shafting the state for ever-increasing rents from benefit claimants deserve all they get in my opinion.

    Given that a lot of HB-rented stock is at the rubbish end of the market, I seriously doubt there are hundreds of high-paying takers out there.

    As IDS said in an interview, 'I am 40% of the market'. The market giveth, the market take it away. Tough titty.

    If they don't like it let them sell up and get a proper job. I'll happily help them shift their portfolios.

    • 07 December 2010 13:51 PM
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    This is a rather fanciful claim for any lettings firm to make. Landlords always and only get the rent that the market will pay. If you have a property that is ONLY desirable to HB claimants - which many people do - and the amount that HB is willing to pay goes down, then you have no choice, no choice at all, your rental income will fall. If you seriously believe that your property is desirable to working people, at the rent you currently charge, then you would have working people in it already, as they are plainly better tenants.

    I think it is ridiculous the way that people expected to make huge amounts of money out of inflated HB payments, I'm a taxpayer and I don't see any need to fill any landlord's pockets.

    • 06 December 2010 21:05 PM
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    Everyone has pretty much covered this in the 3 comments!

    Why go down the HB route to receive payment in a manner that you would already expect. In no way does the government paying the landlord directly entitle them to knock some of the rent off.

    If you have a good property, a decent letting agent will guarantee you tenancy and yor money.

    Cuts HAVE to be made, but Landlords, don't let them screw you in the rising market or any market.

    • 06 December 2010 16:45 PM
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    Is there not a shortage of private rental property and rents are rising?
    Why would the majority of landlords now need, or indeed want, to let to HB tenants?
    P.S. The real need is for the government to sort out the fraud inherent in the system!

    • 06 December 2010 12:23 PM
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    As Basil said "Sybil Fawlty speacialist subject the bleeding obvious!!" HB landlords let to HB tenants really for only two reasons - either to maximise the rent they can get, or because the property is either located in a less desirable area. The problem with getting more Landlords to let to HB tenants would be solved at a stroke if the Govt just did three things - dealt with initial assessments and payments quickly, made payments of course direct to landlords, and also stopped HB offices immediately suspending the payment and transferring it instead to a 'new' property when the tenant reloctaes, often to a Housing Assn property. At least one question has been answered in the latest alleged change - that it would have applied to all claimants from April 2011 but will now only apply to new claimants from that date. Of course whhether an existing claimant who changes property then becomes a new claimant has not been made clear

    • 06 December 2010 10:10 AM
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    Why would a landlord reduce the rent in a rising market?
    And the government should be paying directly tot he landlord in the first place!

    • 06 December 2010 10:09 AM
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