RLA : RPI : Landlords protest as HB system 'falls apart'

News from the Residential Property Investor, the bi-monthly magazine for RLA members

other artilces from the June / July 2000 issue

Landlords protest as HB system 'falls apart' - June / July 2000

Landlords are putting renewed pressure on the Government to overhaul the housing benefit system.

Over 300,000 lettings were withdrawn from the private rented sector between 1996 and 1999 because of the inadequacies of the present system and the way it is administered, the British Property Federation told the House of Commons Social Security Committee last month.

'Many landlords take the hard commercial decision that they cannot afford to absorb the impact on their business of the administrative delays and difficulties and the increased risk of rent arrears which are inherent in the housing benefit system', the BPF said in a memorandum to the committee, which is currently conducting an enquiry into the system. The problem is that the system 'fails to understand that supplying accommodation is a business. It therefore appears to operate with no consideration of the costs or practicalities involved', said the BPF.

As if to underline the point, Croydon landlords are complaining they are being forced to issue eviction notices against reliable tenants as the only way of forcing benefit officials to deal with their backlog. This in turn has prompted formation of a tenants' action group.

Meanwhile Professor John Hills, a director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics, and an advocate of housing benefit reform, has told a local government seminar that improvements in administration must take priority over longer term reforms. The system is currently 'a disaster' for tenants and landlords, he said. Landlords have no way of knowing which of their tenants are genuinely in arrears and which aren't, he told the seminar.

'The whole thing is falling apart'.

Allerdale Borough Council has failed to manage its anti-fraud policies effectively and its efforts have been 'unfocused and lacking in leadership'. This was the finding of the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate, made public last month. There was also an apparent lack of urgency to implement recommendations previously made by auditors for improvements in key areas of benefits administration.

Jason and Sharon Prenderville have had their 12 month prison sentences confirmed by the Criminal Appeal Court. Although buying a house together the two had posed as landlord and tenant with Sharon Prenderville have had their 12 month prison sentences confirmed by the Criminal Appeal Court. Although buying a house together the two had posed as landlord and tenant with Sharon Prenderville obtaining over £21,000 in housing and other benefits on the basis of fraudulent claims made in her maiden name. The two have since repaid £4,000.

other artilces from the June / July 2000 issue