On Thursday 5 December at 6.30pm Thanet’s People’s Assembly Against Austerity will be lobbying Thanet Council to demand no evictions are undertaken for those in arrears from the “bedroom tax”.
A spokesperson for Thanet’s People Assembly said: “The council have said publicly that they are against the bedroom, but they haven’t stated that they won’t actually evict someone who can’t pay the tax.
“We must urge councilors to stand up for people against this much-hated and unfair tax. Come and join us and have your say.”
The lobby will take place at 6.30pm on Thurs 5 Dec at Thanet District Council, Cecil St, Margate CT9 1XZ
Well you can make a good case when you want to, Peter, and not without a certain passion. I am with you on this for those of us that earn a salary or a pension can only afford to live within that income whether buying or renting. I would love a four bedroomed detached with en-suites, a study and three reception rooms at North Foreland, but I reckon my building society manager would die laughing at the suggestion,
ReplyDeleteStrange, I find myself agreeing with cheggers!
ReplyDeleteIf people want a spare room, pay for it, very very easy.
Love the idea that according the the whiners on Thanetstar, it's no problem people have no idea how much their rent is, how much benefit they have, and therefore how much they have to pay. I wonder if the volume of whining would have been less if people were getting bills for £22.15 from TDC every month, I can just hear it now "they think people are stupid, and what a waste of money sending bills every month!"
I agree with Cheggers. In the private rented sector the benefits are assessed on the number of bedrooms the claimant needs. That sets their LHA rate. I invite any "Bedroom tax" moaners to research and do the maths. Look up the cost of buying a 3 bed house. Look up the cost of say 80% being mortgaged by Buy To Let. Look up what the area LHA rate is for 3 bedrooms. Look up the cost of an annual gas safety test and annual buy to let insurance for the property. Then add an amount for annual maintenance. For admin of the tenants. For having the first two months LHA stolen by the tenants (something Tony Blair introduced) or if universal credit is in payment allow for never receiving any rent. Allow for the average cost of a Section 21 repossession which is said to be £5300. But I spoke to an agent a couple of months ago who had just spent over 15 grand in legal and court fees to evict one benefits tenant.
ReplyDeleteDo the sums. The fact is the lenders do not want BTL tenancy keys sent back to them by landlords unable to sustain the losses incurred through subsidising benefits tenants' lifestyles. Universal credit is a looming chaos.
The truth is the lenders are cacking their breeches. One landlady in the Midlands parcelled up 41 sets of keys and sent the lot back to lender. 17 of her tenancies are under recovery action for fiddled benefits. First it is stopped from their LHA. IE The landlady ends up paying it and the rent arrears pile up. BUT (And this may surprise you William) Tony Blair's LHA rules allow for every honest benefits tenant of that same landlady to also suffer weekly deductions of their LHA. Result all 41 tenancies receive reduced LHA. And the total arrears thus built become her problem to get out of the 17 fiddlers. Result ? Sod this. Lender have 41 properties back and get on with it.
Meanwhile council tenants on benefits were getting a higher rate of housing benefit than their private tenant counterparts.
And social housing waiting lists grow. Private tenants in the know would try every trick in the book to spend over 5 grand of their landlords money evicting them. Why ? Because the day before the bailliffs are due the council has a duty to house them and they jump the waiting list.
If there is a working tenant. The landlord can get an attachment of earnings order through the courts to get rent arrears repaid. But for the benefits tenant there is no such thing as an attachment of benefits order.
This country needs a major sort out. Starting with a power of immediate eviction for rent arrears.
What happens with a 3 bed house say advertised to let on Gumtree ? Landlord will get endless tales of woe from people who can only get 2 bed rate LHA. Promising to make the rent up out of their benefits. They never do. And once there is a benefits cap and housing benefit is entrusted to benefits tenants they won't pay it over. Now councils and housing assns are being put into the position private landlords have been hammered with for years, listen to the social housing sector squeal.
There is chaos peeping over the horizon. Get a few beers in sit back and enjoy.