UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi

My Tenant is in arrears by approx 3 months . She gets DSS/BENEFITS. Can we inform DWP that she is not paying? If so should we? We have sent letters but she hasn't paid. If we inform DWP would the money come to the landlord.
Thanks Fuzzy   

The general rule is to always try to establish/maintain some sort of communication with the tenant over any issues. You say you have sent her letters and I assume she has not responded. Perhaps you could give her a call and if she doesn't answer, maybe leave a friendly type of message to try to encourage her to contact you. She might want a third party to talk to you. It's always so difficult to know the best way forward. I don't think rent will automatically go to the Landlord, a tenant's full situation can be complicated.

What is being suggested is treating a Tenant in receipt of benefits differently to one who is working of self-employed.

If the Tenant here was working... would the Landlord be considered to be taking reasonable action if they approached the person's employer and asked them to pay the rent out of their salary?

If the Tenant was self-employed (say a Builder)... would the Landlord ever contemplate going to the job site and asking the homeowner of the house being worked on to pay them directly instead of the Builder?

The answer to both is "no".

Just because the Tenant receives their money from the Government coffers doesn't actually change anything. What is being suggested is a form of discrimination.

All that said, it is still possible to have rent paid direct... because I have this exact situation... but the Tenant initiated it (my Tenant here is dumb, but clever... she knows if she gets money in her clammy hands she'll spend it before she even has time to pay the rent - it just magically disappears from her hands... often she has no recollection of how it happened... so she was clever enough to get it routed direct... thereby saving herself the effort of transfer and the risk of auto-pilot spending).