I have lost money on the last LHA tenancies I’ve taken on. I just served Sec 8 on the last one who owes me £1800 and I’m not confident of any recovery. Local Authority seems always to side with tenant so I’m not going to take on any more. Do you have have any tips on creating & managing successful LHA tenancies?
To fully answer this question would take at least a few hours. However, our advice line is taking these sorts of queries on a daily basis and approximately 15-20% of our new instructions are as a result of Local Housing Allowance tenants.
Firstly, in terms of the rent arrears, LHA tenants go through a thorough means test to evaluate whether they are eligible for Local Housing Allowance. This means test will check whether they have any assets which the tenant could use to service their rent. LHA tenant usually do not have many assets and are on low incomes. Therefore, if your tenant does fall into arrears, the chance of getting any money out of them is like drawing blood from a stone.
Once your tenant is in four weeks arrears, you should contact the Housing Benefit department to try and secure direct payments. Therefore, with good management of your property and your tenant, with an LHA tenancies, your tenant should only ever be a maximum of four weeks in arrears.
Many landlords ask whether LHA tenants are too much hassle. I don’t think that they are. Through the media, we only hear about the difficult cases where tenants owe thousands of pounds. We do not hear about the tenants on housing benefits who have been in a property for years without any problems at all.
It is a fact that LHA tenants are less socially mobile and stay for longer periods of time at a property. That sounds like the ideal tenant to me... However, landlords need to know how and why they are different from ‘normal’ tenancies. This is the reason that Landlord Action has been going around the country giving day-seminars on how to make LHA work for landlords and letting agents. www.LandlordAction.co.uk/LHA
Landlord Action is a UK-based organisation helping landlords and their agents deal with problem tenants.
Founded in 1999 as the first ever fixed-fee tenant eviction specialist, they now employ over 200 legal professionals and have revolutionised this area of legal practice.
They have acted in 17,000 problem tenant cases and are considered the authority in this field.
Landlord Action only acts on behalf of private or institutional landlords and their agents.
Landlord Action run a free advice line to help landlords understand the process of eviction and give general advice on dealing with problem tenants: 0333 240 9767
