Number of buy to let landlords taking on benefit claimant tenants has doubled

More of Britain's private residential landlords are renting their properties to housing benefit claimants according to the latest Landlords Panel report from research agency BDRC (www.bdrc.co.uk).

Buy-to-Let mortgages are increasing in cost and reducing in availability, but many private tenants are under increased financial pressure themselves and becoming unable to pay their rents.

As a result, the number of private landlords who accommodate benefit claimants has more than doubled, from 9 percent in Q4 2008 to 20 percent by Q1 2009.

However there are a number of factors deterring more private landlords from considering benefit claimants as viable tenants.

The top three reasons given are:

not trusting them to look after the property (24%),
a previous bad experience (15%),
not trusting them to pay the rent (10%).

The survey asked private landlords what reassurance they would need to encourage more of them to accommodate benefit claimants. This is especially pertinent in the current economic climate as demand for public housing increases and councils find they are unable to provide suitable housing, forcing would-be tenants to turn to the private sector.

At 30 percent, top of the list was a call for the current government to reverse its policy of paying benefits direct to the tenant. One respondent to the survey said: “New DSS tenants get their rental money paid directly to them - not the landlords - and as a landlord you do not see it. It was a very bad move by the government to change this policy.”

Mark Long, Director at BDRC, said: “Our research has shown that whilst almost half of private landlords want to increase rents to improve profitability they also realise that it’s not the right time to do so.

“It seems that some landlords are therefore taking the opportunity to rent to DSS benefit claimants for the first time, despite the caution from some other landlords based on the bad experiences they have had.”