Local Housing Allowance NewLabour !!

[knockknee]

Right team stand by to be annoyed.

I caught our buy to let tenants with an undeclared lodger.

They had to admit to having a lodger income undeclared on their benefits.

Now wait for this ....

Because they have a lodger squeezed into a 3 bed house they are entitled to the 4 bed rate of LHA. That is an increase of benefit in thatv area of £46 per week. They are allowed to benefit to £15 of that. So their benefits went up by £15. Then because the lodger is on the dole they only take off £7.40 (what is called an adult non dependant deduction) from that.

So that makes them £7.60 more money from benefits ? But the £40 a week lodge money is theirs to keep.

Excuse me but hasn't that just allowed them to top up their dole by £47.60 a week ?


Apparently New Labour happen to be analysing the effects of their introduction of LHA instead of the old housing benefits. It was all part of their getting people flexible to return to work strategy. New Labour seems to be now employing a team of know it all sociology graduates to work out why LHA has had the opposite effect to that intended. It seems to mystify New Labour why overcrowding in houses is one of the unexpected results and people being less willing to take work.

To make you more annoyed I am going to stick the rent up to the 4 bed rate for the 3 bed rate and I will be getting the extra£46 quid a week.

 

[vvaannmmaann]

Set fire to the house?


You capitalist pig,you!

 

[knockknee]

Vanman I just paid out for the annual gas safety certificate. The gas fitter phoned me the tenants had left the combi boiler feedline switched on so it has been running at mains water pressure and its relief valve continuously working.

Don't ever invest in buy to let. LHA won't pay landlords direct until there are two months arrears of rent.

Our current tenants first pocketed LHA to pay for car insurance on their seven seater. Second time they locketed LHA was to opay for a gear4box repair of £1200 they stole the LHA and borrowed theb rest off their undeclared lodger.

Third time they pocketed LHA they used it to to have a Haven Holiday with the kids.

When we realised they had naffed off on holiday we wondered what they had done with their Staffie terrier so drove up to the house (100 miles) and I opened the door to find this guy being bowled out the way. Undeclared lodger.

Initially I was just going to throw him out with the Staffie.

I let it go and said I would be sorting it out. But I got a letter from the council "Housing Advisory Service" telling me I had entered the house without the tenant consent. And a phone call from the Housing Advuisory Service advising me that the council always prosecutes landlords who harass tenants. As it happens Kent Police have tried Harassment law to shut me up over Deal Barracks bombing .... and I sent the Chief constable all the evidence he needed for the two follow up offences so he could try sending officers to arrest me (to get me my Magna Carta right of a defence in Court). I warned him that the arrest would be unlawful so it would be resisted so who wanted to be first Kent Ploddies over the door.

Never heard another thing.

But what miffs me is that I never broke the terms of the tenancy or even contemplated harassing the family in the house. Apparently the council issues a warning to landlords threatening them with police and prosecution as a routine !! Then when challenged they claim they did not make an accusation but merely advised of the policy of the council should harassment occur.

We are a way way out of pocket on this and were advised earlier this year it would be prudent to go voluhntary bankrupt. The consultant was administering at that time a voluntary bakruptcy for a woman who sent 43 sets of keys back to the Building Society. She had 16 tenants stealing LHA and fraudulent overpayments to bad tenants being recovered against the LHA due to the honest tenants.

I am going for the £46 a week to recoup some of the loss caused by New Labour not to make a profit.

 

[vvaannmmaann]

I can send you some matches.

 

[knockknee]

Oddly enough Vanman I was just considering a chap known unkindly as Mr Swan Vesta. Because of an unfortunate habit of his businesses burning down in Margate, Ramsgate and Folkestone.

Blog speculation was rife about the destruction by fire of the Margate historic timber scenic railway and another seafront fire which caused what became known locally as Godden's Gap.

A local blogger of great skill felt threatened by Schillings a renowned firm of solicitors re speculation the fires were deliberate and chanced to remark on blog that Schillings had allegedly also frightened the publishers of an author called Craig Murray. In that instance Schillings client allegedly being a Tim Spicer.

Tim Spicer was a contact of none other than our very own Jimbo from 1982 ...

Sandlines and Aegis successful businessman.

I couldn't help reflecting that the blogger in question is a contributor (and alleged shareholder) to Private Eye which was about to do its part (Is it Lord Gnome) in exposing Shortty as bogus former SAS.

Anyways there will be no Goddens Gap where once was situate our buy to let containing one sorry set of dole scrounging parasites.

 

[vvaannmmaann]

It is very difficult as I know.We had some student houses in Eastbourne.We spent circ £20k upgrading to the LA's spec for HMO's.Thankfully we got out,just before the houseprice crash!

 

[knockknee]

Well exited Vanman. Respect.

Funny old life. My mate worked at one Kent Colliery me at another. I was losing a days wages a week to attend college and paying my own tuition fees etc. I worked with my mate Saturdays doing bakery shut down maintenance and Friday Sat nights I worked as a bouncer. This is the regime by which KK slowly got to know a tad about electrical engineering and the difficulties of keeping the family fed and the mortgage paid.

I was MENSA tested at IQ 146 so top 3% of society whereas my mate was over 150 and got into MENSA being on top 2% of society.

He was left wing Kent mining militant. (He is also the guy who gave Kent Police warnings about attempts to obtain mining explosives re our Deal Barracks warnings 88/89) Before the 84 strike I quit and went off to do a one year full time HNC. My mate tried to tough it out but eventually rather than blackleg he quit the industry.

The MENSA magazine would not publish his letters putting the miners' point of view. (Which market forces wise is now known to have been the correct view) So he quit MENSA.

He started his own business in electrical and engineering services and got Corgi qualified industrial and domestic etc.

Now when we chat he bemoans New Labour and all the stupid over regulation Corgi and Part P Building Regs etc. He worries about where New Labour is taking us. Praise the Queen and blast knife and fork Masons for he takes his Freemasonry right seriously.

And I moan about the inability to chuck rent stealing tenants on to the street.

You see we lost our homes under Thatcher .. I beat the crap out of the bailiffs and the police who came to protect them. But nonetheless we ended up living in a tent as having been homeowners the council classified us as voluntary homeless. So we just got on with it. Unlike Thatcher when she lost her home at 10 Downing Street we had more dignity and walked away with no tears of self pity in our eyes.

When I look at our tenants I see Thatcher legacy. No such thing as society. Cheat. Lie, Scorn the work ethic.

But there again Mick and I now vote tory ..... funny old life.

But we worked hard for what we got and now we are brought close to losing it because of New Labour ... which would be ironic. Under Thatcher we worked hard and had our house taken away. Under Labour we work honest and give our house up because of their policies ? I don't think so.

Send the effing matches ...

Oh but .. if they have a lodger in the house who has unspent convictions the insurance is invalidated ...

But if I ask for his record the council ring and say I am harassing them ?

Respect again for exit strategy.

 

[Curve15]

Knockknee
how long is the tenancy for & can you terminate the tenancy?
I've never been a landlord so have no idea of the rights & responsibilities - have you checked the shelter website.

As for the LHA - it can work against the tenant as well, if the council will only pay £84/wk and your rent is £95 you have to get the extra cash from your own pocket - don't know what they mean about reassessing the housing rate, up here its based on the number of rooms 1 bed £86, 2 bed £100, 3 bed £126 and if you live alone in a 3 bed the council can ask why you need the extra rooms, if its for your kids coming over then they might agree to pay the £126 but its at their discretion

 

[CQMS]

Write and inform them that you are having to undertake urgent roofing repairs commencing in four weeks time, then turn up and take all the tiles off the roof.