Liverpool City.

[Keith Tindell]

One of the main problems is housing benefit, landlords can ask silly money for lousy properties, and the benefit covers it. Why does no one from the social service inspect these properties, tell the landlord *we are not paying that unless its bought up to standard*, the housing benefit is just a cash cow. If the housing allowance is tightened up, rents will come down. They are just now talking about single people under 20 not being able to claim, they will have to share a property with others, and quite right too. KT

[Captain Kong]

There was a programme on TV last night about food banks,
This one was in Coventry.
It followed about four people, One was a lady with five children the youngest only about one years old, Where are the fathers??? There never are any. must all be virgin births. She could have had a job but she would lose money, Better off on Benefits. SO WHAT ABOUT THE SYSTEM??? Is the Benefit System paying out too much money? or are wages too low? She was using the food bank.
Another one was a lady with a 15 year old lad and a baby a few months old, on Benefits again where are the fathers. ?
Then at the end the unemployed father of the baby turns up and moves in with her , They had the biggest flat screen TV I have ever seen. Must have cost hundreds. Also THREE Dogs, How much does it cost to feed three big dogs.? They were using the food bank for free food.
Another was a man, Darren, he said he was a Senior Manager and had been made redundant, and could not get enough Benefit to live on, So he was in the food bank every day. Then he was exposed, The Benefits Agency is taking him to court for Fraud, he was always in work as a van driver Courier and also claiming Benefits as an unemployed man. The man from the Food Bank accused him of taking over £500 of food from the food bank when he was a Benefit Cheat and working for wages.
There was a young girl there, she was on benefits and really trying to do something for herself. She was assisting in the food bank, she had been in Care in London and had left, she was quite good and spoke intelligently,
At the end she got a place in University and was making a career for herself.
So what does one make of all that. ????
Brian.

[Tony Morcom]

One of the main problems is housing benefit, landlords can ask silly money for lousy properties, and the benefit covers it.If the housing allowance is tightened up, rents will come down.

Not strictly true Keith.Housing Benefit( or Local Housing Allowance as its now known) is now strictly capped. You can now only rent a property with the number of beds to which you are entitled, and then you get paid a flat rate regardless of how much you pay in rent. The rate is set by the local County Council. The rental prices have certainly not come down in North Somerset since this was introduced. I agree with you about the Councils being made more accountable for the state of rented properties though. However its a catch 22 situation because there simply are not enough rental properties at a reasonable price available unless everyone wants to live in a flat.

[Ivan Cloherty]

On the theme of rented property, we were bombed out 3 times during the war and ended up in rented property in Hull. My parents never ever expected the landlord to do everything, we painted exterior and interior, we kids did the garden, kept the street clean. The only things the landlord did was electrics and plumbing if and when required which was rarely as we looked after the property as if it was our own and carried out all minor repair jobs, as did the majority of people in those days. After our experiences we were grateful to have somewhere to live. Hull suffered more than any other city in the war with it's housing stock over 87% of its housing council/private was affected by bomb damage of some sort, whether it be by direct hit or concussion. Now when you go on some private house estates, you can immediately tell the rented properties by the neglected state of the gardens as few give a damn.

At one time im my career I owned a small property purchased to rent out, which was going to supplement my old age pension, made the mistake of decorating it, outfitting it, landscaping garden etc as I would want to live in it. After two years of crap tenants, sold it, made no money on it, as cost me more to renovate than the reasonable rents I had charged. Was called out if a washer needed changing or a fuse blown (all they had to do was push the bluddy button back in) and other nonesense. That was my only venture in purchase to let, it was enough.

The landlord is not always the bad guy, there are some undesirable tenants out there and that is why rents are high to pay for the renovations when they have left.

[Keith Tindell]

I know a guy from here who has become the executor of a small flat in London when his uncle died. He thought he would rent it out until he could sell it in these difficult times. When he had the rental agent round to give him an idea on how much rent he could expect, he was told £650 per month, unless you want to take in DSS, then you can get £850 per month, the trouble is, he said, the DSS are told stop paying the rent, that will put you top of the housing list when you are evictedKT

[Captain Kong]

My Relative had a big beautiful detached five bed roomed house in the New Forest, His Company transferred him to the Channel Islands for three years, so he rented his home to a wealthy Swiss business man and his family,
When his time was up and he arrived home to find his home destroyed, his wife could not even go into the house, The Raiators were torn off the walls and the house flooded, there was **** and graffiti all over the walls, and full of garbage and all kinds of rubbish. Completly trashed. It cost him a fortune to have it cleaned and partialy rebuilt.
Never again, they had to live in a hotel for a few months until they could buy a new house.
So that is why rentals are expensive.
Brian.