Insurance News Archive

Landlords 'calling for changes to stop rent cheats'

Landlords in north Lincolnshire are calling for the government to change housing benefit rules to stop them being ripped off by bad tenants.

Proprietors in the region say they are losing thousand of pounds because renters spend the money they get from the government rather than paying it to landlords, according to the Scunthorpe Telegraph.

They are calling for MPs to change the law so that they receive the payments rather than them going direct to tenants, the news provider reports.

One landlord said he has missed out on more than £4,000 and that rent cheats are jeopardising his business.

Tony Conroy, chairman of the Scunthorpe and North Lincolnshire Landlords Association, said: "The only losers in this scheme are the landlords and the taxpayers."

Earlier in the month, landlordzone.com welcomed the new tenant deposit scheme, saying it would improve relationships between landlords and renters because the deposit out of proprietors' hands.

31 Dec 2008