Quote:
Originally Posted by the truth
when tenants steal the rent there is nothing anyone at the council can do to get any back, same with damages, people on housing benefits have no liability as they simply claim they have no money so once theyre finished destroying the house and stealing the benefits they move on to their next victim. in short this system now is even more disastrous. the rent should go direct to the landlord in all cases, but the tenants if they have issues can always go to the council to sort it out.
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This is untrue because once its been discovered they are stealing HB, they are taken to court, and ordered to pay it back (even at small payments per week) and once they have a fraud charge, the next place they move to automatically the landlord gets the HB paid to them...
I know paying the stolen money back to the council doesn't help the landlord though,l but its untrue that there is no comeback and also untrue that people can just move on and do the same thing again.
I disagree that rent should always go direct to the landlord because the landlord is less likely to fix problems that are their responsibility if the tenant (or council) is still paying rent. My mother had to withhold rent for nearly 3 months to get her landlord to fix the boiler. Had she not done that, we would have been living with a broken boiler for months on end as the landlord just wouldnt communicate with his tenants. Granted my mother was working and as such wasnt on housing benefit...but the option of withholding rent (not spending it though, keep it separate to give in a lump sum once repairs are done) should always be there IMO.