Government Signals U-turn on LHA

The government, via the House of Commons Works and Pensions Committee, has indicated it will carry out a review of the LHA system later this year. This comes in the face of campaigning by landlords organisations NLA and RLA following the rollout of the system in April 2008 and the subsequent humonguous losses suffered by landlords as a result of tenants deciding not to pass on the LHA to their landlords.

If you are a landlord, and have tenants in receipt of LHA, you should have your say by filling in the online questionnare. What is the saying that .. "bad things happen when good people do nothing"... Let's each do something to redress the balance.

The RLA have a comprehensive questionnare, so please go to Full LHA Survey.

At the end of it, you can and should also download a template letter to complete and send to your MP.

The NLA have a shorter version which is Postcard LHA Survey

Come on people, lets tell the gofmint exactly what we think of their "air-brained" scheme.

1. Whilst I think that the idea of using the market rents is fair, and simple to calculate, and determining the allowance based on room needs/requirements, the implementation of it by the various Councils leaves a lot to be desired.
2. What happened to the fundamental right of the tenant to choose to pay the allowance to the Landlord? Most of them want it paid direct anyway, and are surprised that they are not allowed to (nanny gofmint..).
3. And why are there no deterrents put in place for those who might be tempted to use the LHA for something other than rent?  when taxpayer's money has been given to the tenant to use for rent and tenant misuses it, is that not fraud or theft??
4. What happened to the right of the taxpaying public to expect accountability for their taxes paid in good faith and given to claimants for the specific purpose of paying rent?
5. Why must landlords suffer at least 8 weeks of lost rent before being able to get the LHA paid direct? And how are we supposed to recoup the spent LHA from people with little or no assets? I suppose we can flog the 40inch plasma screens .... We can't claim lost rent on expenses now can we???

Think again, gofmint. Enough is enough. We are not charities, nor do we have deep pockets. We are small businesses being strangled slowly and surely. The banks to whom you gave our tax money are hoarding it and not giving us any. They pull our overdrafts, refuse to give us credit for anything-not even for retraining, and hike our repayment rates and interest charges and all those other charges that they dream of. So what, dear gofmint, are you going to do about it??


Over to you folks and fellow landlords. Lets give the gofmint something more useful to work with than their rosy, unrealistic 3-4 year old Pathfinder trial results.