How to get rich quick

[Osem]

Nine billion pounds of taxpayers' money goes to private landlords every year in housing benefit.

And the Institute for Public Policy Research estimates that at least £3bn of that money is spent on poor quality accommodation annually.

That's a lot of public money. And some private landlords are getting rich at our expense while, in some areas, 70% of privately rented homes don't meet the government's decent homes standard.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32381471

Former cage-fighter Mustafa Kemal Mustafa manages several properties in the South London borough of Lewisham.

One of his properties was closed down last year by the local council in an emergency evacuation. The council said that the house was overcrowded and the electrics had been dangerously hotwired. It was so unsafe that the energy company cut the supply.

The night the council shut it down, there were 23 people living in the house. At one point, there had been 40. I saw one tiny room where four grown adults had been sleeping in bunk beds.

Mr Mustafa was receiving up to £12,000 a month in housing benefit for this one property.

And that's the way the money goes...

[richard s]

How many more like Mr Mustahavethecash are milking the system.

[chris9991]

I wonder what house prices would be like if housing benefit didn't exist.

There were crap landlords long before housing benefit began.

[heero_yuy]

Originally Posted by Osem

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32381471



And that's the way the money goes...

One wonders who was approving the benefits as at that time IIRC it was being paid directly to the landlord. Don't the civil servants vet the recipients?

Takes two to tango.

[nomadking]

The real issue is where did the up to 40 people(benefit claimants) come from? Whether the money went to 1 landlord or 40, seems less of an issue.

Not long ago there TV programme where a landlord said that a potential tenant would get X amount in housing. The figure he gave happened to be the 1 bed self-contained figure and not shared facilities(eg kitchen, bathroom) rate which was a lot less. The landlord also said that others in the house also got the 1 bed rate. It was all bedsits and therefore the shared rate applies. How was he/they getting away with it? It would take multiple false claims by landlord and tenants to achieve that.

[Ignitionnet]

Imagine if we were spending billions a year building houses rather than paying housing benefit.

Of course that's unlikely as it may stop people feeling wealthier because their house is apparently going up in price, they may stop borrowing to consume, and hence it'd have a negative effect on the ponzi scheme that passes for our economy.

---------- Post added at 18:14 ---------- Previous post was at 18:12 ----------

Originally Posted by chris9991

I wonder what house prices would be like if housing benefit didn't exist.

The government would've found some other way to subsidise house prices - they've managed plenty of ways to put money into property spiv pockets even without housing benefit.