A professional landlord from the North East is warning that many tenants will be evicted by their landlords now that cuts in the Housing Benefit scheme have been introduced.
Kevin Wilmot owns approximately 200 properties in the town of Hartlepool and says many of his tenants are being affected by the new benefit cap which sees single people under the age of 35 receiving just £55 a week. He says landlords too will suffer as they find more and more tenants slip into arrears with their rent.
Kevin said: “It’s like we’re going back to the Victorian times. I don’t know where they think people are going to live on £55 a week. It’s ridiculous. How are landlords supposed to pay mortgages and maintain houses to a good standard on £55 a week? Of course you can get landlord insurance that covers you for arrears and non payment but that is not the answer to this problem.”
He went on to add: “I’m fortunate because I have another business, but other landlords are going to start going bankrupt while tenants are going to be homeless. Where on earth are all these people going to go? The Government can’t keep hitting the poor. Homes will end up going back to squalor.”
He then went on to say that five of his tenants will have to be evicted because they can no longer afford the rent and warns that he, like other landlords, will now have to think twice before taking on a tenant who is under 35 and single. However, a spokesman for the Department of Work and Pensions said the changes have been brought about to encourage people on benefits to go out and get work. He added the country could no longer afford to pay the spiralling cost of housing benefit to the unemployed renting in the private sector.