The Number of Unemployed Tenants Increases Sharply

UK national statistics reveal that the amount of tenants renting a flat or a house from private residential landlords has sharply increased in the last year. At the moment, 7.8% of all UK tenants are unemployed, which represents a significant increase over the course of the year. In spring 2008 only 3.1% of UK tenants got redundant. Experts believe that residential landlords might disproportionately suffer from unemployment of their tenants as the vast majority of unemployed British citizens (approximately 40%) are aged 25 and younger. Statistics shows that renting a house or a flat among this demographic group is highly common. While buy to let landlords across the UK might find the problem of increasing unemployment concerning, landlords in Northern Ireland are alarmed by the rate of tenant unemployment, which reaches 17%. Landlords all over the UK face a serious challenge of handling tenants who live of governmental benefits but still wish to rent a residential property because of the lack of social housing. Many experts believe that buy to let landlords should let their properties to “social” tenants rather than leave rental units unoccupied for a unspecified period of time due to oversupply of rental property in some areas. The best way to ensure that tenants, living on social benefits, pay their monthly rent is to arrange for a local council to send the stipulated amount of benefit directly to the landlord rather than to the tenant. Other preventative measures include demand references from the tenant as well as asking for a guarantor.