Rent Arrears “skyrocket”, as households struggle to manage their increasing dwindling finances hit by the cost of living crisis.
5th Jan 2023 05:56am
A Teesside private housing corporation is reportedly seeing its rent arrears owed by tenant “skyrocket” following claims many are now struggling to cope through the cost of living crisis & ever spiralling rent increases.
Tenants are said to be struggling to afford ever increasing rents, sparking a looming housing evictions crisis...
Its claimed the once Teesside based controversial landlords Thirteen Housing Group is seeing its rent arrears levels increasing dramatically, with tenants struggling to maintain their household bills in the cost of living crisis.
In Yorkshire, where its claimed Thirteen bought up a number of surplus housing stock from Yorkshire county council the figures are even worse, with nearly 40% of tenants said to be “struggling” to pay their rent & seeing arrears levels skyrocket in the process.
Thirteen Housing Group reportedly owns 280 out of the 7500 social housing properties currently on York councils books, with the local council managing the rent collections for Thirteen before passing on the money to the Teesside private landlord.
However, its been claimed that steadily increasing arrears levels has seen the council struggle to recover sums owed by tenants with the council reporting in a recent committee meeting that debt levels now stand at approximately £1.8 Million Pounds.
York District Council said that while they fought hard to avoid formal arrears actions, there are now said to be more than 500 cases in the legal system & four tenants who had been evicted this year as a result of rent arrears.
Thirteen Housing Group tenants are expected to see their rents increase again in April 2023, with many saying the overall costs of the rents demanded of them will force many to leave their homes looking for cheeper accommodation, as social rents begin to slowly overtake the cost of what it would be to rent a similar home in the private sector in some areas according to one expert, with Thirteen Tenants likely to see one of the highest increases on rents than any other so called “social landlord”, despite Thirteen in its most recent reports turning over almost £180.0 million pounds in revenues & million of pounds of cash reserves in the bank.
Thirteens tax affairs also still seem to be causing an issue over tenant confidence in the company, with it being reported that again the landlord that was only supposed to serve tenants on Teesside before it quietly branched out nationally was found to have paid ZERO corporation tax fuelling calls for housing providers such as Thirteen to be stripped of their so called “charitable status”, with calls for landlords to reinvest profits back into tenants by way of the lowering of social rents.
Its claimed that almost every single social housing provider in the country has seen arrears levels rise significantly, however its in the North East where its claimed tenants are being hit the hardest, with some finding it almost impossible to maintain their household bills without depriving themselves of essential living expenses leading to the courts being inundated with applications for evictions & sparking what could be a looming housing crisis as swathes of tenants are priced out of their homes.
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