Landlords welcome benefit claimants

New research from the Business Development Research Consultants has found that private landlords are increasingly renting to housing benefit claimants even though they are concerned about the upkeep of the property and payments. The proportion of private landlords in Britain letting to benefits claimants more than doubled, increasing from 9 per cent in the last quarter of 2008 to 20 per cent in the first quarter of 2009. However, as many as 24 per cent of landlords said they were worried benefit claimants would not look after the property, 15 per cent said they’d had previous bad experiences, and 10 per cent said they were worried about payments.