I was just curious, currently my tenants are private tenants but are moving on next month. My agent has had a lady approach him, who wants to rent it but she will be going through the DSS. I am currently making no profit on the house and am adding money to the rent to cover all of my costs, this would still be the case if she took the property on, so what are the implications, if any, if I was to agree to this DSS let?

Jen a friend of mine had a terrible job getting rid of some DSS tennants when they were failing to pay their rent. I'm sure that there are some OK ones, including some of my family, but just be wary.

You could have the same issues with a private tenant as well though. Can you arrange it so that the money goes direct from DSS to your account, bypassing the tenant?

TBH I wouldn't do it either. I'm letting my house out in the UK and having a terrible time with a DSS tenant. She said that the rent would be paid automatically and ended up giving false details of who is living at the property. She got a dog, which caused damage to the house, her kids have been running riot, the neighbours are having a nightmare cos the kids are screaming and shouting at all hours day and night, and to top it all I've now had no rent for 3 months! It's horrible feeling so far away and unable to do anything about it. My advice would be to stick to the private sector if possible, I know all DSS people aren't the same but why risk it?? And please make sure you take out legal protection for if they don't pay the rent. I didn't and am paying the price now.....

I have read far too many horror stories about DSS tenants to even contemplate it. I would rather my house was empty to be honest.

Jen, people are people and whether DSS or working it makes no difference at all. I have been renting privately for the last year and believe me it sometimes is the Landlord who is the pain in the a**e. I have kept the property I have rented in tip-top condition, Iv alerted my landlord when things have gone wrong, 1st the boiler, then the floors had some sort of mushroom growing through the cracks and finally, my front garden was flooded with sewerage The latter he refused point blank to have fixed and told me he was sick of paying out for the house Ultimately I found a new property and gave one month's notice and guess what? He almost begged me to reconsider (which I did after he agreed to refund the 100GBP I had paid out to agents to do checks)
On the other hand, my daughter is a single mum with a 2 year old and on DSS. She also keeps the property she lives in immaculate and pays her rent on time. When she needed carpets changing (as they were cream and did not bide well with a 2 year old) she bought new flooring throughout the house at her own expense, and had my son (a qualified floor layer) put it down for her. The property really is a credit to her and she has only just turned 21.
Basically, some people are house proud and some are not whether they are working or not. If necessary try to obtain previous renting references and just make sure that you get a guarantor (I was my daughters) due to her being unemployed. However, I do think it very strange that I didn't need one yet I could have done a runner a lot easier than my daughter could Please don't be put off renting to DSS babe, honestly, most of them arn't the scum of the earth

To be honest it was more the financial/tax implications I was worried about. The tenant herself has just split from her husband and owns a proprty with him, her brother lives opposite me and apparently she's v houseproud!

I know nothing about this topic but surely DSS income is just like any other income?

DSS are normally ok, but like evrything u will get some dodgy ones. Take out landlord insurance and make sure it covers you for loss of rent and legal cost in reclaiming the rent. If the tennant decides not to pay you will still have to find the money to pay the morgage but will be able to claim it back.

My folks rented their place out for 12 years while they were away sailing. The best tenant was a single mother on benefits, the worst two were both business professionals. First a lady who was head of human resources at a top pharma company, trashed the place leaving carpets ruined & the place so dirty the rental agency had to employ a specialist cleaning firm as the usual cleaner refused to go in the place.
The second were a married couple high income earners who stole just about every thing in the house when they moved on including two huge jardinieres that were either side of a rose arbor they also stole that along with the roses in the jardinieres. They now stand either side of a pair of ornate columns in the entry to the mansion they built just down the street from my folks
When renting your at the mercy of the estate agent's property manager. Get a good one you'll be O.K a bad one & your ruined

The legal costs ins is OK but the rent guarantee ins is pretty expensive.

All in i pay £140 for the year covers me for 20k loss of rent 2mil legal. I dont think its bad and its tax deductable.

My agent will provide me with that insurance for £99 a year...not expensive....

But please check that this insurance covers you for mallicious damage by a tenant. If you don't have it and they trash the place the insurance won't pay out. Your 99 is only likely to cover basics.

That's pretty good, I am sure when I first looked at the rent guarantee ins (admittedly this was probably 10 years ago) it was was around 10% of the rent.

What insurer do you use? Looks like I need to revisit a quote.