I Refused A DSS Tenant Who’s Also My Friend

I’ve slowly started to spread the word amongst my friends, family and those people I know, but don’t really know, about the vacant property I’m shortly due to be in possession of, due to my current tenant giving me notice a few weeks ago.

I mentioned I was going to use various websites to market my property; while that still remains true, I couldn’t resist making it public knowledge to my peers through my Facebook account. All I did was mention that I’ll shortly have a 2 bedroom house available for rent, and if anyone was interested to contact me to discuss business. Facebook is always worth a shot, even if it means confronting your dearest and nearest to inform them you wouldn’t let to them if they were the last tenant on the planet, simply because you actually know them and their habits (I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again).

I quickly received an interested response from a dude (we’ll call him Arnold Scraggle-pot for ease) that read my status. He’s not a close friend, nor is he a stranger; he’s wedged in the middle somewhere, but closer to being friend than foe. I know enough about him to know he’s not a complete douche-bag, consequently I didn’t dismiss him immediately. I provided him details of the property, which triggered his interest further. Fan-fucking-tastic, I thought!

Yesterday afternoon I showed Arnold Scraggle-pot around the property while my current tenant followed us around like a lost puppy (I hate it when tenants do that). Seriously, just give me space to do my job, i’m not going to masturbate on the bedsheets while no one is looking, you get me?

After the viewing, Arnold Scraggle-pot said he wanted it! I thought this was my lucky day because I had effortlessly found a tenant with in a day of inactively searching. I couldn’t ask for anymore.

As we had come to the end of the tour, we both stood outside the property with smiles, shaking hands, and that’s when he hit me with a nuclear stink bomb…

I’m not employed at the moment, so I’ll be getting the money through the council. That’s cool, ain’t it?

Urgh. I felt he intentionally withheld that information because he wanted to sucker me in first. He could have mentioned his circumstances before we both got erections and started shaking hands over forming a new tenant/landlord relationship. The fact he withheld his circumstance kind of gave me an uneasy insight into his character.

Not only don’t I accept DSS Tenants, but I also refuse to deal with prospective tenants that make me feel uneasy. I always go with my gut instincts!

I basically told him, it’s nothing against him (which it kind of was), but I refuse to accept DSS tenants because the council don’t have a clue when it comes to DSS Tenants, and if I ever got involved with the DSS system as it stands, i’ll drive myself into an early grave.

So yeah, I basically pulled the plug on the whole arrangement there and then. It was quite an anti-climax. What Arnold Scraggle-pot and I had breifly experienced was a teen-relationship, which typically has a life span of two minutes. And before you know it, your ex from one minute ago is behind the bike sheds with your best friend, sharing a pack of Salt and Vinegar Walkers. So I’m sure Arnold will find somewhere else to call home very shortly.

So it’s back to my initial plan of marketing the property through online property portals. I plan on replacing the current kitchen units first, because they’re not in great shape. Once that’s done, I’ll start executing my marketing strategy, which I’ll document like I did last time, Finding Tenants Without A letting Agent.

I know a lot of DSS tenants are probably thinking I’m a low life fuck-face for refusing DSS Tenants, but until you’ve actually been a landlord and dealt with the council, you don’t know SHIT. Like I’ve said for the 100th time, I don’t have a problem with individuals receiving housing benefit; I have a problem with the architecture of the DSS system. I refuse to support a system which makes no sense; this is a moral stand against the system, not the people. And until the system gets sorted, I’ll continue to wave away DSS tenants. For more details regarding the particulars of what’s wrong with the system, feel free to scour through the DSS tenants section- there’s plenty of meaty articles in there.