Don't need to pay rent in Douglas?

[Hotdog787878]

I appreciate that tenants are often vulnerable and in tough spots, but I cannot see why on earth Devon Watson as Chairman (I thought this would have been Chairperson, but apparently not!) of the Housing & Property Committee of Douglas Council would publicly pledge that 'Tenants won't be evicted from our council properties if they can't pay rent' (see https://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/tenants-wont-be-evicted-from-our-council-properties-if-they-cant-pay-rent-754619).

I hope Douglas residents raise this with Mr Watson individually and also collectively to the Council and that the Council publicly, and urgently, puts a press release out to clarify its position on the matter. At a time when rates are going up and up there is of course a duty on the Council to support vulnerable tenants with issues paying their rents (and there may of course be unfortunate situations where it is absolutely not appropriate to evict tenants considering their individual personal circumstances given that we live in a compassionate and inclusive society), but this broad public statement of principle seems poorly thought out and prejudicial to the good recovery of rent arrears. Mr Watson should also give some consideration to his position on that Committee, as whilst that position will hopefully be clarified he has made his own personal view on the matter public now and I can't see how he can possibly roll back from this. We can't have the leader of housing in Douglas coming out with such irresponsible statements.

We need to encourage all, so far as possible whilst taking a compassionate approach towards individual personal circumstances, to pay their rents, as otherwise it will be left to other residents to subsidise the bad book of public housing as the rent arrears book increases and increases. 

I hope Douglas Council urgently consider their position this, it seems a very unwise and ill thought out comment by a councillor putting their own agenda before that of the residents of Douglas.

[Moghrey Mie]

If Douglas Corporation was evicting people because they can't pay their rent people would be criticising them too.

I take it that they will be working with people to sort out their finances if tenants get in arrears.

[Dirty Buggane]

And this brings up the brain dead person who thought that it was a good policy to give the people who qualify for rent payments the cash instead of paying the landlord direct as it used to be. That seems to me to be stupidity when you hear this statement, shall I pay the rent or should I go on the lash. Decisions, Decisions. And if they go into arrears how are they going to get the cash, no amount of finance arrangements can suddenly free up cash you have not got in the first place. Unless they point you in the direction of an organ broker to sell a kidney. Now you can borrow enough to get completely out of debt. 

Edited January 9 by Dirty Buggane

[Nellie]

1 hour ago, Hotdog787878 said:

I appreciate that tenants are often vulnerable and in tough spots, but I cannot see why on earth Devon Watson as Chairman (I thought this would have been Chairperson, but apparently not!) of the Housing & Property Committee of Douglas Council would publicly pledge that 'Tenants won't be evicted from our council properties if they can't pay rent' (see https://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/tenants-wont-be-evicted-from-our-council-properties-if-they-cant-pay-rent-754619).

I hope Douglas residents raise this with Mr Watson individually and also collectively to the Council and that the Council publicly, and urgently, puts a press release out to clarify its position on the matter. At a time when rates are going up and up there is of course a duty on the Council to support vulnerable tenants with issues paying their rents (and there may of course be unfortunate situations where it is absolutely not appropriate to evict tenants considering their individual personal circumstances given that we live in a compassionate and inclusive society), but this broad public statement of principle seems poorly thought out and prejudicial to the good recovery of rent arrears. Mr Watson should also give some consideration to his position on that Committee, as whilst that position will hopefully be clarified he has made his own personal view on the matter public now and I can't see how he can possibly roll back from this. We can't have the leader of housing in Douglas coming out with such irresponsible statements.

We need to encourage all, so far as possible whilst taking a compassionate approach towards individual personal circumstances, to pay their rents, as otherwise it will be left to other residents to subsidise the bad book of public housing as the rent arrears book increases and increases. 

I hope Douglas Council urgently consider their position this, it seems a very unwise and ill thought out comment by a councillor putting their own agenda before that of the residents of Douglas.

Indeed! Clearly a reckless comment by Comrade Watson which does need to be clarified. 

Douglas 'City' Council must surely have a documented process for handling non-payment of rent, within which, eviction will be very much a last resort, but his comments do appear to undermine that.

Edited January 9 by Nellie

[HeliX]

6 minutes ago, Dirty Buggane said:

And this brings up the brain dead person who thought that it was a good policy to give the people who qualify for rent payments the cash instead of paying the landlord direct as it used to be. That seems to me to be stupidity when you hear this statement, shall I pay the rent or should I go on the lash. Decisions, Decisions 

The only thing lazier than the person on benefits imagined in this sort of stereotype is the stereotype itself.

[HeliX]

What's the cost of supporting a person made homeless by the council? Evicting people from council housing who can't (which is different from won't) pay rent doesn't seem like a money saving idea.

[Happier diner]

35 minutes ago, HeliX said:

The only thing lazier than the person on benefits imagined in this sort of stereotype is the stereotype itself.

Yes stereotyping is terrible. I mean the poor folks have to have some money left over for their fags/booze/sky etc.🤣

[HeliX]

3 minutes ago, Happier diner said:

Yes stereotyping is terrible. I mean the poor folks have to have some money left over for their fags/booze/sky etc.🤣

Don't forget the bookies!

[The Phantom]

7 minutes ago, HeliX said:

Don't forget the bookies!

I'm assuming they don't declare their income from drug dealing? 

[WTF]

1 hour ago, Moghrey Mie said:

If Douglas Corporation was evicting people because they can't pay their rent people would be criticising them too.

I take it that they will be working with people to sort out their finances if tenants get in arrears.

fags and booze have gone up and people have their priorities 

[Roger Mexico]

1 hour ago, Nellie said:

Indeed! Clearly a reckless comment by Comrade Watson which does need to be clarified. 

Douglas 'City' Council must surely have a documented process for handling non-payment of rent, within which, eviction will be very much a last resort, but his comments do appear to undermine that.

It may be more to do with the way that the interview has been transcribed or edited.  If you read the version in iomtoday, there are things that make no sense at first.  For example:

We ourselves don’t set the rents, these are set by DoI,’ he said.

‘But we do support the measure and the reason why we do this is because past rent increases have meant that we’ve been able to double our response time for repairs.

‘They’ve gone up from 40% to 80%.

[adverts]

‘In terms of getting done within target and with additional increases, we can take more money and invest more in making sure properties are maintained, making sure the properties are up to standard and making sure that we can build a lot more properties.

Clearly the bits on either side of the ads are all the same sentence and it's the response rate for fixing repairs within the target time that has doubled.  If the time to fix things had doubled they wouldn't be bragging.  Similarly Douglas often does use eviction proceedings, they're just reassuring people they won't be chucked out immediately if they fall a week behind.  But something telling them who to contact if they have worries would be useful.

(Oh look.  A new topic from a 'first time' user attacking Douglas Council.  We've never seen that before).

[Moghrey Mie]

2 hours ago, Dirty Buggane said:

And this brings up the brain dead person who thought that it was a good policy to give the people who qualify for rent payments the cash instead of paying the landlord direct as it used to be. That seems to me to be stupidity when you hear this statement, shall I pay the rent or should I go on the lash. Decisions, Decisions. And if they go into arrears how are they going to get the cash, no amount of finance arrangements can suddenly free up cash you have not got in the first place. Unless they point you in the direction of an organ broker to sell a kidney. Now you can borrow enough to get completely out of debt. 

Citizens' Advice or Credit Union can help people work out their budgets. People often don't realise where their money is going until they sit down and draw up a budget.

[Non-Believer]

27 minutes ago, Moghrey Mie said:

People often don't realise where their money is going until they sit down and draw up a budget.

They'll be proper pissed off when they work out that most of it is going to the government.

[Thefella]

3 hours ago, Moghrey Mie said:

I take it that they will be working with people to sort out their finances if tenants get in arrears.

It’s more total bullshit from Wolfe Watson and his Douglas Freedom fighters. Look at the IOM Court schedules and the number of cases the council has going through for arrears of evictions at any point in time. It’s normally about 20% of the court listings on any given week. To say they won’t do anything is just he trying to save face. They’re in court all the time pursuing tenants. 

[Kopek]

Fags abd Booze are a recognised 'addiction' problem. 'Hic', 'Cough'!!!

A little humanity perhaps?