Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

When you take on tenants do a credit check and only accept people with sufficient I'd and a real bank account that has been operated for a while and no CCJs.

RF its IDS who should be shot then, its his civil servants proposals that hes backed. Its for this Universal Credit which imo will never happen.

Im with you all housing benefit should be paid direct to landlords.

1. the claimant cant get in rent debt

2. The landlord is secure in the knowledge no arrears or fraud can take place on the monthly benefit.

The more checks at the start...the better....

Well Hays yes prevention is better than cure, but I wouldnt turn a person away without a bank account. I want the benefit to go into my account not theirs.

Sometimes occasionaly I ask them to get a reference from their doctor if I have suspicions.

I think any 14 year old male or female having "sex" should be hung
well that'll significantly reduce the unemployment register in a couple of years time ..... wonder why the tories didn't think of that in 2010? .... it would reduce the benefits bill by many £m a year too - spiffing idea!!

I do a credit check on every tenant at the beginning of the tenancy.

Just lob it in with the other side of my syndicate business short term stay and long term stay high rise flats.

I cant believe how easy it is for kids of 16 to get council houses and I think also housing association tenancies.

Personaly I wouldnt entertain a young kid of 16 wanting to rent one of my properties.

Far too young to be independant imo thats why I dont like Millibands idea of giving them the vote.

Having no bank account is a big red flag. I wouldn't do any sort of business with someone who did not have a bank account of long standing plus a bank reference. I would want some employment history etc. There is a shortage of housing, so you can be quite choosy who you rent to.

sticky - do yourself a fave and get up to speed with FOXT

FOXT?????????

foxtons you muppet

Ohhhhhhhhhhh well overvalued.

Right off for a pint.

US flying up and us stuck on 6800 or abouts.

Market top.

There is an interesting story about my friend. He had a very large employment agency business, contract nurses was one of his big areas. In those days the money you deducted from employees on PAYE did not have to be paid to the Inland Revenue straight away. In fact, you could hang on to it for a very long time. Even when enforcement officials got involved, you could delay paying with various excuses. I knew my friend had not paid his PAYE tax for a long time. In fact it was over two years late. He kept it in a money market account to earn some interest.

He rang me one morning to tell me that IR officials turned up at his house early and kicked his front door down. They demanded about £1m, which was their estimate. He wrote them a cheque for the full amount. It was only about half what he owed. He paid up the rest and a lot more when he sold the business a few years later.

He started out as a computer programmer and later I was in business with him. He once ordered some pencils with our company name on them. A huge packing case arrived full of boxes of pencils. One of our staff asked why we had so many. Ken replied in a very strong Irish accent, "I thought a gross was 20".

sticky - don't bet on it ...... i'ld be surprised if FOXT does not still have good legs with the london and SE housing markets being as strong as they are

Blimey...looks good that one....missed out on that...

Trouble is...end of month...time to sell out a bit...weekend coming....

Ukraine...market worries...who knows ?...the Ruskies might even take over Turkish holiday resorts....

Time to bank some profits perhaps...

they already have, and dubai too