By Charlotte Beugge

As more householders who are unable or unwilling to sell up put their homes up for rent, existing landlords warn against taking in tenants who are dependent on housing benefit to pay their rent.

Nearly nine in ten (87%) landlords have had problems getting their rent paid on time by housing benefit tenants and 11% say they have had tenants who have stopped paying rent altogether.

As a result, nearly six out of ten landlords refuse to take on housing benefit tenants, according to research conducted by house and flat share website SpareRoom.co.uk.

Many of the problems with housing benefit tenants have happened, says the website, since changes in 2008 which meant councils started paying housing benefit to tenants rather than to landlords. Unsurprisingly, 86% of landlords said they were against these payment changes.

And three-quarters of landlords said they wouldn't even have a housing benefit tenant if they had a guarantor. But 34% of those surveyed said they did have housing benefit tenants in one or more of their properties.

Matt Hutchinson, director of SpareRoom.co.uk, said: "It's clear from this survey that a shake-up of the current system of paying housing benefit to the tenant is desperately needed, and reverting back to the old structure, where landlords receive rental payments directly from the council would be a step in the right direction."

Being a landlord is not something to be taken on lightly: you'll have to comply with the local authority's safety rules; if you have an existing mortgage on the home then you need to tell your lender you're renting it out and your deal will probably change.

And you'll also need to change your household insurance to a special policy reflecting the tenanted status of the property.