So now it has to be 'working DSS'

clutton_2

this tenant is a pain in the bum - but it is her first tenancy and she is young and does not quite know how to behave as a tenant. i have written to her and spoken to her about how things work in a LL/Tenant relationship. She has asked if she can "hurry up" the council, but, she cant - they deal with applications in strict chronological order. But, once it enters the 4th month of arrears and i have had no funds, i will have to evict her - but i suspect that as soon as she takes her Section 8 Notice down to the council i will get paid - so what does THat say about the "chronological sequence" !

Bungarm2001

Well, just to add more confusion...I spoke to someone at the council benefits office today finally (after 28 attempts to get thru, then being left hanging for 10 minutes) and this guy told me almost the exact opposite to what I was told earlier.

The end of the conversation was fairly abrupt on his side when he told me he couldn't tell me any details as it was up to the tenant, but he did tell me that the money was sent out. Since I haven't heard from the tenant, I can only assume that she either hasn't got it yet, or isn't aware that it's been paid.

The whole trouble is, no-one wants to talk to me even tho my tenant is more than happy to have any details about her LHA passed on to me, working on the theory that between us, "the clueless," that we might be able to actually unravel the mysteries of this LHA and all it's arcane rules. Every time I speak to someone at the benefits office, (3 times now) I get this distinct feeling that they are very much less than friendly toward LL's in general, or is that me being paranoid??

PS I'm only posting this to illustrate just some of the difficulties in volved when taking on a tenant oh benefits. It's a real minefield and I have to admit, I was adamant not so long ago that I would never let a property to anyone in receipt of LHA, so this is a bit of a test run. So far, I am definitely not impressed.

clutton_2

because the law now says that LHA goes to tenants and not LLS - (unless the rent is more than 8 weeks in arrears, or the tenant can be proved to be "vulnerable").

The LHA is the tenants money and the LL has no rights whatsoever to be told anything about the progress of the claim. it has taken me several years of sweet talking to get to a position where i can now speak to a couple of benefit supervisors who will discuss things with me, which, strictly speaking, they probably should not.

Gorgeous_George

The rent is due regardless of HB/LHA. These problems are the tenant's and not the LL's.

My current tenant paid 2 months up-front and a deposit equivalent to a month's rent. Her mum was guarantor. After a couple of months, I relaxed the rent to one month in advance. If I held the deposit, I would offer it back now that my tenant has a perfect payment record of over a year. As it is lodged with TDS, it would be too much hassle and not the right thing to do anyway.

GG