housing benefit and renting ... ?

Butlers1982

If your local authority contacts your Landlord and you havent given them permission then they have breached the Data Protection act(should be on the back of the form)
When you apply from a private landlord, they process your claim and then inform the rent office and they should sent somebody round. to be honnest what really happens is they fill the details in a computer and that tells you the average rent for the type of property you rent. eg a one bedroom flat in preston would be a maximum of say 65 pound. then the local authority will pay this as the maximum, and is it is short of what your being charged by your landlord, you obviously have to make up the rest,although you can appeal.they will then send someone round to confirm your residency and then they will complete and open your claim!
It is possible to claim HB without your Landlord knowing and within your rights

Chrysalis

above info is right you can hide you claiming from landlord but my own experience shows they tend to want a tenancy agreement that has original signatures and not photocopy, some landlords deliberatly do a copy to make it harder to claim housing benefit.

Also hiding it is much easier if you already are a tenant since you have gone through the process of checks etc. with the landlord, when getting them to let they generally will do employment checks unless you can get round it.

shellsuit

On the housing benefit form, there is a part at the back which the landlord/agent has to sign to say they will accept housing benefit so there's no getting out of them not knowing.

They need to know and sign to say they know and are willing to accept.

Chrysalis

ribboninthesky then it must be different in each area, as there is no such thing here. All there is regarding the landlord is you have to enter their name and address and tick a box wether you wish them to be able to be contacted or not. This box would be useless if you then had to get them to give permission on the form.

shellsuit

Chrysalis wrote:

ribboninthesky then it must be different in each area, as there is no such thing here. All there is regarding the landlord is you have to enter their name and address and tick a box wether you wish them to be able to be contacted or not. This box would be useless if you then had to get them to give permission on the form.

When did you use the form?

I filled a form in this week, so it must be pretty new because I've never heard of it before.

There is a part for the landlord/agent to confirm they are willing to accept HB and another part which asks you if you give permission for your council (who pay the HB) to get in touch with your landlord/agent about your claim.

It never used to be like this, the last time I claimed was 3 years ago, but it has all changed since then.

Chrysalis

Well I hope that isnt the case now because that means I can see a lot more people suddenly been added to the council waiting list when their landlords dissaprove the benefit claims. I last seen a claim form I think was a year ago and it didnt have it on but from what you say it does concern me very much.

Chrysalis

Ok I downloaded a form from here.

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/lifeevent/benefits/housing_benefit.asp#download

At the end is the declaration but it was misread.

Its only applicable when payment is to be made to the landlord directly and as such he agrees to accept it and to some conditions.

If having payment to yourself that part of the form is ignored.

grassgirl

wow! so many of you to thank!

i'll have to see how i get on!

Many thanks again, Gem