help with rent?

j-josie

Question posed on behalf of DD's boyfriend...
He is an unemployed graduate (double first :T but still no job:()and has just signed on for JSA which he currently receives, no problem there. However he lives in a private rented house; it was let as a student let and all tenants ( I think 5 of them) are signed into a joint and several liability rental contract. I think it's about £1250 per month for the whole house so each pays £250 direct to landlord.
At job centre he has been told he would not get help with his rent without having statements of the other 4 tenants' income position etc. Is this right? The other tenants have no connection to him; he just rents a room in the house and they are all independent of one another.
I thought he would be entitled to some help with accommodation costs
I was hoping someone could help point him in the right direction...
Thanks

missmontana

He would need to inform his landlord that he would be claiming LHA for the rent, so maybe he could ask him to draw up a new separate tenancy agreement as long as the landlord doesn't have a problem with that in the first place!

He needs to check to see how much he would actually get, how old is he? If under 25 then it would only be the shared room rate, you can check on your local council website and see what this months LHA rate is.

Jowo_2

There isn't any requirement for a tenant to inform the landlord that they are claiming LHA, as far as I'm aware, though its probably a courtesy. My understanding of the forms is that the claimant has to option to include/exclude contact with the landlord. Yes, some landlords are averse to LHA tenants for many reasons, including the fact that some may have insurance/lender clauses against them.

The LHA direct website, plus the Shelter website section on LHA is extremely informative to understand rates/entitlement.

The potential problem with a landlord setting up an individual tenancy with the OPs partner is that it increases the admin to manage the tenancy, perhaps requires extra work to re-organise the deposit, means the tenancy gets re-dated from the date of the new one and many landlords prefer tenants to share the responsibility to pay the rent and cost of any damage.

Also, I thought a joint AST is restricted to a maximum of 4 tenants?

System

I had 4 housemates when i applied for LHA. i didn't have to put down their incomes, just taht they shared the tenency and i was awarded LHA.

Vader123

Jowo wrote: »

There isn't any requirement for a tenant to inform the landlord that they are claiming LHA, as far as I'm aware, though its probably a courtesy.

Oh yes there is! Its much more than a courtesy.

Some buildings insurance is invalid if the tenant is claiming LHA/HB. Plus some BTL (buy to let) mortgage prohibit LHA/HB tenants.

Vader

Doom_and_Gloom

missmontana wrote: »

He would need to inform his landlord that he would be claiming LHA for the rent, so maybe he could ask him to draw up a new separate tenancy agreement as long as the landlord doesn't have a problem with that in the first place!

He needs to check to see how much he would actually get, how old is he? If under 25 then it would only be the shared room rate, you can check on your local council website and see what this months LHA rate is.

Yes he would need to tell the LL that he will be claiming LHA that is correct.
However if he is 25+ or not does not matter. He will still only get the shared rate as he is in shared accomidation.

OP- his house mates should not come into it at all from what I know. He is not in a couple with any of them I take it as that would be the only reason any of the others come into it as far as I'm aware. However I'm not sure how the rules go about it being down as student accoumidation. That may be the crux of this. Hopefully someone else will know for sure.

fluffymovie

I think it might be helpful to clarify that under the Housing Benefit regulations 2006, there is no requirement to tell the landlord that you are in receipt of LHA.

This is different to whether there is a moral duty and I am pretty sure that it is not a criminal offence not to tell a landlord either.

The OP has asked if LHA can be paid and it can. He just needs to make a claim with the council as sadly the JCP don't administer LHA and so can misadvise. He should contact the council without delay and if he has claimed JSA in the last calendar month, he should be able to get the start date taken back a little

Jowo_2

Vader123 wrote: »

Oh yes there is! Its much more than a courtesy.

Some buildings insurance is invalid if the tenant is claiming LHA/HB. Plus some BTL (buy to let) mortgage prohibit LHA/HB tenants.

Vader

I know but that's the landlords problem and as far as I can tell, there's no requirement in law that obliges a tenant to inform the landlord of a change in their economic status.

terryw

Jowo wrote: »

I know but that's the landlords problem and as far as I can tell, there's no requirement in law that obliges a tenant to inform the landlord of a change in their economic status.

Unless it it is a condition of the tenancy contract which would be a civil matter between the landlord and the tenant. But a bit unfair on the landlord who might have their insurance voided because he did not know that the tenant was on LHA simply because the tenant had not so advised.

j-josie

Thanks very much for all your replies.
Jowo, I'm not sure if there are 4 or 5; I may have got it wrong.

xxMessedUpxx; I'm glad to hear you got LHA; there is maybe hope that DD's boyfriend can claim too, then.

Fluffymovie (what a name:p); I will pass details on and let him make the necessary contact

Thanks to you all