Paid rent in advance, am I entitled to HB/LHA

chr3is

Hi,

I'm a part time student, living alone, in order to be allowed to rent the property I live in I had to pay alll the rent in advance, I borrowed this money off my parents. This is a loan, not a gift, they expect me to get a job to repay them which I intend to do. However, at present I am unemployed, I am aware that if I was in the same situation but had not paid the rent in advance I would be entitled to LHA equivalent to that of a shared room as I am under 25 and living alone. My question therefore, is does me having paid the rent in advance affect any claim I may make?

Also, if I have a tenancy agreement and utility bills to prove how much rent I pay and that I am the sole occupier does my landlord need to be informed that I am on LHA? Afterall he has already been paid...

Furthermore, do I even need to inform the Council that I have paid 6 months rent in advance, if they do not contact the Landlord directly surely they would not find out... i would not be doing anything wrong, just claiming what i am entitled to, and the landlord would be happy that he has already been paid his rent in advance and I would be able to repay my parents loan

Ideally i would be up front and honest with both parties but I could not find any lanlords willing to accept someone who would immediately take a DSS tennant and therfore paying rent in advance was the only way I could secure a property

Thanks for reading and any replies

Jowo_2

No, the landlord is not contacted by the council about LHA which is paid directly to a tenant. However, he may not thank you for it if he later finds out since some buy to let mortgages and insurance have clauses which do not authorise them to rent to benefit claimants.

As far as I'm aware, your payment in advance to the landlord is not relevant and will not affect receipt of LHA which will be restricted to the shared room rate is you are under 25. How do you plan to meet the shortfall between the rent due and LHA received, plus the repayment of 6 months rent to your parents!? And what is this shortfall and how much do you owe your parents? The LHA direct website and Entitled to (turn 2 us) website will help with your calculations.

Quite why a landlord would rent a self-contained property to a tenant without any demonstrable income is beyond me. Also, why a tenant of this age/income would rent a property that they cannot afford from earned income or benefits, plus saddle themselves with massive debts to do this. Someone on JSA of £65 will struggle with the bills in a self-contained property. Why didn't you find a room in a shared house whose expenses would be much more manageable?

Robbie64

Payment in advance of rent will not affect any entitlement to LHA. A number of landlords insist on being paid 6 months in advance before taking a tenant on benefit so don't worry, you can claim LHA.

However, as has been pointed out, as you are aged under 25 you will only qualify for the "1 bedroom with shared facilities" rate of LHA, which is likely to be nowhere near what you would need to pay back your parents.

Your LHA amount can be found at https://lha-direct.voa.gov.uk/Secure/LHARateSearch.aspx?SearchType=PostCode

chr3is

Thanks for the quick replies, if the up front payment is not relevant is there any point in mentioning it to the Council when applying for LHA? If i didn't and somehow they later found out would it count against me in any way?

To try and answer your questions I'm aware I only qualify for shared room status which is equivalent to roughly 60 pounds a week, my actual rent is 75 pounds a week, so a shortfall of 390 pounds over the 6 month contract i believe. The decision to rent a self contained property as opposed to a shared one was down to personal reasons i'd rather not discuss and because the difference in rent is relatively small (below 10 pounds a week), i'm lucky that my parents were happy to make up the shortfall until I find employment on the basis I repay them the 60 pounds a week using the LHA and then the full amount when I begin work. Although this is a debt, it is one i am lucky enough not to have to pay interest on, and one I do not have to repay within a set time so i'm not really 'saddled with massive debt.'

I'm obviously entitled to jobseekers allowance as well, this is roughly 52 pounds a week and will cover utilities, plus my grandparents send me a little money every month which covers food, I might not be able to do much outside of study but I wont be saddled with debt, and ideally this will only be a very temporary situation.

I have already lived alone for 6 months when I was working (different city/different uni) so I am aware of how much I spend on utilities/food so I know it is possible for me to live without incurring much debt (essentially the most I should owe at the end of 6 months if I dont find work is 390 pounds to my parents). This is not an ideal situation but due to switching uni's to complete a masters i have had to move cities and I don't wish to go back to halls as a postgraduate, plus there is no difference between them and shared accommodation in the private sector. I have no desire to live off benefits/my parents for the entirety of the course but having only recently moved to a new city it is the only option that is available to me at the moment, hopefuly in a month or two this will not be the case.

Guess the landlord was happy to take me as hes getting all his money up front...

Hope that answers your questions

Robbie64

You don't need to mention anything about paying the rent upfront as it won't have any effect on any entitlement you have to LHA.