Housing benefits query

pmlindyloo

fogartyblue. wrote: »

Because there are not exactly 4 weeks in every calender month, there will always be a under/over payment.

If using the above example and you charged £650 a calender month, some months £600 would be paid as HB and some would be £750.

The overall figure would be the same at the end of the year from the tenant's point of view.

If you think that the tenant would worry about that, why don't you charge £600 every 4 weeks and then there would be 13 payments in the year.

It is a good idea to keep the rent at the maximum rate (ie what the tenant can claim for). The only people that are gaining out of you is the Council to the tune of £3060 a year!!! You must be their best friend and benefactor.

This seems like a good idea.

I am not sure whether you will need to create a new tenancy agreement with the new rent on it (specifying the £150 every 4 weeks if this is what you decide to charge,)

From memory I believe your tenant is now on a rolling/periodic tenancy (month by month).

Go back to the Housing Forum and ask them what to do about raising the rent and creating a new tenancy agreement in order for the tenant to notify the council of the rent increase.

anguk

Speaking as a tenant I find it much easier if the rent is weekly (I think the council pay our rent directly to the landlord every 4 weeks?).

When our landlord put the rent up he gave us a new tenancy agreement with the new weekly rent rates and we just took it to the housing office and they adjusted our HB accordingly, it was very straightforward.

I would definitely speak to the council first to find out the maximum rate and then speak to your tenant so they don't panic when they get a new agreement with a higher weekly rent! They will probably want to check for themselves that their HB will still cover the rent because they are the ones who will be liable to pay any shortfall.

[Deleted User]

For the past year I have had my housing benefit paid Monthly. The rate is weekly rate X 52 /12 = and it is paid the first Monday following the end of the Month. Much easier to budget :-)

Dunroamin

If you don't want to lose your tenant I would suggest that you charge an amount below the maximum LHA rate as it's perfectly possible that rates could continue to fall.

fogartyblue.

Dunroamin wrote: »

If you don't want to lose your tenant I would suggest that you charge an amount below the maximum LHA rate as it's perfectly possible that rates could continue to fall.

Why? The landlord could reduce the rent accordingly.

What is the point in not charging the max as the tenant will not be paying it - just maximise the amount that they can get from the council.

Soapn

fogartyblue. wrote: »

Why? The landlord could reduce the rent accordingly.

What is the point in not charging the max as the tenant will not be paying it - just maximise the amount that they can get from the council.

local councils pay the housing benefit I believe, and that money comes from Council Tax payers, so yeh, the tenant won't be paying it, but people working for a living will be.

It's not a bottomless pit.

Hmm71

Deleted_User wrote: »

For the past year I have had my housing benefit paid Monthly. The rate is weekly rate X 52 /12 = and it is paid the first Monday following the end of the Month. Much easier to budget :-)

How did you get it paid that way JoanneNotts? My rent is paid calendar monthly but my LHA is paid every fortnight. It'd be so much easier if I could get the LHA paid monthly. Did you just ask the council to pay it like that?

fluffymovie

Hmm, my LA doesn't pay monthly and I only know of a very small number who do so might not be offered by your council.

With regards to the rent, we do pay landlords 4 weekly so it's great if they charge the rent this way but as the contract is between landlord and tenant, this isn't something HB will get involved in.

If your tenant has been on HB since pre April 08, they won't be on LHA and the rent will be referred to the Rent Officer so the council could only give you an indication of likely outcome.

When someone us on HB, the fair rent is set for a year so if their rent has been referred recently, even if you raise the rent, HB won't increase.

If the rent you charge is more than the HB, your tenant will have to pay the shortfall. If you don't ask for it, this could cause issues

Runningwithscissors

Back to the original query - if this is a long standing tenant, and he has had an ongoing HB claim for years, then his claim will not actually be assessed under the current LHA system. His rent will be re-assessed every 52 weeks by the Rent Officer, and his HB claim will be assessed against this, and NOT the LHA rate. IF there is a break in his claim and he makes a NEW HB claim, he will then be assessed under the LHA scheme.
You can increase the rent to any amount that you wish, but his rent will not be reassessed until the 52 weeks are up, unless it was a condition of the tenancy that his rent would increase, say, every year (which this is not as the rent hasn't increased for 10 years), or if substantial improvements had been made to the property (to warrant a rent increase). Even if this was the case and the rent was referred again to the Rent Service to be assessed, the decision could stay the same, or even decrease...
Your tenant needs to find out when his rent is referred to the Rent Officer, and confirm for definite that he is not on the LHA scheme (I am assuming that his HB claim has been continous for years).

lilymay1

Runningwithscissors wrote: »

Back to the original query - if this is a long standing tenant, and he has had an ongoing HB claim for years, then his claim will not actually be assessed under the current LHA system. His rent will be re-assessed every 52 weeks by the Rent Officer, and his HB claim will be assessed against this, and NOT the LHA rate. IF there is a break in his claim and he makes a NEW HB claim, he will then be assessed under the LHA scheme.
You can increase the rent to any amount that you wish, but his rent will not be reassessed until the 52 weeks are up, unless it was a condition of the tenancy that his rent would increase, say, every year (which this is not as the rent hasn't increased for 10 years), or if substantial improvements had been made to the property (to warrant a rent increase). Even if this was the case and the rent was referred again to the Rent Service to be assessed, the decision could stay the same, or even decrease...
Your tenant needs to find out when his rent is referred to the Rent Officer, and confirm for definite that he is not on the LHA scheme (I am assuming that his HB claim has been continous for years).

Is this to stop landlords doing exactly what the OP is proposing? Upping a long term rent to the same as, or just below, what HB will pay?