Buy-to let mortgage - tenant coming off Housing Benefit

Essex_Maid

My OH has a flat, the tenant was on HB etc. Tenant has now found a job. The Housing benefit is paid a month in arrears. When tenant told HB that he had a job, and what would happen re the rent -they advised it would be paid in April. BUT, of course, the payment for April will the the rent for March. So far OH has not been able to get a straight answer from HB office, as to whether they will actually pay the rent for April - eg it comes through in May.

Tenant, will have to work for a month before he gets paid. He has been a good tenant, so want to assist him. But of course OH still has to pay the mortgage for April. So any advice would be appreciated. Not sure if this is the right board to post this on.

sashacat

when this happened to me some years ago the housing benefit stopped from the date the job started, and my tenant just had to find the months rent for me.

silvercar

Tenant is going to take a few weeks to adjust to new pay being in arrears.

You are going to have to discuss with the tenant how they will make up the missing rent. It may be that you have to agree to a payment schedule stretching over 4-6 months. Not ideal, as the mortgage still needs to be paid, but if the tenant doesn't have the money I don't know what else you can suggest.

Of course ideally the rent should be paid in advance. It seems that you have allowed the rent to be paid in arrears as you are receiving the payment direct from HB. It may be too much to try and tackle this at the same time.