Increment in House Rent - Can our housing allowance can be increased

guysl80

Dear All,

I am presently living in a one bed room flat and the rent is £750. My contract will expire on end of January 2014 and today I received an email from the landlord that the rent will be increased to £800.

1) Can they increase the rent with such a short notice(1.5 months notice)?
2) We are a couple and baby and right now receiving some amount as I am working full time.
Our LHA rate is for 2 bedrooms = £224(£970 per month approx)
Since we are living in a One bed the housing benefit was calculated for the rent £750.

Do you think council will can help us with the increment of rent?

2) Can we call the council and inform them the situation so they can adjust the benefit amount? Since I will sign the new contract this week I can send the amended tenancy agreement to them next week.

3) Also I might start a part time job soon. If that is the case I think we will not receive the current child tax credit amount due to increase of income.

Since the housing benefit considered the child tax credit as an income, if we dont get any child tax credit, can we inform this to the council so they can consider the loss if income when they recalculate the housing benefit amount.


Thank you very much in advance

BigAunty

The housing benefit forum will have members there that will tell you the formal procedure that a landlord takes to notify of a rent increase.

Rent increases are irrelevant to LHA entitlement which has a maximum cap and is calculated on factors like the size of property the tenants are entitled to, the area it is in and then takes into account their income.

Tenants do not automatically qualify for extra LHA just because a landlord puts up the rent - LHA doesn't care what you pay, it only gives you what you are entitled to, whether or it matches the rent is up to the tenant to deal with. I hope I am making it clear that you would only get extra LHA because your increased rent is still below what you can qualify for, the actual fact that the rent is going up doesn't automatically mean that for all tenants, their LHA will be raised to match it.

The LHA rate is actually based on the number of bedrooms that are needed, not the size of the property occupied so as far as I know, its the 2 bed rate that you can get. If the LHA is less than the rent that you pay you must make up the shortfall. If your rent is less than the LHA that you could get, the most you will get will be your rent.

Use the Turn2us online benefit calculator to identify how your employment affects the LHA and child tax credits.

Caz3121

guysl80 wrote: »

Dear All,

I am presently living in a one bed room flat and the rent is £750. My contract will expire on end of January 2014 and today I received an email from the landlord that the rent will be increased to £800.

1) Can they increase the rent with such a short notice(1.5 months notice)?
as your contract ends in Jan 14, I am assuming they are informing you what the rent would be if you entered into a new contract

2) We are a couple and baby and right now receiving some amount as I am working full time.
Our LHA rate is for 2 bedrooms = £224(£970 per month approx)
Since we are living in a One bed the housing benefit was calculated for the rent £750.
Did you advise them when baby was born, they should have then based the calculation on the 2 bedroom rate since then even though you are living in a one-bed. The benefit is based on the size property you need, not the size you live in with the exception being those that live in shared accommodation. So the rent will be based on the LHA or the actual rent - whichever is the lower - as your rent is lower than the LHA, that is the figure they will be using (not the one bedroom rate)

Do you think council will can help us with the increment of rent?

2) Can we call the council and inform them the situation so they can adjust the benefit amount? Since I will sign the new contract this week I can send the amended tenancy agreement to them next week.
You can check that your calculations are based on the 2 bedroom rate but is lower as your actual rent is lower
As your new rent will still be lower than the LHA they should change the calculations to base the rent as £800

3) Also I might start a part time job soon. If that is the case I think we will not receive the current child tax credit amount due to increase of income.
You are unlikely to see any change to the tax credits this year unless your income between now and April exceeds £5k more than last year for the household

Since the housing benefit considered the child tax credit as an income, if we dont get any child tax credit, can we inform this to the council so they can consider the loss if income when they recalculate the housing benefit amount.
As above you will likely have the same amount in tax credits plus you will also have your income so the housing benefit will likely reduce - assuming they are basing it on the correct calculations

some answers above

guysl80

Many thanks for the replies.