landlords and housing benefit

robwend

hello me lovlies, need to pick your brain <ive also posted this in buying and renting>

anyone thats read my threads before know that im getting divorced. ive two children and work,im having to give up my home and go into rental. now for the first 6months il be paying out of my equity for the rent , but will soon after will
run out of finance, i dont earn enough to cover the rents around here and my wage isnt enough to even cover the rent, hence housing benefit will come into play to subsidise,. now even though i work landlords are wary of touchin me.. i understand housing benifit is paid 4 weeks in arrears and im happy to pay that upfront so the landlord has no shortfalls, but what i want to know is does the landlord have to know im claiming?? as theres sucha stigma,do they have to sign something . or the letting agent to say im claiming? they always say what you dont know cant hurt? . any advise would be great xxxxx wendy

snails's_pace

hi robwend,

first of all go to http://www.entitledto.co.uk/

im unsure of landlords dss etc but i would have thought because your working and would be claiming part payment towards your rent in the future that it would go in your favour

good luck and sorry to hear about your divorce

mirrorimage0

im a landlord and i have a tenant in who gets housing benefit, now the housing benefit gets paid straight to me so yes the landlord would know as they wont give it to you as far as i know and the reason why landlords are wary is because it actually takes the council about 4 months to get it all sorted and start paying it so its not always a stigma against the tenants its against the housing people but as i knew the girl who wanted to rent and i knew her family were going to pay the rent until it was all sorted and backdated then i refunded them what they had paid.

robwend

well il be able to do the same. im happy to cough up out of savings till its sorted, i understand this new law is comming in place< Local Housing Allowance > on the 7th april and wondered if this makes a diffrence

dmg24

HB (or LHA as it will be by the time you claim) may be paid directly to the tenant. Therefore the landlord does not need to know x

(cross posted!)

Chezza71

I claimed HB for a while and told my letting agent. They said as long as they got the rent in full and on time they didn't care where it came from!

getting-sorted-sarah

Yes you can claim Housing Benefit without the landlord knowing (make sure you don't sign the part of the form asking for the money to be paid straight to them, it is easy to do this by mistake on auto-pilot!

However, an agency and probably private landlords will want to know your income and have a reference from your employer confirming your salary - if this looks like not enough to pay your rent as well as living expenses they may not want to rent to you as they'll be worried you won't get HB and you will default. In this case it is best to be up front and explain the situation, if you can get someone (a parent?) to guarantee you this solves the problem, but if not you may need to pay extra in the way of a deposit or come to some other arrangement like more rent upfront.

Also, it is a good idea to contact the Housing Dept of your local council before you take on a rent, what may seem like reasonable rent to you may not to them, and they can cap the amount of your rent that they will use for their calculation, according to what they think you should be paying, leaving you with a shortfall.

robwend

dmg24 wrote: »

HB (or LHA as it will be by the time you claim) may be paid directly to the tenant. Therefore the landlord does not need to know x

(cross posted!)

so the fact i can pay myself for the first 6 months do i keep quiet? i worry il be made to move on again with the kids and dont think i could cope emotionally with that. wont someone from the lettings agent of landlord have to sign something though? . i mean i could be living anywhere for all they know??

getting-sorted-sarah

mirrorimage0 wrote: »

im a landlord and i have a tenant in who gets housing benefit, now the housing benefit gets paid straight to me so yes the landlord would know as they wont give it to you as far as i know and the reason why landlords are wary is because it actually takes the council about 4 months to get it all sorted and start paying it so its not always a stigma against the tenants its against the housing people but as i knew the girl who wanted to rent and i knew her family were going to pay the rent until it was all sorted and backdated then i refunded them what they had paid.

Not all councils take this long - this really varies, some are on top of it, some aren't. Some will backdate, some won't. My advice is to claim the second that you get the keys in your hand, don't wait.

robwend

getting-sorted-sarah wrote: »

Also, it is a good idea to contact the Housing Dept of your local council before you take on a rent, what may seem like reasonable rent to you may not to them, and they can cap the amount of your rent that they will use for their calculation, according to what they think you should be paying, leaving you with a shortfall.

i will have a shortfall of about 250 a month, but i pay 300 a month at the moment with half my mortgage so in same boat really

robwend

getting-sorted-sarah wrote: »

Not all councils take this long - this really varies, some are on top of it, some aren't. Some will backdate, some won't. My advice is to claim the second that you get the keys in your hand, don't wait.

i cant claim till my equity runs out,, hence why im asking do i keep my mouth shut