Think my mother is being overcharged rent.

Rory96 · 18 November 2018 at 6:25AM

Hi I’ve been checking through my mothers finances she’s severely disabled and has mental health problems, she privately rents a flat in London and the rent is £884.22 per calendar month. She receives housing benefit in the amount of £198.11 per week. So the landlord receives currently the housing benefit directly to his account and he pesters my mother for the short fall of supposedly £100 pcm but I’ve worked out his rent times by the number of months in the year then divide it by the number of weeks and it’s come back at £204.05 per week. Leaving a short fall of 5.94 per week so surely she should be paying £25 a month max? Please any advice or help would be appreciated 🙈

Craig1981 · 18 November 2018 at 7:31AM

Housing benefit is usually paid 2 weekly or 4 weekly in arrears.

the calculation you have is accurate, as he would receive £792.44 every 4 weeks, but get 13 payments every year. Amazing how many people dont understand this 4 weekly is not monthly, like you have rightly calculated

best thing to do, is to get the HB paid to your mum direct, and have a standing order monthly to be sent to her landlord for the monthly rent from her account... if not, you need to speak to the landlord and explain how the rent is paid and what this equates to
another option, which i have seen only done once before, is to have the council pay monthly amounts instead of every 4 weeks (but this may be difficult to get into place)

has your mum been paying the £100pcm? for how long? could be that she has overpaid rent!

theartfullodger · 18 November 2018 at 11:11AM

(She should sign a letter - calm & polite - ) pointing this out and asking for a "rent statement" of rent due & payments made.

But do your own calculations - if you have all the info - and work out what you think he owes her.

However, beware, thanks to Thatcher's 1988 Housing Act a private landlord can evict a tenant for no reason at all.

Given her circumstances she might get priority on local council housing register and get a council/housing-association flat quicker than you might expect. Read HER council "housing allocation policy" (or similar name) and see. It will be cheaper & more rights to stay, probably.

Good luck!

silvercar · 18 November 2018 at 2:51PM

I think your problem is that the landlord and tenant have signed an agreement that the tenant will pay monthly. So the landlord doesn't have to fit in with the 4 weekly payments by the council. Your landlord is seeing one payment of £198.11 x 4 and calculating the top up against that. Come month 12 when two payments are made then the rent account will be in credit and the top up payments can stop.

Either you need to persuade the landlord to accept 13 smaller payments rather than 12 or you need to top up a larger amount until the extra payment arrives.

Rory96 · 19 November 2018 at 3:53AM

She’s been paying £100 a month since January 2017 &#55357;&#56876;&#55357;&#56876; so he’s had more than the rent out of her. Wrote a letter to him explaining that i have been looking into her finances and that she is paying may more than the agreed rent and offered him several options. Hopefully he leaves it because at the end of the day the way I see it is he’s taking advantage of a vulnerable person, she’s had bailiffs around due to falling behind on council tax while paying this awful landlord over the odds &#55357;&#56876;.

Thanks for the advice!

silvercar · 19 November 2018 at 10:20AM

Just ask for a rent statement. That should show the 13 payments being made each year and the top ups......and hopefully a balance well in credit.

stator · 19 November 2018 at 10:27AM

Don't be too agressive with the landlord if your mother doesn't have a secure tenancy.

Comms69 · 19 November 2018 at 10:48AM

Why is there an issue with council tax? Why is LL paying it?

trevormax · 19 November 2018 at 11:28AM

If she has been paying £100/month since January 2017, and assuming there have been no breaks in payments or missing payments from her or the housing benefit office she has overpaid rent as follows (note, this is napkin math so may be a bit off):

Rent due - £884.22 * 24 months = £21,221.28
Housing Benefit paid - £198.11 * 104 weeks = £20,603.44
Top-up payments - £100.00 * 24 months = £2,400
Total payments received by LL - £23,003.44

Rent paid £23,003.44 - Rent due £21,221.28

= £1,782.16 overpaid

Once the LL accepts this overpayment, they can be given options on how to repay it. It is basically just over two months rent overpaid, or just about 6 years of top/up rent payments (approx £25/month), so perhaps you can offer the LL the choice of how they pay this back. If your mother is likely to live there for a long time, the top/up payment option may be easiest for her and the LL.

danlewi2 · 19 November 2018 at 11:50AM

Comms69 wrote: »

Why is there an issue with council tax? Why is LL paying it?

Think the OP is saying the tenant is struggling to pay it due to overpaying the rent.

Comms69 · 19 November 2018 at 12:23PM

danlewi2 wrote: »

Think the OP is saying the tenant is struggling to pay it due to overpaying the rent.

Oh I see, yes that makes sense.

PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING

Think my mother is being overcharged rent.

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free