Housing Benefit for Landlords
If you are a landlord you can ask us to pay Housing Benefit directly to you where your tenant has rent arrears of 8 weeks or more.
You will need to put your request in writing and tell us exactly what period the rent arrears are for and how much they are. We will then suspend further Housing Benefit payments and write to your tenant and ask them for their comments. We will advise you and your tenant of our decision once we have all the facts available to us.
As part of our normal checking procedures we will occasionally visit everyone getting Housing Benefit.
Before we pay a landlord direct we have to be satisfied that the landlord is a “fit and proper person”. We do this by considering whether the landlord:
- Has previously been involved in fraudulent acts related to Housing Benefit
- Has habitually failed to report changes in tenants’ circumstances which they might reasonably be expected to know might affect entitlement, or
- Has habitually failed to repay overpayments which they have been properly notified about and any requests for a review of the matter has been properly undertaken or made available
What information can we give to landlords about claims?
It is important you understand it is the person who is claiming Housing Benefit who is responsible for providing the information that we need to deal with their claim and also for contacting us about their claim. We are unable to discuss Housing Benefit claims with you unless we have your tenant’s written consent to do so. They must sign the declaration on the claim form if they are happy for us to discuss their claim with you.
However, if Housing Benefit is paid (or will be paid) directly to you and you have signed the claim form to confirm that you understand your responsibilities, we can give you certain information about their claim without their consent.
The information we can give you in these circumstances is as follows:
- Details relating to payments that have or will be sent to you
- The period the payments are for
- Details about any overpayments that we ask you to repay
Where payments of Housing Benefit are made to you we will send you a notification letter, which will advise you:
- When payments will start and how much Housing Benefit the claimant is entitled to each week
- If their Housing Benefit entitlement Is suspended, changes or ends
- If we are deducting an amount from their on-going Housing Benefit entitlement in order to recover an overpayment
Landlord responsibilities when receiving direct payments
Where you receive direct payments of Housing Benefit you must let us know immediately if you are aware of any changes in the circumstances of any of your tenants that may affect their benefit entitlement. For example you need to let us know if your tenant moves out of the property even if they are still liable for the rent at the property.
If you are a private landlord from and your tenant made a new claim for Housing Benefit, changed their address or they have had a break break in their benefit entitlement of more than one week on or after the 7 April 2008 your tenants new claim for benefit will be subject to the Local Housing Allowance rules.
We expect you to make regular checks to confirm that your tenant is still living at the property where you are receiving Housing Benefit payments.
Housing Benefit is normally awarded up to the Sunday following the date your tenant moves out of the property, if their rent is expressed on a weekly basis.
Do I have to repay overpayments of Housing Benefit?
If you do not agree with our decision to ask you to repay an overpayment you can ask us to look at our decision again. Details will be provided on the overpayment notification letter that we send to you. It is important that you write to us within one calendar month of the date of the notification if you do not agree with our decision.
Where we consider that the overpayment has been caused by fraud and the landlord has not been involved in the fraud we will normally ask the claimant to repay the resulting overpayment.
How will your tenant's benefit be paid?
Leaflets
The following leaflets have been created as part of the National Leaflet Project, they give general advice and guidance about Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit.
They are available in 11 different languages and if you require any of these leaflest in Braille or Large Print please let the Benefit Section at East Hampshire know.
Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit - information for landlords and agents
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