Can L make Council pay LHA/HB direct on account of rent?

[Michael Clayton]

A discretionary housing payment can be paid if the council believes that a tenant needs further help with housing costs. This may include help with paying off arrears in some circumstances, although not if the tenant was receiving enough housing benefit to pay all rent at the time the arrears built up.

Each housing benefit department is given a pot of money and they are allowed to decide who should be given the payments.

The housing benefit department will usually take into account any special circumstances that contribute to financial difficulties, for example, if a tenant :

has to pay child maintenance
has to pay legal costs
has extra heating costs because they spend a lot of time at home
because they are sick or have a disability
has additional travel costs because of travel to a doctor or hospital or cares for a relative or friend.


Discretionary Housing Payment is only available on application to the local authority.

[tom999]

LHA: tenant 8 weeks in arrrears

Hi all,

Couple of quick questions to the experts please:

1. Are the 8 weeks in arrears based on
(a) the local authority's (LHA) rates, or
(b) the rent stated on the tenancy agreement (AST)?

2 If the local authority paid 4 weeks in arrears, does this mean that the 8 week mandatory rule would only be effective if tenant had 12 weeks of arrears?

Thanks.

[Emma1973]

It is rent arrears equivalant to 8 weeks rent or more, therefore it is rent arrears as per the tenancy agreement.

[tom999]

Thanks Emma,

That's what I would have thought, however, I spoke to a housing officer and he said it was 8 weeks in arrears according to the LHA rate.

Could it be that the housing officer does not know the rules - and needs to be reminded of local authority's obligations?

[Emma1973]

A HO that isnt aware of the rules? I'm shocked!

Tell him to go look on his own Council website to see the rules!

Its 8 weeks eligible rent as per the tenancy agreement, its exactly the same as under the old HB rules.
I'm also interested as to how they would manage to base it on the LHA rates, if rent was £100 a week, after 8 weeks the arrears would be £800, but if the LHA is only £50 after 8 weeks the arrears would be £400, so are they saying it would be another 2 months before the arrears could be paid to you?
Absolute nonsense!

And this from Councils who automatically issue Notice of Possession Orders if no rent for 8 weeks!

[tom999]

Rent Arrears and Housing Officer's

The HO's that I have come across are unsympathetic to LL's plight of rent arrears. Unfortunately, some will just see their employment by the local council, as 'just doing their job', and do not know the rules!

But, there are a few who do know their stuff - I spoke to a helpful HO yesterday - he will be sending form to tenant for direct payment to LL.

As has been mentioned elsewhere, its important for the LL to be pro-active and take action in weeks 1-8 of rent arrears to inform the council of ANY rent arrears (with evidence of non-payment) and remind them that their decision to continue paying a tenant who is pocketing HB and not paying rent with it is plainly negligence.

[susanne]

i recently contacted a council with egard to a LHA tenant who is 8 weeks in arrears, i sent a schedule of rent due/rent paid/date paid/ number of days late ij paying and asked for direct payment from x date. From the schedule they could see she was consistently late by several weeks.

a week later i sent another schedule showing increased arrears.

they then wrote to tenant who could not prove she had paid and teh coundil has agreed to pay me direct

[tom999]

As proof of non-payment, its also useful to include bank account statements (if rent is paid via standing order into LL's bank account).

Sometimes council's have an unfortunate habit of 'losing paperwork' in the post , so as a backup FAX the documents as well. If its urgent, you could ask for an appointment to see a Housing Officer in person.

[Moderator1]

Four threads by the same member have been merged here. Please do not start a new thread if you merely wish to continue a previous discussion or report on subsequent developments. It can cause unnecessary confusion (quite apart from losing the connection with facts previously established or legal points previously explained).