Landlord Information
Advice for Landlords about Housing Benefit
Housing Benefit is an allowance to help people with their
housing costs. It is not a payment of rent and will not
necessarily cover the full amount of the rent. It is worked
out on the personal circumstances of a tenant and therefore may
vary with each one. It is paid by the local council.
As a landlord, you are important to us. We aim to work with you
to ensure you receive payment of benefit promptly and that
overpayments are minimised.
Who can claim?
Anyone who has to pay rent for their home can claim. It does not
matter whether their landlord is the council, a housing association
or a private individual or company, they can still claim.
Boarders, lodgers and people in hostels and bed-and-breakfast
accommodation can also claim.
However, we do not normally pay housing benefit to a tenant who
is living with a member of their immediate family and paying them
rent.
Your tenant should claim as soon as possible. If they
delay in claiming they may lose benefit. Please download an
application form from the Related Documents section at the bottom
of the page.
How is benefit paid?
The payment will normally be made to your tenant. Payment
is not normally made to the landlord. If your tenant does not
already have a bank or building society account you may want to
help them set one up. Help and advice can be obtained from the
Financial Services Authority. Please see the Related Links
section at the bottom of the page for more information.
Any direct payment made to a landlord will be paid every 4 weeks
in arrears. Payments made to your tenants will be paid every 2
weeks in arrears.
We prefer to make payments direct to your bank account (BACS)
and this method of payment can provide many advantages:
- Payment is direct to you and therefore eliminates the
possibility of payments being delayed or lost in the post
- The payment is treated as cleared funds allowing you earlier
access to the money
- It also saves you time and trouble by not paying the benefit
cheques into your bank account and the payment is now automatically
transferred
From the 7 April 2008 we can only pay the landlord directly
if:
- The tenant has left the property owing rent arrears (this is
limited to the amount of any arrears)
- The tenant has arrears the equivalent of 8 weeks rent or
more
- An amount of Income Support or Job Seekers Allowance is being
paid direct to a landlord to meet arrears of rent
- The tenant is considered unable to manage their financial
affairs
- The tenant is considered unlikely to pay their rent
An application for direct payments can be made by either the
claimant, their landlord or a third party.
Sharing Information
Sometimes, sharing information with you helps us to deal with
your tenant's claim quickly. It may also reduce the risk of your
tenant falling behind with their rent because their claim is
delayed. We can share information with you only if your tenant has
agreed.
Under the Data Protection Act we need the tenant's permission to
share information.
For us to share information with you, your tenant needs to give
us written permission by ticking a box on the claim form or giving
us a permission letter.
Overpayments of Housing Benefit - Advice for landlords
An overpayment of housing benefit occurs when your tenant's
circumstances have changed and there is a delay in telling us. If
they are entitled to less benefit as a result of the change they
will need to repay the amount that they have been paid but are no
longer entitled to.
If you receive housing benefit directly in respect of your
tenant then you will both be notified of any overpayments that
occur as they may be legally recoverable from either of you.
If your tenant has an overpayment that they have to repay then
we may recover this from their ongoing housing benefit
payments.
If benefit is paid directly to you then we will tell you how
much will be deducted from the benefit that we send. Your tenant
will have to make up these payments to you themselves. The amount
taken from your tenant's benefit will vary according to their
individual circumstances.
If you have been overpaid, for example if you fail to tell us
that your tenant has moved out, then we will notify you of the
overpayment and your appeal rights.
If you think our decision is wrong
A landlord can appeal only against the following decisions:
- whether or not to pay you direct
- the reason for overpaid housing benefit
- whether the overpayment is legally recoverable from you
If you think that we should recover an overpayment from your
tenant instead of you, you can write to us giving your reasons why
and we will review our decision about who to recover from.
Landlords Forum
Rochford Council also holds a Landlords Forum meeting every six
months. This meeting is open to all landlords to attend and
gives you the opportunity to ask us any questions or raise any
issues that you may have. There are also presentations held
on various subjects that may be of interest to you.
Please see the Related Documents section below for the minutes
from the last meeting.