Local Housing Allowance

[tsuti]

I am a landlord with 1x3 bed house with a longterm dss tennant. How can i get my payments changed to the new Local Housing Allowance system. As I understand it I require A week break in My tennants claim. If I was paid for a 3 bed house under the L H A system I would receive a much higher rent than i get now and because they are a big family I would receive even more based on what rooms they req under the new rules. How do I get a break in their claim without saying they have moved out and then back in again. Thanks.

[J4L]

Bit of an awkward one here tsuti because Local Councils are very aware that many Landlords have attempted to do this and are on the look out for it.

Effectively you are correct in that the Tenant needs to stop their claim for 7 days and then start a fresh claim.

Problem you 'may' have is that if the claim has been 'assessed' within the last 12 months by the department then they won't reassess it until the anniversary of the old assessment.

I think that if a Tenant stops claiming they may have to forfeit all their benefits for the 7 days thus leaving them well out of pocket. You could do a deal with them to reimburse this loss but then find you won't get a reaasessment for some months and find yourself way out of pocket.

The only real way to get more money out of your property is to serve notice, move them out and then readvertise at the new price, this of course if you can do this to the tenant.

I'd be tempted to just inform the Tenant that the rent is going up and take your chances that they don't get the Rent Assessment Committee involved and/or hope that the claim hasn't been reassessed recently.

Obviously this has all to do with the HB and payments form them. You can increase the rent, HB won't pay any more for the time being (as above) but the Tenant is left with the responsibility of paying extra top up.

[meagain]

Instead of a break in the claim, increase the rent and ask your tenant to apply for a HB discretionary top up payment.