Housing Benefits and Tenant's Contribution

[nmac]

Hi

I am a new landlord and have a query regarding housing benefit and the Tenant's monthly contribution.

The rent is £475 per month. The Tenant is in receipt of Housing Benefit per week of £46.15, which is paid directly to me on a 4-weekly basis.

The Tenant is therefore required to pay a contribution per month. Is there standard practice on how to deal with this scenario i.e. how much should the Tenant pay each month?

My thoughts are as follows:

6-months' rent = £2850

6-months' benefit = £1199.90

6-months' Tenant Contribution = £1650.10

Therefore, Tenant's monthly payment is £275.01.

Am I falling foul of any standard practice if rent is calculated as above? Many thanks.

Regards

Neil

[snorkerz]

Your methodology seems fine. It is of no relevance, but may I ask how come the housing benefit is being paid directly to you?

[Carryon Regardless]

Even if the under 35 rule applies to this T the HB seems low if only by a few quids ??

But how are you expecting the T to find the £63.47pw shortfall ?

[nmac]

Thanks for your replies.

The Housing Benefit is being paid directly to me because the Tenant asked for it to be.

COR, your question is interesting and quite timely. The Tenant was expecting the HB to be in the region of £85 per week; as this is what he received on his previous property. It was a shock to him (and me) when the council said it was only going to be £46.15 per week. In short, the Tenant can't afford the shortfall and isn't paying the rent. So, I am left with no alternative but to seek possession. As a newbie to all of this, I now realise that I should have had an understanding of the HB rules as it would have been blatantly obvious from the start that the property was unaffordable for him. I'll put this one down to experience and try better next time!

Regards

N.

[Carryon Regardless]

I'm no expert on HB, let's face it to be an expert on anything these days seems to require almost daily updates.

However since April I believe the under 35 singles are considered to be ok to share accom and therefore only are entitled to the share a room allowance. I thought this was set to £55pw, does this vary across regions ?

Aside from being able to get a pre rent assessment to forewarn that as LL you aint gonna get the expected rent there may be some appeal that could see you reducing your future losses a little till repossession ?? This though is for the T to do.

As it stands you have approx 2 months (depends on current balance, contractual rent 'due' dates and HB payment dates) of no shortfall payment before you can go for repossession on a S8. Then of course Court lead times and then the period of 'notice' applied by Mr Judge. You will be lucky to see repossession in 3 months.

This of course is preferable to going for repossession by S21 at the end of the fixed term as it sounds like this is a new tenancy.

I haven't repossessed by this route but if correct the rental balance at time of application and hearing needs to be in excess of 2 months rent. For this you have to be careful that a HB payment of £184.6 doesn't dip the balance below the £950 at a crucial point or you waste you time and application costs.

[snorkerz]

there may be some appeal that could see you reducing your future losses a little till repossession ??

T could apply for a discretionary housing payment from the local authority. Obviously, it is discretionary but at the start of the new financial year there should be plenty of money in the budget!