Checks needed for DSS / LHA tenant?

Reply to the comment left by "Robert Mellors" at "04/02/2015 - 14:48":

Hi Robert

Good points. I agree you are at the mercy of under trained council staff who simply do not know their own rules and regs or sometimes are so overwhelmed with their workload that they make basic mistakes. I`ve lost count of the times they have failed to carry out their statutory duty

When the new housing regs came in in 2011 my council was seemingly completely unaware of its contents and in fact denied their existence. . I cut and pasted the relevant regs from the goverment website to show them and they apologised and subsequently amended their forms as a result to include a new appropriate section pertaining to direct payment.

Partly because of these type of errors I keep an unconscious extra contingency fund to cope with the shortfall while they get their act sorted out.

On my AST I put.....

``This tenancy is only granted on the proviso that any LHA payments from the council to the tenant are made payable direct to the Landlord` Mr J. Clarke - Landlord I.D. *****. Without this the tenancy is invalid``

I`ve never tested it in court and I`m sure yes you would still need a court order so there is no way around that but in my view it forms part of the tenancy agreement to which the tenant signs up to. That means the council and the tenant has to take heed of it. It is the document that permits after all the council to pay rent to me in the first place. They cant I believe select just the part that suits them. If the council pays to the tenant by mistake or by design then they are permitting and instigating a deliberate breech of my AST and should be held to account

I accept that the invalidity aspect could be challenged by the tenant / council in court so i would be interested to see if there have been any test cases along the same lines.

As a side tangent...... The council once moved one of my LHA tenants into a safe house with 24hrs notice. She was suffering from serious domestic violence. Ive no problem of course with that from a safety angle but they didnt tell me and then cut the benefit dead. I challenged that and said they caused her to breech her tenancy agreement by not allowing her to give me the required months notice. It went to appeal I won and they gave me 4 weeks LHA even though she had left the property

Councils as I`m sure you are aware often act with an air of arrogance and a sense of impunity. I like to hold them to account where I can
.

The threads, as always, are interesting, but I have serious doubts about saying that a tenancy agreement that specifies that the rent should be paid direct to the landlord will succeed when universal credit is brought on board. One of the main differences, not under Universal Credit, but since LHA was introduced in 2007, was that neither a landlord or tenant had the right to ask for the rent to be paid direct. This will almost certainly be implemented in a much harder manner under UC. With the invalid tenancy agreement if rent is not paid direct, most landlords would expect some rent in advance from a new tenant, even the benefit dependent, and this in itself would establish a valid tenancy, I think. If no rent in advance is paid, then perhaps there is an argument that the tenant is living there illegally. Would this not require a notice to quit to end the occupation and then a Court order, should the tenant remain?

Reply to the comment left by "Sharon Betton" at "20/02/2015 - 12:25":

ive been reningt to the lha market for over 15 years and i have always had the rent paid direct to me , it will be the same when uc comes in ,its all about having the right stratergy and knowing the system

Tony, "what strategy, what systems are you proposing then?. Universal Credit - it's gonna give me nightmares, it already is!! It might even push me further away from HB tenants, I don't want to, BUT if I lose even one month's rent, then that's enough to strategise my way outta HB!!

Reply to the comment left by "AA Properties Wales " at "20/02/2015 - 21:46":

get your tennants to sign up to a credit union and have there benefit paid to it , also give them a section 21 and explain that you are safe guarding yourself agianst any non payment of rent , if they wont sign up to a credit union just get rid anyway and find someone who will .

Reply to the comment left by "Sharon Betton" at "20/02/2015 - 12:25":

My AST has worked for mje for the past 4 years backed by the local councils direct payment form section C and The amended government housing benefit regulations which came into force in 2011. Before that I had template docs to deal with vulnerability factors to enable direct payment. What happened in 2007 is in the history books now and long been superseded in my area by various regulation and local policy changes

As Tony rightly says you have to do your homework and understand the system .
I echo his responses .

On the horizon yes is UC
I too will use the local Credit Union. Some will be using other facilitators eg Tasker payments http://www.taskerpaymentservices.co.uk/about/

Problems will always arise and problems are solved .

LHA is a proven business model. If the figures work for you in your chosen investment area then one shouldn`t get unduly distracted or put off I believe by the everyday mechanics of it.
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Reply to the comment left by "AA Properties Wales " at "20/02/2015 - 21:46":

i have been told on good authority that u/credit wont efect any tennants that are already on lha benefits as long as they are on tax credits, esa , and living as a family unit etc untill at least 2018 (existing claimants}

Reply to the comment left by ameliahartman at 05/06/2019 - 05:37
`` Babies under the age of 3 are not automatically entitled to their own room``

Where is the legislation that states that please? Mine are all paid on the day of birth . In several circumstances they also pay whilst in the 7/8/9th month of pregnancy

Here is an offical calculator of room entitlement: https://lha-direct.voa.gov.uk/bedroomcalculator.aspx