What steps to follow for a new Housing Benefit tenant?

Reply to the comment left by "Joel Hearne" at "13/11/2015 - 18:57":

Hi Joel

It is not all "bad", you just have to know what you're doing and realise that it is potentially more hard work to manage the tenancy, and also much higher risk. There are ways to reduce the risk, e.g. as per my suggestions above, but these can take up a lot of your time and give you extra hassle, and the risk is only reduced, not removed.

On the positive side, if you can get great tenants on benefits, and there are no problems or complications with the HB claim/entitlements, then the tenant may be with you very long term so this would reduce your void periods and re-letting costs. One of my benefit tenants has been with me since 1998, BUT even in this instance the HB Dept messed up his HB claim after about 18 months and tried to recover about £1200 in HB overpayments, but when I analysed everything (including getting copies of his original HB claim form) I found that the HB Dept had missed a whole page of his claim and that page contained information that meant that the HB Dept had not overpaid him by £1200 as they were claiming, in fact they had underpaid him by about £400. We got this settled in the end but it took a further 6 months of arguing with the Council before they put this right. - Not had a problem with his HB claim since then though!!

Reply to the comment left by "Robert Mellors" at "13/11/2015 - 19:21":

I must say I like the long term part of having a tenant in my property for years and in some ways if this market is harder to deal with as many landlords do have this stigma with it, i'm sure some really fabulous tenants can be found. I guess it just comes down to figuring the system out and gaining experience and your info has been very valuable . I will press ahead and try my luck and take the best comon sense precautions I can too.

Thanks and all the best

Hi Joe, please remember that the initial claimants contract regarding Housing Benefit is purely between the Local Authority and the themselves. you have a seperate contract with the tenant via the Tenancy Agreement but not the Local Authority. so if the tenant is given the rent and spends it on other things although its meant for you there is not a lot you can do until 8 weeks rent is missed when you can apply to the council, Also if you get payments made direct to you from the outset ,then the tenant goes to the council offices and request the payments be changed to him ,it appears they have to comply with his wishes as it is his benefit. many will claim that if the rent is not passed to you then it is THEFT as the payment would only be granted if the Landlord issues a TENANCY AGREEMENT.I tend to agree but i believe the wording in the legislation is that the rent SHOULD be passed to the Landlord rather than WILL . I have had many instances where rent gets suspended for the slightest change in circumstances and you just have to establish via talking to the officials what information is needed to un suspend the claim.people say to me to stay away from L.H.A. ,but i also have heard many stories of WORKERS not paying their rent ,so it really comes down to your diligence and a smittering of LUCK

Reply to the comment left by "Graham Durkin" at "15/11/2015 - 14:36":

This is true, unless there is a clause in the tenancy agreement specifying that Housing Benefit has to be paid direct to the landlord and that the tenancy is only granted on this basis. In such circumstances the HB dept should pay the HB direct to the landlord from day 1 (not wait until after 8 weeks rent arrears have accrued). To be on the safe side, the landlord could specify that 2 months rent in advance is payable at the start of the tenancy (but as genuine rent in advance, NOT a deposit in disguise), and this would mean that the tenant already meets the 8 weeks/2 months arrears criteria, so again the HB dept should make HB payments direct to the landlord from the start of the tenancy.

It is very true that there are many cases where workers do not pay their rent. I find that residents/tenants gaining employment is often the cause of rent arrears (and eventually eviction) as they choose to spend their wages on other things instead of paying their rent. Whereas when they were on Housing Benefit the HB went direct to the landlord so they did not have the ability to spend it. This is particularly the case with low skilled/poorly educated workers who are forced by the Jobcentre to accept a zero hours contract with an agency, and the employment agency then keeps changing their hours and thus making it virtually impossible for them to budget appropriately. - This is perhaps one of the biggest cause of rent arrears and evictions in my HMOs.

Reply to the comment left by "Robert Mellors" at "15/11/2015 - 15:30":

Hi Robert , I take the points on board that you have raised and i am not in the legal profession, so i cannot comment fully on the tenancy aspect of payment , but i have had this out several times now with the Council officials ,their contract is solely between them and the tenant , your contract is solely with the tenant ,there is no contract between you and the Council even though its a recognised three way arrangement that cannot be completed without all parties.but i still believe they will take their lead from the tenant because that is where their contract is,unless he is 8 weeks in arrears they you can apply. When the dreaded UNIVERSAL CREDIT comes in all tenants will have the rent paid to them unless they are in the vulnerable category.So yet again Landlords can will have major problems collecting rent.

Reply to the comment left by "Graham Durkin" at "15/11/2015 - 14:36":

Hi Graham, yes thanks for pointing this out, I get what you mean and was aware that the tenancy is between me and the tenant and not with the council. I'm confident that if a good HB tenant is selected through going through many applications and sifting the right ones out through selection, face to face and visiting in their homes, it must be profitable and rewarding long term. A good sense of satisfaction too so I am going to try and focus in this area and see what I learn.