Landlord advice

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Landlord advice

Landlord legal requirements

To be a landlord, you must register.

If three or more unrelated people are to rent your property, you'll usually need a Multiple Occupation (HMO) licence.

Change of circumstances

It's your duty to report any changes in your tenant's circumstances that could affect their entitlement to Housing Benefit.

Our data protection duties

Due to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) we have a duty of confidentiality. We have a limit to the information we can share to you. We will aim to provide you with the best information possible.

We can give landlords the following information:

confirmation that payment of Housing Benefit is to be made to the landlord
the timing and amount of the Housing Benefit payment
details of a recoverable overpayment

Local Housing Allowance (LHA)

Local Housing Allowance is used to calculate Housing Benefit for people on a low income. The benefit is for those who rent from a private landlord and do not receive Universal Credit. The Chartered Institute of Housing provides guidance for landlords.

Why is Housing Benefit paid directly to the tenant?

Housing Benefit for private tenants is paid directly to a tenant. This gives the tenant a choice about where they live. It also makes them take responsibility for paying their rent.

Direct payment to landlord

Housing Benefit is only paid to private landlords directly in special circumstances, for example, if a tenant has rent arrears of eight weeks or more.

Other instances when Housing Benefit might be paid direct to a landlord are when:

a tenant has moved out of your property without paying the final instalment of rent because they haven't yet received their housing benefit payment
a tenant was previously paying their rent using Housing Benefit directly to you because for example, they had been in eight weeks of arrears - for convenience, this payment method may then continue
a tenant is vulnerable or has difficulty managing their financial affairs
it's improbable the tenant will pay their rent

In the instance of tenant's death:

If a tenant dies who has previously paid part or all of their rent using Housing Benefit, the landlord must inform the Benefits Service in writing. On receipt of this information we'll pay any outstanding Housing Benefit directly to you.

For more information, see Universal Credit and rented housing: guide for landlords from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Overpayment advice

If a tenant is paid more Housing Benefit than entitled to, we'll seek to recover the amount overpaid.

We may recover overpayments of benefit from landlords when the overpayment was:

made because the landlord misrepresented themselves or failed to declare a material fact. For example a change in the tenant's circumstances that they were aware of
caused by an 'official error' but it's reasonable to expect the landlord would have known that a mistake was made

If neither of these points apply, we can recover the overpayment from either the claimant or the landlord.

How we recover overpayments

We recover overpayment from landlords by reducing their next payment of housing benefit.

If a landlord has no other tenants receiving housing benefit, we'll send an invoice for the extra amount paid.

Non recoverable overpayments

Some overpayments are classified as non-recoverable.

We cannot recover an overpayment from a landlord when all the following criteria are met:

the landlord notified the Benefits Service or the DWP in writing that they suspected there has been an overpayment
the overpayment didn't occur through a change of address
the overpayment wasn't caused fraudulently or dishonestly
the landlord didn't collude or act to cause the overpayment