“I was getting the rent every month without fail from the Housing Benefit Office, then suddenly it stopped.”
Are you a landlord? Is that a familiar story to you?
If so, it may be that you are experiencing the unintended side-effects of a recent change in local government practice.
A number of local authorities have now, as a general rule, begun making payments of housing benefit direct to the tenant, rather than to the landlord; and unless rent is at least two months in arrears, some are refusing to reinstate direct-to-landlord payment.
Unfortunately, no-one may tell the landlords about this in advance. From the landlord’s point of view, payment has simply stopped
This is a change which was intended to allow the tenant to take responsibility for their own rental payment. The unintended consequence is that if the tenant receives the payment and fails to pass it on, the landlord can be left without income and without explanation.
What can the landlord do? Firstly, if there is a reasonable chance that this is the situation, the landlord should contact the Housing Benefit Office and alert them to the situation.
If the tenant cannot or will not make payment of arrears and the Housing Benefit Department have already made payment of the rental to the tenant, then the landlord can seek legal redress to remove the tenant, in terms of the Housing Legislation.
Miller Samuel has extensive experience of this type of work and is able to advise and assist private landlords, either to recover their outstanding rent or in the last resort, to remove the offending tenant.
If anything in the above article is of relevance to you and you wish to discuss matters in confidence with us, please contact Lorna Bennie in our Litigation Department on 0141 221 227 6064 or by email: lob@millersamuel.co.uk.
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