FAQ for Landlords

Which landlords are affected by Local Housing Allowance?


Local Housing Allowance (LHA) affects any landlord who enters into a deregulated private tenancy agreement with a person awarded Housing Benefit. By deregulated we mean entered into since 1989 and not covered by one of the exceptions listed below.

Who is not affected by Local Housing Allowance?
LHA does not affect:

  • local authority landlords who let to council tenants
  • tenancies with registered social landlords
  • protected cases, such as supported housing provided by certain local authorities, social landlords, charities and voluntary organisations
  • tenancies which are excluded from current rent restrictions
  • tenancies in caravans, houseboats and hostels
  • tenancies where the rent officer decides that a substantial part of the rent is for board and attendance, such as hotel accommodation.

 

How does Local Housing Allowance affect landlords?
The only change for most landlords is that LHA will be paid to the tenant. The tenant will be responsible for paying their rent to the landlord.

In recognition of the risk that some tenants may struggle with the responsibility of paying their rent, safeguards will be put in place. Benefit can still be paid directly to the landlord if we consider that the tenant is likely to have difficulty managing their own affairs. This is called vulnerability. Examples of this could include:

  • tenants with a learning disorder or a drug or alcohol problem that would mean they may have problems managing a budget.
  • if they think the tenant is unlikely to use their LHA to pay their rent. This could be if we know that the tenant has consistently failed to pay their rent in the past
  • if the tenant has built up rent arrears of eight weeks or more and payment direct to the landlord has been implemented (under current Housing Benefit regulations), the council can decide to continue making payments direct to the landlord after the arrears have fallen below eight weeks
  • if the tenant is having deductions from their Income Support or Jobseekers Allowance to pay off rent arrears.

 

These are just some examples. Please contact us if you need more information.

To implement any of these safeguards, we must have documented evidence.

 

You can download an application for payment direct to landlord here.

When will LHA affect my tenants?
All new private tenants claims will be treated as claims for LHA from April 7th 2008. Existing claimants will only have their claims transferred to LHA when they either have a break in their claim, or change address.

Further information
You can download the leaflet information for landlords here

 

If you have any queries on the Local Housing Allowance you can email

benefits@broxbourne.gov.uk or telephone 01992 785555

 

You can also visit the websites for The Rent Service and The Financial Services Authority for further information.