Landlord Information
Information we can pass to landlords.
Under the Data Protection Act we cannot disclose personal
information about your tenants.
Your tenant may allow us to share information with you on the
progress of their claim by signing the relevant declaration in the
Housing & Council Tax Benefit claim form. The information may
include: - if they have made a claim, if the claim has all of the
relevant documentation with it or if we have requested further
information. If we cannot process the claim because we need proof
of rent from you we will tell you this but cannot give you any
information that we think your tenant would not like you to have
i.e. details of their income and savings.
Payments to landlords.
Payments to Landlords are made 4 weekly in arrears by
BACS. If we pay your tenants Housing Benefit to you, we will
write and tell you when the benefit is paid from and how much per
week we are paying you,you have no right of appeal against these
decisions only the claimant, your tenant can challenge them.
The payment direct facility was
only generally available to Private Landlords up to
the 7th of April 2008, since this date payment direct can
only be granted in specific circumstances due to the national
introduction of the Local Housing Allowance, please follow this
link to view the
Harlow Landlord direct
payment policy.
Payment direct to Landlords will be made if they can
prove to our satisfaction that their tenant is more than 8 weeks in
arrears with their rent.
If you are paid direct we will write and let you
know if the amount of Benefit changes or if
we terminate their claim and any resulting overpayment.
If we have terminated the claim we will give you as much
information as Schedule 6 of the Housing Benefits Regulations
allow, but for example if they have moved we are not able to
provide a forwarding address, however we will forward letters at
your request if a new address is known.
Information we require from landlords.
If you receive payments of Housing Benefit for your tenant(s)
and become aware of a change in their circumstances that you think
your tenant has not told us about, which may affect the amount of
benefit they are entitled to, you have a duty to report these
changes to us in Revenues and Benefits as soon as
possible. You can follow the following link for more information
about
changes of circumstances.
The web page addresses general issues however the failure of a
Landlord to notify us of a known change, can result in
them becomming responsible for repayment of any overpayment
generated due to that change.