Council Tax & Housing Benefit
Information for Landlords - FAQ's
What are
Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit?
Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit are national welfare
benefits which help people on low income pay rent or Council Tax,
or both, on the home they live in.
Local councils run the schemes using regulations set out by the
Government.
Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit are means-tested benefits.
This means that the amount people get depends on: their income;
- their savings;
- the size and condition of their home;
- their rent; and
- who lives with them.
To get Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit, tenants must fill in
a benefit claim form.
Who
can claim Housing Benefit?
Anyone who pays rent for the home they live in can claim. But
not everyone who pays rent will qualify.
Tenants may not qualify if:
- their income is too high;
- they live with, and pay rent, to a close relative;
- they used to live with the landlord as a family member,
relative or friend, and now pay that person rent;
- they are a member of a religious order;
- they live in a care home such as nursing or old people's
home;
- it is not a business arrangement;
- they rent a former joint home from their ex-partner;
- they are responsible for a child of their landlord;
- they rent their property from a company, and they are a
director or employee of that company;
- they rent from a trust and they are the trustee or a
beneficiary;
- they used to own the property which they now rent;
- they live in the home as part of their job; or
- they are students. Most students don't qualify but some do, so
please ask us or see our separate guidance notes 'Can Students get
Housing Benefit'.
If your tenant is not sure if they qualify, get them to fill in
a form and return it to us straightaway.
We will write to tell them whether we can pay benefit.
Please note
- You or your tenant should not assume that benefit will be paid,
or how much will be paid, until we tell you in writing.
Who must pay Council Tax?
An owner-occupier or tenant aged 18 or over living in the
property is usually responsible for paying the Council Tax.
In certain circumstances, owners who do not live in the property
must pay the Council Tax. The most common example of this is a
house in multiple occupation (HMO).
What
is an HMO?
An HMO is where:
- a tenant or tenants rent a room in the property and share
facilities, for example a bathroom or kitchen (or both); and
- each has a separate tenancy agreement with only their name on
it.
Generally, this is an HMO and the landlord or owner is
responsible for paying Council Tax.
Do students have to pay Council Tax?
If all the tenants are full-time students in further or higher
education, the property will be exempt from Council Tax during term
time, even if it is an HMO.
Courses must be for at least one academic year, and periods of
study, tuition or work experience must be at least 21 hours a
week.
All the students must provide a student certificate from their
college for the exemption to apply.
What
about joint tenants?
If a property is rented out to more than one person and is not
classed as an HMO, the tenants are responsible for paying the
Council Tax.
If you rent out a joint tenancy like this, there should usually
only be one tenancy agreement. It should show all the tenants'
names and should have only one rent charge.
If you have any questions about Council Tax, please contact
us.
How much Housing Benefit can be paid?
This depends on things like:
- how much income a tenant and their family has; and
- how much rent the Rent Officer says we can use in our
calculation.
What is a Pre-Tenancy Determination (PTD)?
Future tenants can apply for a PTD. It will help them know if
they'll have to pay some of the rent themselves to top up their
Housing Benefit.
They might decide they can't afford to take on the tenancy, and
may decide to look for somewhere else to live rather than get into
debt.
Before signing up to the tenancy, your future tenant should ask
the Rent Service to decide what rent we must use to work out their
Housing Benefit.
You can't apply yourself, but you will have to sign your future
tenant's request for a PTD.
You will, however, get a copy of the Rent Officer's decision.
This free service usually takes about five days.
We will use the decision to pay the proper amount of benefit more
quickly.
Your tenant can get a PTD application form from us.
You should send the form to us and we will pass it to the Rent
Service.
Decisions stay in force for 12 months unless there is a change in
the property or the number of people in the household.
Please note
- PTDs don't guarantee that your tenant will get benefit.
Your tenant must still fill in a claim form and send us all the
proof we need so that we can work out their benefit.
We can tell your tenant roughly how much benefit they will get
using the Rent Service's PTD.
What is 'eligible rent'?
'Eligible rent' is the rent we use to work out your tenant's
Housing Benefit.
Eligible rent is not always the same as the rent being charged
for the following reasons.
- Housing Benefit does not cover some service charges like
heating, water or meals, so we cannot include those in the
rent.
- We must base Housing Benefit on a rent level set by the Rent
Officer Service (a government agency independent of local
authorities), not on the rent you charge your tenant.
All the rents that private landlords charge are referred to this
Rent Service for consideration.
You can't appeal about the figures the Rent Service sets for us to
work out your tenant's benefit.
Your tenant can appeal to us and we will ask the Rent Service to
look at their decision again.
- We must usually limit benefit for single people under 25,
without children, to a 'single-room rent' set by the Rent
Service.
Housing Benefit is not always the same as the 'eligible
rent'.
Once we have the eligible rent, we then have to take off certain
amounts because of the tenant's income, or because they have other
adults living with them - for example, an adult son or daughter,
other relative or friend.
If Housing Benefit does not cover the full rent, the tenant is
responsible for paying any difference to the landlord.
Tenants are also responsible for paying rent for any periods not
covered by Housing Benefit.
What are 'indicative or interim rents'?
When your tenant claims benefit, and has given us all the
information we need, we speed things up by paying benefit based on
a provisional 'indicative rent' provided by the local Rent Service.
This is sometimes called an 'interim rent' or a 'payment on
account'.
Later, when the Rent Service gives us its final decision on the
level of rent to use for benefits, we work out the benefit
again.
How
does my tenant make a claim for benefit?
Tenants must fill in and sign a benefit claim form. We also ask
the tenant's partner to sign the form.
If someone helps your tenant to fill the form in, we ask them to
sign it too.
Your tenant must show us some documents. Please see the section
below called 'What documents can you accept?'. Your tenant can
speed things up by sending us these in with their claim.
What documents can you
accept?
Your tenant and their partner must each provide separate proof
of their identity and National Insurance number because the law
says we must see these before we can deal with a claim.
We will tell your tenant what they need to provide as proof, and
we usually need to see original documents.
However, no one should delay a claim because they do not have these
documents. They should send their application in straightaway and
tell us that they will send us the documents later.
What proof of rent do you need?
We need proof of the rent the tenant has to pay. This is usually
a tenancy agreement, which must include:
- the full name and home or business address of the
landlord;
- the full name and home or business address of any agent;
- the date the tenancy will start;
- the full address of the property they are renting;
- the amount charged;
- the landlord's or agent's signature;
- the tenants' signatures;
- the date the document was signed;
- what is included in the rent, for example, meals, gas,
electricity and water rates;
- the amount included for these services;
- the full names of those renting the property;
- how often the rent is payable - usually every week, four weeks
or month; and
- how long the tenancy will last for.
When is benefit paid?
We pay benefit in weeks, and a benefit week usually starts on a
Monday and ends on a Sunday. We usually pay benefit from the Monday
after we get the claim.
If we get a claim in the same benefit week as the tenancy
starts, we will pay benefit from the start of the tenancy unless we
have paid benefit at a previous address.
Sometimes we can pay benefit for an earlier period. This is
called 'backdating' benefit, and strict rules apply. For more
information see our separate guidance notes 'Housing Benefit and
Council Tax Benefit - can your claim be backdated?'.
What if my tenant's circumstances change?
You, or your tenant, must tell us straightaway, in writing, of
any changes that may affect benefit.
If you or your tenant are not sure what to report, tell us
anyway. We will let you or your tenant know if it affects
benefit.
For more information see our separate guidance notes 'Changes
you need to tell us about if you are claiming Housing Benefit and
Council Tax Benefit'.
What should a tenant do if they change address?
If a tenant moves to a new address within our district, they can
fill out our shortened application form.
If they leave your property, the benefit will end even if you are
still charging them rent. The tenant is responsible for any rent
due after benefit ends.
You or your tenant should tell us straightaway if they are
moving out.
If a tenant changes rooms in a house in multiple occupation, or
board and lodge accommodation, you or your tenant must tell us in
writing straightaway and your tenant must send us a new claim
form.
What information can you give the landlord?
We can't tell you anything if we pay Housing Benefit direct to
your tenant.
All details about your tenant's claim are confidential. We
cannot give them to anyone without the tenant's permission, in
writing.
We cannot even confirm that a claim has been made.
If we pay Housing Benefit to you direct, we can tell you:
- the date benefit started and ended;
- the weekly amount of benefit and how often it was paid;
- the amount we are taking directly from benefit to recover an
overpayment; and
- details of any cheque paid directly to you.
If we start or stop paying you direct, we will write to you to
tell you.
It is up to you to collect any difference between the benefit we
pay and the rent that is due.
If your tenant asks us to pay you direct but we cannot pay the
claim because we do not have all the tenants' details, we will
write to let you know.
If we pay Housing Benefit to your agent direct, we cannot give
you any information and you must ask your tenant for any other
information you need.
We will give your agent the same information that we would give
to you if we paid you direct - see the section called 'If we pay
you direct'.
What could delay benefit being paid?
There are various things that could delay benefit being paid.
For example, if:
- we have not received a claim;
- the tenant hasn't filled the form in properly;
- we haven't got all the proof we've asked for; or
- we need to make further enquiries.
Please note that the tenant is solely responsible for supplying
proof of identity, income, rent and so on.
What are the general rules on payments?
Your tenant can choose if they want their benefit paid directly
to themselves or direct to you.
Payments are usually made every four weeks, for the previous
four weeks, by crossed cheque.
The Housing Benefit Regulations say that if a tenant has not
paid you eight weeks' rent or more, we must:
- pay the landlord direct; or
- suspend payment altogether, if it is in the best interests of
the person claiming not to pay the landlord direct.
Please write and tell us as soon as your tenant owes you eight
weeks' rent or more.
In some circumstances, the first cheque we send to the tenant is
made payable to the landlord. This is usually because the cheque
covers more than eight weeks' rent.
We will usually agree if a tenant asks us to send payments
direct to the landlord.
Your tenant can ask us to stop paying you direct. We will write
and tell you if this happens.
If we pay you direct because your tenant owes rent, we can only
start paying the tenant instead if we are satisfied that they owe
you less than eight weeks' rent.
We will not pay you direct if we decide that you are not acting
correctly over benefit matters.
If we pay you direct, we can ask you to repay any overpayment, even
if you couldn't have known we were paying too much.
But, if the overpayment was because of a change in the tenant's
income or family, we may ask the tenant rather than you to repay
it.
If you think your tenant is making a fraudulent claim for
benefit, please tell us straightaway. We would not normally expect
you to pay back the overpayment.
We do not assume any of the tenant's responsibilities by
agreeing to pay Housing Benefit direct.
You must write to tell us immediately if the tenant moves out,
or to tell us any other information that may affect their
benefit.
If you have several tenants on benefit, we will combine all the
payments in one cheque. We include a list of payment details with
every cheque. You should report any changes straightaway.
What if there has been an overpayment of benefit?
If we find we have paid too much benefit, we can ask you or your
tenant to pay it back.
How
can you recover the overpayment?
The main ways are by:
- taking money from the ongoing benefit of the person
claiming;
- taking money from other benefit that is due to the tenant;
- taking money from your payments for other tenants; and
- sending a bill.
By taking money from ongoing
benefit
If a tenant's circumstances change and there is an overpayment,
we often take the money back by weekly deductions from their
continuing benefit, even if they live at an address that is
different from where the overpayment happened.
The tenant should pay the difference in the rent that is due
direct to you.
By sending a bill
We can send a bill to recover:
- an overpayment from a tenant who is no longer on benefit;
or
- payments from landlords when, for example, you have been paid
after your tenant has moved out.
If we send you a bill you disagree with, get in touch with us
straightaway.
As a landlord, you have the right to appeal against our decision
to recover an overpayment from you.
If you don't repay overpayments when we ask you to, we can take
the money out of benefit we're due to pay you for other tenants. We
may decide not to pay you at all.
What if I or my tenant do not agree with your decision - can we
appeal?
That depends. As a landlord, you have fewer appeal rights than a
tenant.
Appeals by tenants
Your tenant can appeal against any decision we have made about
their benefit claim.
We tell them their appeal rights and the time limits on the
decision letters we send out.
They have one month from the date of the decision letter in
which to ask us to reconsider our decision. There are full details
in our guidance notes 'What to do if you disagree with a Housing
Benefit or Council Tax Benefit decision'.
If the tenant appeals, they must sign all the letters.
Landlords have no right to appeal against a tenant's claim and
the details are confidential. We cannot give you any details.
Appeals by landlords
Landlords can only appeal against our decision if:
- we refuse to pay benefit direct; or
- we decide they should repay an overpayment.
Landlords can't appeal about the amount of a tenant's benefit,
or which weeks it's been awarded for.
Where can I or my tenant get help?
You can always contact us for help and advice.
Or, you could contact your local Citizens Advice Bureau.
Housing Benefits Section
Dover District Council
White Cliffs Business Park
Dover
Kent
CT16 3PJ
Telephone number: (01304) 872199
E-mail: revenues@dover.gov.uk
