Wed 07-Oct-09 11:21 PM by Dan_manville

I post at this rude time of night as I'm helping folk out of work... Hopefully I'll have time to do the bookwork soon but thought I'd ask first as someone might know off the top of their head.

I'm unsure of how LHA's affected the calculation, but looking to reg 10 HB(gen) then the old eligible rent/new LHA is discrete of mooring fees for a boat (can we drop the "house" bit now please it's immaterial considering Mr Levenson's recent findings...

So can they be paid separately?

Just for fullness, no they can't, reg 2 HB 2006 aggregates everything under "rent"

Maybe I'm overlooking something, but doesn't HBR 13C(5)(D) disapply LHA where the payments are "...in relation to a houseboat..."?

As an aside, while understanding Judge Levensons decision, I don't think it means the word "houseboat" is irrelevant or has no meaning - especially as "houseboat" appears in the legislation. It's just that in the absence of further definition for HB purposes, "houseboat" can have a rather wide meaning. At least that's the way I read it.

Hi,

I took CH/4250/2006 to the commissioners on behalf of the client, the end of para 19 of the judgement reads:

"It seems to me that for housing benefit purposes “houseboat” is, as Mr Commissioner Williams suggested it might be, an ordinary English word without a technical meaning and that it is a matter of fact in any particular case whether a boat is a “houseboat” in this sense. However, it is difficult to imagine a case in which a reasonable tribunal would conclude that a boat which is fitted out as a dwelling suitable for permanent residence is not a houseboat.."

The council were arguing that because the boat was not licensed as a houseboat by British Waterways then it was not a houseboat. However, they were prepared to accept that HB was payable for mooring fees on a narrowboat on a private residential mooring provided the boatyard had the appropriate planning permission.

Although it will be down to the facts in each case, we now seem to have a working HB definition of a houseboat as "a boat which is fitted out as a dwelling suitable for permanent residence".

As stated above, LHA isn't applicable to Houseboats, the local reference rent rules apply.

Cheers

Mark