Repairs as service charge - eligible?

Hi all, bit of an unusual one (at least in terms of my experience!) and was wondering what people thought. Client has LD and Autism. He purchased his property under shared ownership. The breakdown of the rent part of his housing costs includes a charge for “personal repairs”. Previous correspondence on the claim suggests that this element was added because the landlord/leaseholder is responsible for providing repairs under the leasehold agreement. As far as I can tell (have only just picked up the case) the charge varies and is based on the work actually done in the previous year, rather than being a standing charge. Housing Benefit have stated that this is an ineligible service charge as it is a personal charge and not a communal charge.

I don’t think that I agree with the reasoning of the HB assessor. As far as I can tell there is no general rule in the HB regs to say that a charge must be communal and not personal. There is a specific reference to cleaning of non-communal areas but I don’t think that this is that kind of situation.

So by my analysis the charge is not one that is specifically classed as ineligible, it is included in the rent and so is a condition of living in the property. Which I think leaves the LA with the question of whether the charge is reasonable?

If the property was a normal housing association rental then I could clearly see the argument that repair charges should not be reasonably eligible - as the landlord’s responsibilities to repair the property is implicit in the rent and anything else should be covered by the tenant. But this seems to be a more complex situation as it seems that the landlord has moved charges that would normally be covered under the leasehold agreement onto the rent side of things. And furthermore, given the vulnerabilities of the homeowner it seems that the agreement was that the leaseholder/landlord would take on extra responsibility for carrying out ‘smaller scale’ repairs for which the tenant would normally be responsible.

Has anyone had any experience with similar arrangements? The specific scheme this was under was HOLD (Home Ownership for people with Learning Disabilities) in London.

Many thanks
S

Any offers :p ??

It’s very difficult to draw a bright line between intensive housing management and support, but I would say that anything directed towards the building is eligible for HB, while anything directed towards the person might not be.  Repairs are more building-focussed.

Exempt accommodation is exempt from the normal restrictions on HB for a reason, and a heavier wear and tear burden is one such reason.  It would be perverse to say on the one hand, exempt accommodation is exempt from restrictions because of the higher management and maintenance costs, and then on the other to say that the very things which make it so are ineligible to be covered by HB ... otherwise there wouldn’t be any point in the exemption.

My view would be: if the tenant is entitled to have these repairs done under the terms of the tenancy, and the rent (including service charges) is set at an amount that factors in the likely cost of these repairs, there is no problem with HB paying that.

The way that shared ownership core rents are set probably dictates that anything unconventional gets filed under service charges, but there is a consistent line of case law which holds that strange service charges belonging more conceptually in core rent can be treated by HB as if they were core rent (voids, sinking fund, rooms used by staff, even a stairlift in one case).

HB A - very helpful - much appreciated!!!