Regulated tenancy / co-ownership under UC

Under HB the rent for a regulated (“fair rent”) tenancy was always paid in full. UC are only paying the LHA rate and with the freeze, this level is now well below the regulated rent….which has kept going up. Nothing in the legislation to allow for a higher rent say DWP. I admit I cannot find anything; can anyone else?

Secondly, has anyone dealt with a co-ownership case with UC? Are they paying the full service charges for the property for instance or plus the percentage for the rental part? There are supposed to be a million of these in due course.

I cannot see anything in the UC Regs that makes any special provision for rare or legacy tenures: it’s either social sector rules or LHA, no other alternatives.

Shared ownership should attract a social sector housing element including 100% of eligible service charges.  The nature of shared ownership is frequently misunderstood.  It is often characterised as an arrangement in which a person owns part of their home and rents the rest, but this isn’t really true.  What they have is a tenancy agreement that has some of the characteristics of a long lease (bought for a premium, ability to sell it someone else) and some of the characteristics of a conventional assured tenancy (especially mandatory possession for 8 weeks’ arrears).  In particular, if they are evicted for rent arrears they do not get to keep any “part” that they “own”: they have lost the one solitary stake that they held.  The rent is on a sliding scale in inverse proportion to the premium paid for the tenancy, the service charges are not on a sliding scale.  UC, and HB before it, should pay the full amount of the rent and the full amount of the eligible service charges: there is no apportionment to reflect the notional percentage “owned”.

Thank you. The shortfall is now over £1500 per year and is growing. DHP is an option but would have to continue until the claimant became of pension age….which seems to be moving so fast especially for women in their early 50’s (as here) ....when they could claim HB again.

No idea on numbers…..but the type of issue that seems to be “hidden” away within the detail of UC . For the individuals affected though, this is massive of course. A home for life may have to be lost.

I am wondering if anyone has any issues with the DWP dealing with shared owner cases. We had a case yesterday and the application/process for UC does not seem to be able to cope.
If you tick shared owner it does not allow you to then add the landlord details and the rent.
In our tenants case the DWP just didn’t pay any UC for the rent element (they are looking at the mortgage).
We asked the service centre who admitted they don’t know what to do. We had to add the rent details etc. to the journal and hope for the best.

thanks