‘Overiding interest’ to have HB paid direct to claimant

Hi and Happy New Year to everyone.

Does anyone have experience of persuading a LA to pay HB direct to client rather than landlord when there is more than 8 weeks rent arrears? 

Situation is that cl has £1200 (3 months) rent oweing to former landlord, due to LA dragging their feet on HB claim for private sector property.  Cl has now moved to another property with different landlord as the original landlord was threatening eviction, although no notice seeking possession was ever served.  Problem now is that original landlord has kept deposit of £400.  LL alleges damage which cl denies - cl says he thinks real reason is he kept it to offset some of the unpaid rent.  It does not appear the LL used the legally required deposit protection scheme but I have suggested Cl sees a local housing charity about this because I don’t know much about this area. 

When the claim is (eventually!) sorted the client wants to have HB paid direct to him, so that he can pay the landlord the £800 difference between the deposit kept and the outstanding rent, and thus in effect get his deposit back.  What are the chances of this?  I am rather doubtful if this would be deemed to be in the clients ‘overiding interest’ given the circumstances but I am not sure how it is defined, so would welcome comments from anyone with experience of this type of thing.

Ask the LA to suspend if it intends to make payment to the LL on the grounds that an appeal will be made immediately following the decision on the claim.  Explain the full circumstances and simply argue that these DO mean it is in the overriding interests of the clmt for payment to be made to him/her.  Point out to the LA that if it makes payment to the LL without giving your client an opportunity to challenge it, you will hold the LA responsible for an losses and reserve the right to pursue them for compensation outside the HB scheme.

Depending on how “helpful” the LA is, it may just be possible to get part payment to your client and the rest to the LL but I wouldn’t bet your house on that idea….

Again depending on the LA, there may be a faster option:

Ask the LA to pay £800 to the landlord. Then, make a new request to pay claimant as there are no longer 8 weeks arrears.

It would be helpful if you could provide some documentation showing the level of rent arrears but I imagine this is not the type of landlord who issues rent statements regularly…