Landlord Appeal Rights?

Hi All

Like many organisations we have a policy of not advising landlords in their capacity as a landlord, but I felt sorry for this guy so just wanted to advise him if he had a right of appeal, without taking case on.

Situation is; he has been letting for 9 years with no rent problems. His last let was to a claimant of ESA, and again no problems.

Current tenancy started in Nov 2012, tenant has mental health issues. She is also an EU national. She did not tell the truth to the letting agent or the landlord when accepting the tenancy - she said she was in JSA but in fact was not receiving any income. Appears no proper credit/ ref checks done by agent, but as she told landlord she was on JSA he accepted this.

Then it turned out she had had a break in her ESA claim but reclaimed in Dec 2012, with request for backdating.

She claimed HB but was refused - she showed him the letter. Appears they took no notice of the fact she was waiting for a decision on her ESA and/or had nil income. She paid some rent by borrowing, but as she owed more than 2 months by Jan 2013, landlord served Sec 8 Notice to protect himself. No proceedings taken as landlord knew she was waiting for decision on her benefit.

Due to R2R her claim took until May 2013 to be paid, but was then paid in full back to Sept 2012. She showed landlord the letter and he advised her to take it to HB. Still no HB paid, which should be paid to landlord as more than 8 weeks arrears.

No rent paid since March (and then only partial payment), tenant now in arrears of nearly £4000.

Landlord contacted HB but was told they could not speak to him without consent of tenant and she has refused to provide this.

Landlord does not want to evict tenant with MH problems and cannot understand why no HB paid now ESA claim sorted out in full.

He has made official complaint to HB with proof that tenant in arrears of more than 8 weeks.

My questions are;

Can he appeal any refusals of HB without tenant consent? How can he find out what the decisions were and why?

Could he simply try to appeal refusal to pay him directly to open up the whole issue of why his tenant has not been paid when there is a clear entitlement?

Many thanks!

The landlord cannot appeal against the decision that the claimant is not entitled to HB.

What he could do, if the tenant agrees, is to get the tenant to sign a letter appointing the landlord as her representative for an appeal against a refusal of HB. The LA should then correspond with the landlord about this appeal.

A representative for an appeal is different to an appointee and relates only to that appeal.

If the tenant refuses to cooperate, then the landlord could, as you suggest, write to the LA with evidence of rent arrears and require any HB to be paid direct to him.

Thanks for that.

Given no housing benefit in payment even after tenant awarded ESA inc all arrears, could landlord appeal refusal to pay him direct, once they have evidence of arrears? The tenant will not sign an authority for landlord to act for her, she has mental health problems.

I must admit I am uncertain how the Council would respond to a request for direct payments when there is no entitlement to HB.

They could just agree that all HB entitlement will be paid to the landlord but thet the amount of that entitlement would be Nil. There would appear to be nothing there that the landlord would be able to appeal against.

They could just say there was no relevant decision to make as no claim or entitlement exists. Again difficult to see what the landlord could appeal against.

If they decided that there was a relevant decision to make and that, despite the arrears, they refused to make payments to the landlord there would be a right of appeal. However, I think that unlikely, and any appeal rights would be only in respect of the decision to make direct payments.

It is of course possible that the Council revised it’s decision and HB is in payment but the claimant just dosn’t understand that, in which case a request for direct payment due to arrears would at least identify that as being the case.