Variable Service Charges

Shared owners commonly have variable service charges that are reconciled annually. 

This is problematic when the tenant gets housing benefit because the reconciliation is often not completed until September the following year, and so for example, the tenant gets an amended biill in September 2013 for the year from April 2012 to March 2013.

Its seems that HB/CTB (D&A) Regulations 5(2)(b), 8(4), and 9 would prohibit any revision or supersession that could take account of such reconciliation of variable service charges

Or am I mising something ?

That seems to be right if the original bill is seen as a faulty material fact in any decision relying on it, so that the Council is prevented from revising the decision to the claimant’s advantage.

Alternatively you could take the view the decision(s) was/were correct on the facts as they stood at that time, and the reconciliation has effect as a change of circumstance.  You would then be looking at supersession under D&A Reg 8(2), with the additional problem that the time limit in para (3) kicks in.  It is impossible to comply with the time limit if the change has effect from a date more than 13 months before the claimant became aware of it - this is exactly why the “relevant benefit” rule was inserted so that people were not caught out by para (3) when an advantageous change of circs has retrospective effect.  But this isn’t a relevant benefit and generic change of circs seems to be the only available ground for supersession.

I can think of two possible ways around it:

- what I suspect happens in practice is that the Council views the reconciliation as a new bill attributable to the twelve months beginning on the date when it was issued.  This might not be strictly correct but it keeps everyone happy
- or when the original provisional bill is issued, the claimant could appeal against the consequent HB decision and say in the appeal that further evidence of circumstances down to the date of the decision is likely to become available next September so please don’t submit my appeal before then and you can revise the decision when I send you the reonciliation