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Double payment of rent to landlord
Cl. has social landlord & is on full HB, which is paid direct to landlord. LA made error & informed her she was liable to pay part of rent herself. She paid that part to landlord. LA then realised their error and paid the same amount to landlord as HB.
Cl. asked landlord to return the duplicate payment (i.e. the money she had paid) but they refused on grounds that her account is not sufficiently in credit. Needless to say, up until this error occurred the account always had periods in debit as HB is paid in arrears, & this had always been accepted without query by landlord. (In our experience all knowledgeable landlords accept this situation when they know the rent is coming from HB.) I realise that if/when the Cl. leaves the property she will get the money back but that could be many years in the future.
Apart from making a maladministration claim against the LA is there anything Cl. can do? Can the landlord’s refusal to refund be challenged with any likelihood of success, & if so how?
Any advice gratefully received.
The claimant can ask the Council to send future HB payments to her instead, a request which they have absolutely no reason to refuse as she does not have arrears of 8 weeks and is not generally a risky tenant. She can then retain for herself as much as she considers appropriate. She can switch the payments back afterwards if she wants.
She has the right to appeal against the decision if the Council declines her request.
Not sure from the OP whether the client is a LA tenant or HA tenant?
If LA tenant, I don’t think there is any leeway at all regarding direct payment is there?
It sounds like it’s a Housing Association, otherwise I suspect the poster would have mentioned it. Is rent due in advance or in arrears? In principle, if it’s due in advance, then the landlord may be justified in retaining the rent payment. It seems the landlord may tolerate payment in arrears, but this may be for convenience rather than a legal right.
I work for a Housing Association with a simlar policy about rent credits and one of our tenants took exactly the action that HBanorak suggests. I thought it was a creative solution
Cl. has social landlord ...
Ah yes- thanks, situation clarified. Obviously read the thread before I had fully imbibed on my first cup of coffee.