A private landlord, with support from the Guild of Residential Landlords, recently won at a First Tier Tribunal over Coventry City Council regarding direct payment of local housing allowance (LHA).

 
This particular case was about a private tenancy with the rent payable monthly in advance on the 16th of each month. The tenant did not pay rent 16th August and followed on by not paying rent the 16th September. On the 17th September the landlord contacted the council and requested direct payments of LHA.
 
The council refused to start direct payment on the grounds that the rent was not eight weeks in arrears until the 17th of October and referred to The Housing Benefit LHA Guidance Manual which states that rent can not be in arrear in respect of a period that has not been served.
 
The Tribunal allowed the landlord’s appeal which means that eight weeks of rent arrears can be as short as four weeks and two days.
 
In December last year, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), distributed circular HB/CTB A26/2009 to all the local authorities in UK. This circular is an amendment to some parts of the LHA Guidance Manual that was issued in 2008.
 
One of the clarifications in the circular is regarding “the eight week rule” in relation to rent arrears and at what time a landlord can request for direct payments of LHA:
 
"In a recent appeal tribunal (Doncaster v Coventry City Council, First Tier Tribunal 032/09/00932, 5 October 2009) the Chairman expressed the view that ‘Rent is in arrears once the contractual date for payment has passed irrespective of whether rent is due in advance or in arrear."
 
"In view of this, we have consulted with lawyers at Communities and Local Government to establish at what point they consider a tenant to be in arrears of eight weeks. As they are also of the view that rent is in arrears once the date for payment has passed without any payment being made, we have revised the LHA guidance so that it is consistent with this position."
 
It is also worth noting that if this had been a weekly tenancy, seven weeks and two days would constitute eight weeks of arrears. The guidance also states that LHA can be paid directly to a landlord for a minimum of eight weeks whilst a local authority gathers evidence to make a decision about direct payments to the landlord. The bottom line is still that sufficient evidence is needed before a local authority will start paying LHA directly to a landlord.

Source: The Letting Network