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Question Title: Co-habiting tenants & Housing Benefit Reg. 101
| Question: 301 |
| My local housing benefit department is trying to recover an overpayment of housing benefit paid to me for one of my tenants. The amount of the claim is over £1,200. They claim that she is 'co-habiting' with the other joint tenant of the property and has been doing so for six months. Can they do this, as I informed them at the start of the claim for housing benefit that there was a joint tenancy and I cannot be expected to know what goes on behind closed doors, whatever the housing benefits overpayments recovery section might think!
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| Answer: |
| Some Housing Benefit overpayment recovery sections seem to be a little behind the times with their understanding of what is, admittedly, a complex set of regulations. From 1st October 2001 Regulation 101 has been amended and now prescribes circumstances where the overpayment will not be recoverable from the person to whom it was paid. This includes where the authority is satisfied that the landlord has not colluded with the claimant so as to cause the overpayment, nor has acted or neglected to act in such a way as contribute to the period or amount of the overpayment. Reg. 101(2) now states that, where the overpayment arose as a consequence of a misrepresentation or failure to disclose a material fact by or on behalf of the claimant.....the recovery should take place from the person who misrepresented or failed to disclose that material fact. It should be possible on this basis to argue that you are not the person from whom recovery should be sought. Unfortunately local authorities have tended in the past to pursue landlords rather than tenants as a more reliable source of cash!
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References:
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Pages:
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Hyperlinks:
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Letting Update Journal |
Jan 2001 page 13 |
letting-update-journal.html
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Letting Handbook |
Chapter 15 |
letting-handbook-and-factsheets.html
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For more information, discuss on the Forum
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Housing Benefit