This page is for landlords that have tenants that receive housing benefit from us.
Report a change in tenancy
If you are a landlord, you must let us know if a tenant moves in or out of a property that you own. They will usually be liable to pay council tax unless you have made other arrangements with them.
If your tenant is moving
You will need to let us know. They also have a duty to tell us what date they left and any forwarding address details.
Housing benefit entitlement
The amount that your tenant will receive depends on their personal circumstances and the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates for the area.
Making payments
In most cases, we pay housing benefit directly to tenants. Payments are made into your tenant's bank account every two weeks in arrears. They are responsible for passing this money over to you.
Direct payments to landlords
We may be able to pay housing benefit to you directly if:
- your tenant is more than eight weeks in arrears
- your tenant can't deal with his / her own finances
Request direct payments
If you're already receiving direct payments from a tenant and need to change your bank account details please let us know.
Changes in circumstance
If your tenant has any change to their circumstances that you know about, you must let us know. This includes changing jobs, having a child, or having someone move in with them. Your tenant can report changes to us using the online forms.
We sometimes suspend benefit claims following a change until we know exactly what changed when. If you receive direct payments and this happens, we'll let you know.
Sharing information with you
Your tenant needs to give us permission to discuss their claim with you. They can do this by completing the form below:
If they have given permission, we can tell you:
- they have claimed Housing Benefit
- they have renewed their claim for Housing Benefit
- we have made a decision on the claim
- we need more information to make a decision on the claim and what information we need
If we make payments to you, we can also discuss payment amounts and dates.
We can't discuss:
- their personal information
- their household circumstances
- their financial circumstances
Your tenant can withdraw this permission at any time. It will not affect their claim if they do not give us permission to discuss their claim with you.
If you want some general information about a tenants or their claim you can request this below: