Online Landlord Account
A landlord account enables you to:
- see schedules for payments made to you or your organisation
- see your notification letters for individual tenants
- add other users to your account
Register for a Landlord Account
Amend user access to your Landlord Account
Direct payments to you, the landlord
When applying for Housing Benefit, a tenant can ask for the payment to be:
- paid to their account, to then pay the landlord
- paid directly to the landlord
You can request a tenant’s Housing Benefit to be paid directly to you by completing our online form.
If your tenant owes you at least 8 weeks rent, we have to pay you directly. Please inform us if this is the case by completing our online form.
What information we will give you
If we pay your tenant we cannot give you any information unless we have their written permission. We cannot tell you if your tenant has made a Housing Benefit claim.
If we pay you directly you will have access to:
- the start and end date of the benefit
- how much benefit we will pay
- how often we will pay you
Providing evidence of rent
A tenant must show us evidence of the rent they pay when claiming Housing Benefit.
As a landlord you must provide the tenant with evidence of the rent the pay. This is usually:
- a tenancy agreement
- a letter from you
Overpayments of Housing Benefit
If we pay too much benefit we may ask you to repay the money. If the overpayment is due to a fraudulent claim by the tenant we would not normally do this.
If the overpayment is due to a change in the tenant’s personal circumstances, we will ask them to repay the money. If we cannot get the money from your tenant, we may ask you to repay it.
We recover overpayments by:
- taking money off your tenant’s benefit
- taking money off other benefits we owe your tenant
- taking money off your payments for other tenants
- sending a bill to you or your tenant
If we ask you to repay the overpayment, we expect payment within 28 days unless you dispute our decision
Appeal an overpayment request
You can appeal to The Tribunal Service. You can only appeal if:
- we refuse to pay benefit direct to you
- you do not think there has been an overpayment
- you think that there has been a legal mistake in the decision
Our decision letters detail your rights of appeal and time limits.
Change of circumstances
You must tell us of any changes in your tenant’s circumstances immediately. It is an offence not to report changes.
The main changes that you may be aware of are:
- the number of people in the house
- that your tenant is moving out of your property
- that your tenant is going to be away for more than a month
- changes in rent
Report a change in circumstances
Delays paying Housing Benefit
Sometimes there is a delay in paying benefit. This may happen if:
- your tenant has claimed late or not made a claim at all;
- your tenant has not filled in their claim form properly; or
- your tenant has not sent in all the proof we need to pay benefit.