council tell landlord to increase my rent by Ј175

A question about : council tell landlord to increase my rent by Ј175

Since 2005 to date I have been renting from a private landlord (provided to me by the council), I am a single mum and work full time (always have worked), and do get some housing benefits towards my rent. My current is Ј750, last August my landlord informed me (shocked me is more like it ), that he is increasing my rent to Ј925, and that this increase is council approved ie the council told him that he could raise the rent and I would receive benefits towards it. I consulted the councils benefits department and they informed that because i am housing benefits and not local housing allowance, I will not be receiving any help. A rent of Ј925 is by far too expensive to my modest means, infactalmost equals my modest fulltime salary with NHS.
The benefits officer told me, then I should go and find myself another flat..I almost fell into depression and desperation, where am I going to get money for a deposit. I called the housing officer and he reassured me, that because thats not my fault, and I am going to made homeless, I will be entitled to a higher pirority on the housing list and will get rehoused in council place. Which ofcourse is what I really w..and and have waited for for 5 years, a place that I could afford and feel secure in. Now..my landlord, who doesnt want a new (unguaranteed) tenant or for me to leave yet ofcourse still wants his Ј925 per month rent, tells the benefits people that he is willing to stay without rent for a week, ie I dont claim for a week, and then put in a new claim so that my claim could be changed from housing benefits to local housing allowance..and the housing benefits department will let him do that !! Apparently he has 3 other properties, thats what he has done with all of them. Are they allowed to do that, are they twisting the law rounf to his benefits, despite that it will have deterimental effect on me. I am not given any choice..at the end of the day..i work and pay part of that rent..and the flat..is really not worth that much at all..its old, mouldy everywhere, carpets esp in my bedroom mouldy..no drying area..for 5 years I have been drying my clothes indoors..its just not worth Ј925. and no one from the council has come to see if its worth it. Shouldnt be given a choice, even if not provided with council accomdation, to take advantage of being transferred to local housing allowance to get maybe a place cheaper than Ј925 and keep the Ј15 per week the goverment is talking about to help people like myself..or is just a one way system to make the rich (my land lord) richer and the poor (me, single mum working fulltime with a 5 year old child ) poorer..isnt that pushing my child in more poverty......
I need help and advice, as I am getting extremely depressed and anxious over all this.

Best answers:

• I'm not sure i can offer any help, but i do feel for you. Hopefully it will get sorted in the end *hugs*
• Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere(please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email abuse@moneysavingexpert.com.
• The council have not told him to do this, and they are not twisting the law. Your landlord has researched how much the relevant LHA rate is (this information is available to anyone) and applied it to your property.
  The Ј15 excess is being withdrawn shortly, so I would not take that into account in making your decision.
  I'm not sure what advice it is that you need?
• AFAIK its perfectly legal to miss a week then change to lha
  As for the Ј15 week thats about to end next april and only applies if your LHA exceeds your payable rent by upto Ј15 per week,unlikely in your case with Ј925 mnth rent.
  Cant you find anywhere cheaper?I know you mentioned a deposit but wont you get the current dep.returned?
• thanks for your reply.. I am so upset, I couldnt even write clearly..crying and anxious.
  well the local housing allowance for a 2 bedroom property in my area is Ј925..so he wants the maximum. As for the deposit..I initially 5 years ago, escaped domestic violence, and the council (kindly and I am grateful to the to this day ) paid the deposit for me. I just dont think nor feel its fair...how can justify paying Ј925 for a property they have not even seen..my landlord will not even get Ј750 for it in the open market..its that bad...isnt that tax payers money..they are handing to the rich..(he already has 3 properties which he gets Ј925 for)..properties that he doesnt renew..or do anything to...its as if the law and the council are on a mission to get him rich..it just doesnt seem right...can i disagree..or will i be making myself homeless..I would rather sign a lease for the Ј925 for a better place..at least I could dry my laundry..
• With LHA, the local authority rely on the tenant to decide whether a property is worth what the landlord is charging for it. They are essentially handing responsibility for any such decisions to the claimant.
  Would the LA be willing to allow you to transfer the deposit to a new landlord?
  always, although the OP has phrased it as a general question, I really think that this is a benefits issue, and could be lost on this board without the OP getting the help they need.
• When you say mouldy. Do you mean damp?. That's a health issue and the council can make the landlord sort it out. DD could get asthma etc. or indeed yourself. If so get LHA to do an assessment.
  Thriftysaver
• Speak to Shelter about your situation:
  https://england.shelter.org.uk/
• oh God ..you guys are all giving me so much advice..thanks so much..yes the carpet in the bedroom is mouldy..i have to scrub it with mt muscle bathroom, every so often..I ll have to tell them this..I am writing them a long letter.I ll also mention about transferring my deposit. its just so heart breaking, when you do everything thats "right", work fulltime, pay your bills, taxes etc..and all you get is hardship..and you see people who dont and get rehoused ..given houses with gardens etc..(good for them..I am not envious at all we all have different circumstances), the coucil actually told me it would be easier if I was on income support..and my landlord said that too...well I wont be crying my eyes out over the rent increase and try to fight it..make you wonder.strange system..Martin Lewis where are you??????this needs some whistle blowing !!!.
  where can I post to get maximum response?
• the drying your clothes indoors will add to the mould problem already present and your landlord is well out of order imho for expecting you to live in such conditions innthe first place regardless of what you are charged rent wise.
  we had a landlord who didnt give a !!!! about this probhlem ourselves a while back and that was a council property landlord. imho all, well most, be they private or housing association or council are shoddy.
  please dont take my Ј15 a week whinge direct at you.
• I'm not surprised the OP has mould, they have been drying their laundry in the flat for the last five years.
  Any way, mould can be a serious health hazard so it needs sorting asap
• I am not taking your opinion about the Ј15 personal, at all..I have not been getting it, nor even given the oportunity to get it by the council..i just was trying to prove how contradictory they are..!! I think its very wrong..the whole lha system plus benefits system is very wrong. It only encourages people to stay on income support, and penalises those like me, lone parents working on low incomes.Pirority for Affordable rent mainly goes to those who are income support..experience shows that people have been making themselves homeless so that they can get council house. Those on income support and are in private rental will not find a job, because that will mean they ll have to pay part of their rent, and the more they earn the more they ll pay. So what do they do....have more kids, stay unemployed, till they are rehoused, by then, its difficult to employ them..re training etc is needed. Maybe..you would only be moved to council place if you prove that you work and maybe working should be way of moving up the council list for affordable rent ! then even the coucil will be getting rent paid to it, rather than those who the coucil still ends up paying rent for !!! maybe if they continue being umemployed, they remain in private rental.
  I am still going to fight this unfair rent rise till the very end..they cant just do that !!!I just want to get out of this benefits systems...just want to get a place I can afford...!!I dont want to get help from anyone..why do they make it so difficult for people to live withing their means.!
• The Ј15 is paid if your rent is lower than the max LHA for the area and your entitlement. So if you are entitled to LHA upto Ј925 you can choose to rent a cheaper place and keep Ј15 a week or you can rent something for more and pay the difference.
  In your shoes, you clearly have a landlord prepared to give up a weeks rent (get this in writing BTW, you don't want to be accused of having rent arrears), so I would negotiate with the landlord to reduce the rent to around Ј850 so you keep Ј65 a month.
  LHA and the Ј15 a week scheme is all designed to give you the choice about where you live. This is a private rental, you choose whether to stay or to move to somewhere cheaper, you choose whether to live in a place where rent is Ј850, Ј925 or more and pay a top-up.
  If LHA gives you a better deal then move onto it. The system is how it is; work within it to get the best deal for yourself.
  If your flat is really damp then start looking for another one. If the damp is caused by drying clothes indoors then start increasing the ventilation.
  I would (a) move on to LHA (b) negotiate with the landlord to reduce the rent to a level where you keep Ј15 a week (c) save up the Ј15s until you have a deposit and then can move.
  You have the right to get the council private rent officer to review the rent. You rrent increase notice should tell you how to do it. Tell the landlord you will do this, if he insists on Ј925.
• But they can just do that, especially if the council have decided that it is a fair rent! It is also quite possible to come off of HB have a break for a week then go onto LHA, but this doesnt always benefit the tenant, and they should check before they do it!
  The only thing that will happen if you dont pay the increase in the rent is that you will be evicted, then the council will not rehouse you because you will have been deemed to have made yourself homeless.
  Unfortunately many landlords are doing this, not to get rich, but to cover their own backs, because LHA is paid directly to the tenant and not the landlord, the temptation to spend it can be quite pressing, especially when other bills come in (Oh and Christmas, quite a few see it as a Christmas bonus!).
  This is not all tenants on lha, I dont want to generalise, but it is a massive problem but unfortunately Landlords have to find the money for mortgages, insurance and maintenance from somewhere and they are doing this by raising rents for LHA tenants to offset for those who dont pay.
• Rent is increased by signing a new contract or serving a section 13 notice. On the section 13 notice it tells you exactly how to get the rent reviewed. Of course there is the risk that the officer could increase the rent, but sounds unlikely in this case.
• I feel immense sympathy for the OP and can't offer any advice on how to remedy this, other than to contact Shelter and keep in touch with the local council about the likelihood of being rehoused if the landlord serves you notice should you refuse to participate in switching to LHA and can't meet the rent - the latter decision is something that you have to consider though it essentially means that you get into arrears because the rent level is unaffordable.
  You have to think whether you've got the appetite to stand up to the landlord and say 'No thanks to LHA, just serve me notice to get yourself a new tenant and I'll take my chances as to whether this triggers my entry into a secure social housing tenancy.If you insist on the higher rent in the meantime, as it is greater than my income, I cannot pay and therefore arrears are inevitable'
  Remember that the local council, when you are served notice, does not help as homeless candidates when they are defined as making themselves homeless intentionally - i.e. do something that causes their accommodation to end such as rent arrears BUT the latter is only a problem if they could have but did not pay your rent. Therefore you should seek clarification with the council and Shelter as to how your application will be treated if you refuse to participate in the switch to LHA, the landlord insists on the rent difference which you can't afford and this triggers your landlord to serve you notice (since if you serve him notice, the council probably won't help you).
  In context (and not to defend your landlord's approach in anyway), many housing benefit claimants could not get accommodation because the HB levels were way under market rents so LHA was introduced to try and set the rent to reflect market rates on a postcode basis. The aim is to make it more attractive to landlords to rent and therefore increase choice for the tenant. Obviously, the pendulum has swung the other way and now claimants are receiving subsidies for rent levels that they can never afford through employment, trapping some of those on benefits.
  Consider bringing your issues to the attention of your local MP so they can see the inadvertent effect of switching to LHA has had on some landlords who now set their rents according to more generous rental allowances under HB and the impact it has on you. Good luck.