Finefair Ltd works to provide top tier real estate services to all its clients. Additionally, we supply them with all the information they seek. There are a lot of areas we specialise in. Examples would be guaranteed rent and council leasing. Also, we know about local housing allowance in Wandsworth. You can learn more about it below.
What is LHA?
Local housing allowance (LHA) originated from the UK Government in 2008. It acts as a way for them to calculate Housing Benefit entitlement. This is for tenants renting private sector accommodation in Scotland, England, and Wales.
The shift to LHA led to a big change in the way councils pay housing benefits, and restrictions. Among the changes, the swap to basing entitlement on the 30th percentile of rental accommodation was the biggest. Previously, it was the 50th percentile or median as the mark.
LHA makes use of the private market rental rates to discover what people are paying in a region. This is what we call a BRMA. It looks at rates for the same quantity of bedrooms in the structure. The goal here is to guarantee that tenants living somewhere with similar buildings can claim the same amounts when they rent from private landlords. The rules for local housing allowance in Wandsworth help councils to control costs as well.
January is when the LHA rates get set. April is when they take effect. Current LHA rates, by postcode and local authority, are always available from the Valuation Office Agency. Most local authorities also publish them.
The important thing here is the rent officer creates a list of LHA rates for different categories of home in every broad market rental area. The first is a single room rate. There are then ones for two, three, and four bedrooms. While people can rent homes with more than this number of rooms, the maximum they can claim LHA for is four.
The approach to local housing allowance in Wandsworth
This borough has its own approach to LHA. Under the rules, benefits get paid straight to the tenant rather than the landlord. It’s then the tenant’s responsibility to pay rent to their landlord. So, if the rent exceeds the LHA rate, the tenant must make up the difference.
Tenants will get their Housing Benefit every fortnight in arrears. It goes straight into their bank or building society account. However, the council isn’t able to pay benefits into post office accounts. For anyone lacking the aforementioned accounts, it would be wise to open one before claiming
The council needs details to pay to the landlord
While the norm is to pay Housing Benefit to the tenant, there are situations where the council will pay the landlord. For example, they may determine someone is struggling to pay their rent. Or it may be this kind of arrangement will help the tenant in retaining or gaining a tenancy. Should the council decide to pay the landlord, they will write to them for more details. If they agree, landlord’s will get Housing Benefit in arrears every four weeks.
Anyone that is making a new claim for local housing allowance in Wandsworth might want the council to pay benefits right to their landlords. For this to happen, they have to finish the relevant part of the online form by giving them as much evidence and information as possible. With this, they can make their decision. If a claim is in payment already, they must explain why they want the payments to go directly to the landlord.
Come to us for the best experience
With Finefair Ltd, you have access to one of the most impressive lists of property services out there. We work in areas like property management, guaranteed rent, tenancies, and more. Not to mention, we’re more than happy to help with other details that can have an impact on landlords and tenancies.
So, if a top tier service is what you’re after, talk to us.
