Information for landlords

The information on this page is designed to help landlords understand how we can help them, and how housing benefit can work for their tenants.

Landlord forums are an opportunity to meet other landlords and keep up to date with regulations and legislation.

Landlord forums
These are informal and often feature guest speakers. We hold forums in the north, west and southeast of the county at least twice a year. Find out more here.

Housing benefit
If you require any further information regarding how your tenant claims housing benefit, please click here.

Universal Credit
Further information for private and social sector landlords regarding universal credit is available here
Housing benefit regulations say if a tenant owes rent for eight weeks or more, we must pay the landlord directly, unless we consider it in their best interest not to.

There are safeguards in place to protect the interests of landlords. Payment may be made direct to the landlord where we decide the tenant is:
  • likely to have difficulty in managing their financial affairs
  • unlikely to pay their rent
  • the authority considers paying the landlord will assist the claimant in securing or retaining their letting
We recommend that if a tenant is beginning to build up arrears, you should inform us before it reaches eight weeks. This will allow us to investigate if a there is a problem to be addressed.
You and your tenant should inform us immediately in writing, about any changes that may affect a benefit.

Typical examples of changes in circumstances are:
  • if they change address
  • if their rent changes
  • if the size of their family changes
  • if an adult moves into or out of the house
  • if the tenant’s income changes
Landlords only have certain rights to appeal if they do not agree with our decision about their tenants' housing benefit. These include:
  • whether we pay benefit directly to you
  • whether we decide you should pay an overpayment
Valuation Office Agency Rent Officers depend on the goodwill and trust of landlords, letting agents and tenants who provide details of rent levels being paid in the private rented sector

When you contribute details of rent levels you help to improve data used to:
  • set Local Housing Allowance and Housing Benefit which help private tenants with their rent
  • produce official Private Rental Market (PRM) statistics and PRM maps 
  • calculate the private rental element of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Retail Price Index (RPI), two measures of price inflation which affect every citizen in the UK
For further details, please visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-housing-allowance-and-statistics-on-private-rent-levels
People who deliberately claim benefits they are not entitled to are committing a criminal offence. If a landlord, who is paid housing benefit directly, fails to notify the council their tenant has left the property, they may be committing benefit fraud.