May 9 • General discussion
APA claims with DWP
It seems that where there is a repayment plan in place this will be suspended if the tenant advises them there is a repair issue or similar.
The Tenant has a week to provide evidence but they do not contact the Landlord for their side of the issue!
It seems that any HB is then diverted to the Tenant and not held by DWP pending it being resolved because it is their money!!!!!!!! I also pointed out that it was a breach of the Agreement as rent could not be with held because of repair issues so technically they were acting illegally.
Several others including the NRLA rep agreed that it was wrong not to seek both views before stopping the payments or even advising the Landlord of the dispute and even then, I did point out that it was not their money but State money provided to put a roof over their head and if the did not use it to pay rent then it was effectively misuse of public funds and could be classed as fraud!
You can imagine how well that went down!
Also remember that the maximum repayment amount has gone down from 25% to 15% of the benefit so dont ignore any missed payments and chase immediately. It could be worth speaking to your Council PRS team as they have a fund to maintain Tenancies and may be able to py any missed payments provided it is only a month or two. It is cheaper to do that than pay Temporary Housing costs!
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APA claims with DWP
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