The role of the rent officer service (private landlords only)

In most cases rents charged by private landlords are referred to the rent officer who is independent of the council. Registered housing association rents do not normally need to be referred unless the council considers that the rent being charged is unreasonably high or the accommodation unreasonably large for the claimant.

The rent officer has a duty to advise the council of the level of rent that must be used to calculate housing benefit. He will advise the council of:

• The Claim Related rent for the property.
• The Local Reference rent. This is the average rent charged to persons not in receipt of benefit for a property of a similar size or an appropriate size if the property is considered too large.
• The Single Room Rent (for single tenants under 25 years old)

The Council is required to calculate benefit using the lowest of the figures received from the rent officer. This is known as the “maximum rent” and it may well be lower than the actual rent being charged. Because of this there are times when a claimant can be awarded ‘maximum housing benefit’ based upon the rent officer valuation and their income, but this does not cover all their rent. For private-landlord tenants there is no guarantee that all their rent will be met by housing benefit.

Where the full rent cannot be paid, the tenant is responsible for paying the difference to the landlord as well as paying for any periods for where they were not entitled to receive benefit.

There are some services that may be included in the rent that cannot be met by housing benefit, e.g. meals, fuel, water rates, general counselling and support.

For claims made before 3 April 2000 the Council has to make deductions from the maximum rent in respect of these services. Deductions for some services are specified in the Regulations. For others, the amounts you have agreed with your tenant or an amount the Council has calculated will be used. For claims made after 3 April 2000 the rent officer will determine the value of ineligible services included in the rent (except meals).

The claim related rent and local reference rent will be net of these ineligible service charges (except meals) and the council will not make any deductions from the maximum rent (except for meals).

Under 25's

Benefit for a single tenant who is under 25 years old must in most cases be restricted to the rent officer’s Single Room Rent. This will apply even if the claimant is renting a self-contained flat

Pre-tenancy determinations (PTD)

A pre-tenancy determination is a rental valuation by the independent rent officer Service. The valuation gives you the rent amount which must be used by the council's benefits service when working out a tenant's housing benefit entitlement.

A pre-tenancy determination does not guarantee that benefit will be awarded. The amount of housing benefit that will be awarded will depend on the tenant's income and other circumstances and may be often be less than the PTD valuation.

• The PTD provides both the landlord and the prospective tenant with information on the level of rent eligible for benefit for the property in question and before the tenant decides to rent the property.
• The Council, the tenant and the landlord each receives a copy of the rent officer’s decision, for use if that tenant decides to make a claim in respect of that property.
• Once a PTD has been provided it remains in force for 12 months unless there is a change of composition of the dwelling or numbers of tenants in the household.
• A PTD allows the Council to deal with benefit claims more quickly because we know in advance what rent figure to use to calculate entitlement.
• An application form for a pre-tenancy determination is available from the area benefits teams.
• A PTD is not a claim for benefit - claims must be made on the council's claim form as soon as possible.
• Any housing benefit will usually be awarded from the Monday following receipt of the benefit claim and not from the date of the pre-tenancy determination.

Re-determinations to the rent officer

When a rent officer has made a determination of the rent, following an application from the Council the tenant can request for the determination to be looked at again if they are not satisfied. This is called a re-determination.

Tenants will be able to seek one re-determination of any rent officer determination. The tenant will be required to make a written representation to the Council within one month of the date of the notification of their benefit award. The Council will write to the rent officer on the tenant’s behalf for a re-determination. The tenant may seek a re-determination in relation to each RO determination. If a subsequent tenant has their benefit determined using an existing RO determination they are able to seek a re-determination regardless of whether the previous tenant had made such a request.