Housing benefit (information for landlords)

The law states that an overpayment can be recovered from either the person who caused the overpayment or the person to whom the overpayment was made.

In practice the Council will normally recover from the tenant in situations where they have had a change in their circumstances.

This will be in situations such as when their income has changed or someone has moved in with them and their benefit has been reduced.

How the overpayment will be recovered

• By deduction from ongoing benefit that the tenant may still be entitled to. This would mean that future payments would be less than their full entitlement until the recovery is complete
• Where the tenant has moved and the payment was being made direct to the landlord then the overpayment can be deducted from other payments made to that landlord (such as from payments made in respect of other tenants)
• By the issue of an invoice to the tenant or the landlord

If as a landlord you ever disagree with the fact that you are being required to repay the overpayment then you should write to the Council within one calendar month of receiving the notification informing you of this.