Thanks Peter.
The RO valuation had been £13.50 since 2018 but this time they’ve increased it to £16.97. The licence agreements specify an ineligible charge not eligible for Housing Benefit of £10.80. They’ve shown how they’ve come to that figure and without over analysing it it doesn’t appear to necessarily stand out as unreasonably low. That being the case, given the increase in energy costs recently who’s to say that the RO valuation may actually be more realistic?
My question is, given that it appears we can choose to use the RO valuation or the landlord’s what is the order in which we should consider our decision? Should we first consider using the landlord’s valuation and only if we think it unreasonably low consider using the RO valuation instead? At the moment it appears we always use the RO figure without any consideration as to if the figure given to us by the landlord is unreasonably low. In fact, sometimes it means we’re actually paying more HB than the landlord expects as the RO figure is lower than theirs! From what you have said it sounds like we are approaching this in the wrong way, do you agree?
