Terms & Conditions

[jerikaz]

Can anyone help on the following scenario, please? Have tried to locate legislation or guidance but I am struggling.

Claim for pensioner received 20.6.06. Rent payable £500 per month. ROD comes back with LRR £390 per month.
We contacted the claimant and advised that we could “backdate” the start date of the claim for 52 weeks prior. At this point it came to light that the rent payable for this earlier period was £475 per month with the increase to £500 effective from 11.7.05.

At this point, I was unsure whether the ROD based on the rent payable of £500 would be applicable to the earlier period where the rent payable was £475. Can find no legislation that covers this or guidance.

So decided to refer again to Rent Service for the earlier period. The Rent Service replied stating that the referral was outside the scope of the scheme because the referral was for a period prior to the last decision. However, they have given us a non statutory valuation (never heard of one of these before) with a LRR for £368.33. This states that the valuation is for informal advice only!

I am now in a position where I do not know what to do! Can anyone help please?

[JamesPickering]

Hi,

I will stick my head above the parapet with the expectation of being shot down very quickly.

I don’t think the rules on this are any different from a Pensioner claim to a Working Age claimant who requested backdated HB for 52 weeks, the general rule is that we request an ROD from the RO within 3 days and the claim being made and the decision is valid for 52 weeks from the referral date (unless they have a change of circs that affect the ROD).

In your case the RO would not provide another decision as the decision he has supplied already restricts the rent to less than it was before the rent increase. I expect the restriction by the RO is either for Size or Significantly high and as it is valid for 52 weeks as there has been no change that would affect the his valuation.

If you change the thinking slightly and assume he had claimed prior to his rent increase in 2005, if you had referred and received your ROD with the LRR of £368.33, you would not have been able to refer increased rent of £500.00 due to the restriction already in place.

With regard to the £368.33 provided by the RO I imagine they are trying to be helpful and have provided the LRR for the property type in the area for July 2005.

Hope this helps or that Peter Barker or Kevin D can come along and provide you wih the regs etc you need.

James

[jerikaz]

Thank you for your reply. Yes you are right to say that the same scenario could apply to working age claims that are backdated. I would be grateful if someone could point me in the direction of the legislation that covers this. Thank you.

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