From: "Zoe Brown" 
Newsgroups: uk.finance uk.legal
Subject: Re: Housing benefit?
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2005 17:51:27 GMT


"sharky"  wrote in message 
news:3iaefiFkot4hU1@individual.net...
> Zoe Brown wrote:
>> "sharky"  wrote in message 
>> news:3iad68FkjkhaU1@individual.net...
>>
>>>Zoe Brown wrote:
>>>
>>>>>As a Landlord, you can ask the tenant to get the council to pay direct.
>>>>>The snag with this is that if the tenant does a runner, claims 
>>>>>fraudently etc, the council can demand the money back off you.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>they might try but unless you were party to the fraud the council are 
>>>>unable to enforce this action.
>>>
>>>They bloody are! When you agree to accept the rent direct from the 
>>>council there is a clause which you have to sign saying something along 
>>>the lines of 'if you are overpaid/paid in error/etc, we can have the 
>>>money back.'
>>>One of my tenants left the flat without telling me or the council, and I 
>>>didn't find out for 8-10 weeks after he left. I continued getting rent 
>>>direct thru these weeks, and it was in fact the council writing to me 
>>>demanding 8 weeks rent back that alerted me to the fact tenant had gone.
>>>Had to pay the buggers too!
>>
>>
>> Not all councils have this policy and I suspect you could have faught 
>> this in court if you wished.
> Doubt it very much.
> The other thing you can get stung with is that the tenant can choose at 
> anytime to have the rent paid directly to them instead, and the council 
> doesn't bother telling the landlord that things have altered.
> So all of a sudden, monthly rent cheque stops, by the time you catch hold 
> of the tenant, six weeks has gone by and so has the rent he received, then 
> he skips as well, leaving you weeks out of pocket.

Well this could ahppen with any tenant !