Hi,

I have a tenant, who on the day she was supposed to move in her bungalow,became very ill & was admitted to a nursing home for treatment as the hospital had the MRSA bug.She was discharged from the nursing home to her daughter's address as she needs care to help her get over her illness.The tenancy commenced in July and the tenant is still not well enough to live there but intends to asap.Furniture and personal belongings were moved into the property before tenancy commencement date and utility bills etc are sent to the tenancy address. Prior to taking on the new tenancy, the tenant was in receipt
of full HB/CTB.
The L.A are refusing to pay HB/CTB and say tenant does not satisfy the criteria as per reg 5(6), (7) of HB Gen Regs 1987.
The tenant is being penalised for falling ill & being unable to move in.The arrears are now over £1,000.

Any ideas,you HB experts? Bear in mind this particular L.A does not exercise much in the way of leniency!
I would be very grateful for any help.
Cheers,
Jeannette

There is a very useful Commissioners decision CH2957/2004 where the Commissioner ruled that (at least in some circumstances) the act of moving furniture in constituted moving in even if the person did not physically stay there (eg where they were in hospital)

Tue 01-Feb-05 03:36 PM by shawn

here is a link to the decision

CH2957/2004

(link edited by shawn)

Thanks Angela Williams for faxing me the Commisioner's decision and thanks Stainsby for your reply.....hooray, I'm going to go get 'em!
Jeannette

This one is useful when someone moves out the parent's home. I've just won a tribunal using this decision in that situation.