Does anybody know how you can get a council to re-examine its criteria for setting the eligible rent used to calculate Housing Benefit. Glasgow City Council's eligible rent rates bare no relation to actual market rates for private rented property and they seem to have stopped paying DHP to make up the difference.

This reply assumes the query refers to Rent Officer determinations in private tenant cases.

Eligible rents are not set by the LA's benefits section. They are set by the Rent Service. The only means currently available to challenge such a decision are as follows:

1) The clmt can send a request to the LA asking that the Rent Officer looks at the valuation (the LA should forward this to the R/O). This carries a small risk that any redetermination will be lower than the original.

2) and/OR, seek a Judicial Review.

Just to be clear, any "appeal" to the LA about adopting a Rent Officer determination is outside the jurisdiction of an Appeals Tribunal - hence the JR option.

Regards

Thanks Kevin

When contacting the LA should my client give any further information or just ask for a review of the valuation? Would it give weight to his cause if his landlord also requested rent registration?

I think our system is slightly different - the Rent Service doesn't operate in Scotland as far as I can make out.

While confessing that I don't have a detailed knowledge of Scottish law, there is definitely a provision for a Rent Service (or at least an equivalent) in Scotland.

HBR 12A applies to both English & Scottish law. Additionally, Scotland has its own Rent Officers (Housing Benefit Functions) (Scotland) Order which suggests that the basic rules about rent officer referrals apply (although there may be minor differences in the way the Rent Officer reaches a decision).

As for "rent registration", I'm not sure how different this aspect is in Scotland. In short, a tenancy commencing after 15 Jan 1989 in England & Wales will not have a "registered rent" (at least to the best of my knowledge).

Any private tenancy after 15 Jan 1989 is subject to R/O referral. For any NEW HB claims made from October 1996, the current R/O rules MUST be applied (unless the case falls within a specified exemption).

A couple of pieces of case law relating to challenging RODs are:

R(oao SAADAT & others) v Rent Service (2001) EWCA Civ 1559 HLR 613
- also see the High Court transcript cited as
R(oao DINSDALE & others) v Rent Service (2001) EWHC Admin 65 QBD

And,
R v Rent Service ex p CUMPSTY (2002) EWHC Admin 2526 QBD

Saadat / Dinsdale are both available on Bailii (www.bailii.org). Cumptsy is available on Rightsnet (can't locate the link for now).

Regards