I have recently seen a client who has a shared ownership agreement for a house in order to complete a HB application for the rented portion. When I asked for a tenancy agreement to go with the application I was given what appears to be a 125 year lease arrangement, not a tenancy. I thought leases of over 21 years were not eligible for HB, can anyone enlighten me as it appears that some other claimants in the same type of set up do actually get HB.

Thu 23-Apr-09 10:13 AM by AmyJ

Reg 12(2)(a) of The Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 indicates that rent for a shared ownership tenancy granted by a housing association or housing authority can be paid as part of Housing Benefit for leases over 21 years. Link to regs as follows:

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2006/uksi_20060213_en.pdf

Thanks for that, mystery cleared up!