Appeal hearing due re recovery of HBO from landlord (RSL). The LA does advise in writing of benefit awards, overpayments etc. i.e. there is compliance with the Regs. Where ongoing HB the LA recovers from this, and when challanged have recovered some op's from the tenant directly. We accept recovery (from other tenant's benefit) in a reasonable number of cases.
However, have appeal case for very large fraud overpayment (over £10,000), which has been recovered. Due to restricted appeal rights I am trying to show this to be unreasonable. I have made the usual arguments about it being more of a deterrent if recovery dirct from tenant, impact on RSL's finances, Guidance in DWP overpayments manual etc. But last appeal hearing said as LA had at least considered different recovery methods, they were not acting illegally. I want to show that they are acting in a manner which would not be expected from other LA's.
Does anyone else have this type of recovery in fraud cases, or would your LA not recover in this type of case?

Any suggestions welcomed

Also, any word on when revised regulations will be out re appeal rights? last I heard was they were due Nov 04.

Our LA would never recover a Fraud overpayment from a landlord unless the landlord was complicit in the fraud itself.

However, some comments from Commissioners in recent decisions leads me to believe that you may have a very hard time in proving your case.

As you suggest in your posting, you will need to prove that the LA acted so unreasonably that no reasonable person could have reached that decision. Given the fact that the LA is allowed to consider the cost and efficacy of different methods of recovery when making that recovery decision, this will be difficult to prove.