Scenario:

Local Authority Homeless Services refer individuals who are in priority need to temporary accommodation provided by a Charity who are external to the LA. Therefore the LA are discharging their statutory responsibility to accommodate homeless people to a partnering organisation.

Charity that provides the temporary accommodation enters into an agreement with the individual which includes the occupancy arrangements and house rules etc. However their is no rental liability on that individual to reside as the charity invoices the homeless services department a charge per night for the duration of that individuals residence, as per general procedures.

The LA completes a HB application form on behalf of the homeless individual and HB is paid directly to the LA, the LA do not have an agreement with the homeless individual or any service level agreement with the HB department.

Is HB legally payable to the LA?

Hi
in my LA homeless applicants are housed in B&B arranged by the homeless dept. The Homeless Dept advise the HB section of the daily charge for the accommodation. HB is based on this daily rent less standard deuctions for breakfast and heating /hot water. The HB is paid by the to homeless dept. via a cheque as per a private landlord.
This appears similar to your situation -it would seem reasonable to pay the LA if they have provided the accommodation via the third party. In this way the tenant does not have to deal with the third party in respect of paying any rent /charge. The third party gets paid direct by homeless thus avoiding any HB delays.

Due to the nature of this type of accommodation it would seem resonable that there does not need to be a formal agreement.

That is my view as a former HB assessor.

Hi, thanks for that.

I agree that this arrangement is probably the most suitable for this type of accommodation and client group however when I stepped back and looked at the procedure in place to pay HB direct to the LA without any rental liability I questioned the legality of the actual payments.

Still unsure.

I'm no expert on the legal side so can't really help with your query I'm afraid, but I'd be interested to know more about a scenario that could do a lot for homelessness charities' income streams.

If the HB claim is unsuccessful, do the homeless service still pay the full rent over to the charity? Sounds like a good arrangement for the charity to avoid any rental/HB losses. 100% collection rates!! I presume the homeless service bear the loss?

Out of interst, how long are these stays in the charity's accommodation (just a couple of weeks or does it stretch to months?).

Also, is the charity an RSL?