Housing Benefit Training Seminar - Are you maximising your tenant’s entitlement?
Date: Wednesday 17th March 2010
Time: 10.00am – 1.00pm
Venue: Lindsays, 1 Royal Bank Place, Buchanan Street, Glasgow G1 3AA
This short course has been designed specifically for Private Landlords. In Part 1 the tutor will examine and illustrate, with the use of case examples, a number of the areas of HB administration that frequently cause friction, sometimes even conflict, between tenants, Landlords, those offering representation and Council HB staff charged with administering this complex and ever changing scheme.
HB is so important to your rental income and poor HB practise can represent a major contributory cause of rent arrears. The tutor will also explain how tenants, Landlords, and their representatives can best set about questioning and, if need be, challenging decisions through First-tier tribunals and Public Sector Ombudsman.
Learning Outcomes: At the end of part 1, you will better understand:
When should benefit normally start; the exceptions to this rule; ‘backdating’ and ‘good cause’. When can you ‘backdate without ‘cause’. When can ‘Ignorance of the law’ help to justify a retrospective award? When could ‘mistaken belief reasonably held’ apply?
- Reviewing/Superseding a claim, due to change in circumstances, ignorance/mistake of fact/ error of law etc. What is Review/Supersession and when does the change apply from?
- Non Dependents – How to correctly apply the charge, and minimise/eradicate unnecessary/inflated deductions.
- Housing Benefit Overpayments and recovery; Who from, and at what rate?
- What constitutes a legal decision; How to question/challenge a decision and submit an appeal to First-tier tribunal.
Part 2 (same day) - How to Minimise & Recover Rent Arrears
This course has been specifically designed for Private Landlords. The tutor will examine and illustrate, with the use of examples, how Private Landlords can minimise ongoing rent arrears in the event a tenant falls into arrears and the steps that can be taken to recover a property and to recover the arrears.
Your tenancy agreement is particularly important in ensuring that you can act quickly. You also need to consider the importance of guarantors and references. The tutor will explain the importance of certain tenancy agreement provisions in best protecting your position. It can also be very important to make sure the relevant notices are served timeously so that a tenancy can be terminated and the tutor will explain the importance of this and will give examples of various scenarios. The tutor will then discuss how to enforce court judgements and the importance of obtaining as much information as possible about the personal circumstances of the tenant or former tenant.
Learning Outcomes: at the end of this part of the course you will better understand:
• The importance of your tenancy agreement in allowing prompt legal action to be taken
• The benefits of Section 18(6) of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1988
• The importance of guarantors and references and the legal requirements for documents to be signed by guarantors
• The possibility of court action for payment alone
• Court actions for payment and eviction
• Enforcement options
• Pre-judgement enforcement options
• The importance of gathering information
Tutor part 1 - Bill IrvineThe tutor spent many years acting as a Welfare Rights Advocate, representing at all levels of Social Security Appeals, including Tribunal of Social Security Commissioner level. He was also Head of Benefits, Revenues, and Advice Services at one of the UK’s largest councils and local government adviser to HB Standing Committee, London. He has tutored, and spoken at national conferences, for many years, for CIH/NFHA and SFHA throughout the UK.
Tutor part 2 - Paul Harper
The tutor is a Partner in the Litigation Department at Lindsays. He has over 20 years’ experience in Court related matters and specialises in the law of landlord and tenant. He has spoken at housing conferences and issues regular bulletins to the rental sector.