To be eligible to claim housing benefit you must have a liability to pay rent. You don’t need to have a written tenancy agreement, but a clearly written agreement will be of assistance to you and your landlord.

In some circumstances you can be 'treated' as liable for rent, e.g. this applies if you're the partner of a liable person.

Another person (perhaps another member of the liable person’s family) can also be treated as liable for rent where payments are not otherwise being made and it is reasonable to accept that person as being liable for rent. This may happen where the person who usually pays the rent has left the home and a family member takes on the responsibility to avoid repossession because of mounting arrears.

If you're a joint tenant with your partner, you are both liable for the rent, but only one of you can make the claim. If you are a joint tenant with someone who is not your partner, you make separate claims and your entitlement to Housing Benefit will be assessed separately.

Treated as not liable for rent

There are some circumstances in which you may be paying rent, but for housing benefit purposes you will be treated as not liable for rent and so refused benefit.

For example, this can happen where you are 'residing with' and paying rent to a close relative of yourself or your partner. For this rule, 'close relative' means a parent, parent in law or step-parent, son or daughter, son-in-law or daughter-in-law, stepson or stepdaughter or stepson-in-law, stepdaughter-in-law, brother, sister, brother-in-law or sister-in-law.

However, if you rent a property from a close relative who does not live there, this will not apply. Your close relative is treated as 'residing with' you if you share some accommodation other than a bathroom, toilet, hall or passageway, even if you have exclusive access to other rooms.

This can also happen where your agreement with your landlord is not on a 'commercial basis'. This can be complicated and you may need independent help and advice if it this is the case. It may happen where the local authority thinks your landlord will not enforce part of the agreement between you, for example if they 'let you off' when you are in rent arrears, rather than taking action against you. The local authority will look at the whole of your agreement when considering if it is enforceable.

You will also be treated as not liable for rent if:

• your rent liability is to a former partner of yours, or of your partner’s, and the rent was due on the home of the couple before they parted
• you or your partner are 'responsible for a child' of your landlord. This means that you're including that child in your benefit claims, rather than you are just looking after the child
• you or your partner owned the property you are claiming for and you have not lived anywhere else since owning it. In this case, you cannot claim housing benefit for a period of five years, unless you could not have carried on living there without giving up ownership. This may apply where you have give up ownership and become the tenant of a housing association because your home would otherwise have been repossessed
• your occupation of your home is a term of your employment (such as tied cottages)
• you're a member of a religious order and you are completely supported by that order
• your home is a residential care home. There are exceptions to this, so seek advice.

You will be treated as not liable for rent if your agreement is deemed to be 'contrived' in order to take advantage of the housing benefit scheme.

There are various other measures to prevent people making claims that take advantage of the housing benefit system. These may apply if your rent liability is to a trust with which you are personally involved or if you were previously a non-dependant in the home for which you now claim and the previous claimant still lives there. You should contact us seek help in these complicated situations.