Rent allowance waiting time: My tenant is in 7 weeks now RA hasnt come yet.

With the current economic situation has the waiting time for RA to be processed increased? I have a tenant who was on RA at his previous address and is now in my house.He is there 7 weeks now and the RA has still not come through,is this the norm?

Re: Rent allowance waiting time.

I would be wary of this situation. Usually if someone already has RA and they move, it is transferred with them and is fairly straightforward. It is possible that there is a delay because of the economic situation. But it is also possible that the tenant is pocketing the money and claiming to you that it hasn't come through - hopefully this is not the case.
I had a tenant who told me it was taking forever for his RA to come through. I contacted his community welfare officer and she told me that it had been processed weeks earlier. The tenant then claimed that he didn't realise the additional payment was RA (said he thought his dole had been increased!!) and had spent it. We gave him the benefit of the doubt and arranged that the RA come straight to me and that he pay a top up. Regardless, he was evicted within weeks for anti social behaviour.

Re: Rent allowance waiting time.

Rent Supplement does not transfer with the tenant, they must go through the application process again. It is possible that the claim is taking several weeks to process, because of the volume of work that CWOs are facing at the moment.

Re: Rent allowance waiting time.

Thanks for the replies. I'll see what happens in the next few days then get ringing.

Re: Rent allowance waiting time.

my tenant applied for RA end of May, I never got rent 1st June, nor 1st July, tenants now gone! but CWO confirm RA was paid 25th June direct to tenant. I have advised CWO as landlord that rent is still outstanding to me and tenants have left the premises, she advises nothing she can do. I believe only way to secure rent payment involving RA tenants is to insist payment is made direct to you as landlord, but as its not an automatic payment every month (continuous assessment I believe), it could be hard to track.

Re: Rent allowance waiting time.

Sorry that happened to you - but once bitten twice shy right? Never ever except the sob story as regards rent allowance. You need to have a firm answer ready before the potential tenant even asks. Many people have never applied for RA before and think it will be a breeze - sometimes it is - but more often they run into issues or don't receive as much money as they had hoped for.

Rent is paid up front, so is security deposit. If the tenant gets the RA money eventually - that's all well and good - but you should never be out of pocket.

If you stick to this rule it is NOT necessary to have RA paid direct to you. Many city/county RA schemes do not allow this anyway.

Re: Rent allowance waiting time.

Finally 9 weeks later he's been told the RA will be paid this week.About time.