Housing Benefit information for landlords

If we pay Housing Benefit to you, you have a legal duty to tell us about changes that may affect the tenant's entitlement or how we pay you.

Examples of changes you should tell us about are:

• if your tenant moves out
• if your tenant changes accommodation (including changing rooms or flats within the same building)
• if there is a change in the rent you charge your tenant
• if somebody else moves in, and
• if your own circumstances change (for example, you change your address or bank details), if we are making the payments directly into your bank account.

You are committing a criminal offence if, deliberately or without a reasonable excuse, you do not report a change of circumstances which is included in the regulations. We don't expect any landlord to interfere with their tenant's affairs, only to report changes they become aware of.