Service Charges: Overcharging
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will consider introducing a statutory requirement for landlords to notify local authorities and the Department for Work and Pensions when a First Tier Tribunal finds they have overcharged tenants, to ensure the repayment of overpaid public funds via Housing Benefit or Universal Credit.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook
Where a tenant challenges a proposed rent increase at the Tribunal, any rent increase will be payable only from the start of the next rent period following the date of the Tribunal’s determination. This means that, in such circumstances, if the Tribunal determines a rent level below what the landlord proposed, the landlord will not have received any rent above the level determined by the Tribunal. This is intended to protect tenants from falling into rent arrears.
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