The Housing Benefit (Local Housing Allowance and Information Sharing) Amendment Regulations 2007

Substitution of regulations 15 to 18 of the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006

9.  For regulations 15 (applications to the rent officer for redetermination) to 18 (application of provisions to substitute determinations or substitute redeterminations) substitute—

“Application to the rent officer for redeterminations

15.— (1) Subject to paragraph (2) and regulation 16 (application for redetermination by rent officer), where a relevant authority has obtained from a rent officer either or both of the following—

(a) a determination on a reference made under regulation 13D(10) (board and attendance determination) or regulation 14 (requirement to refer to rent officers);

(b) a redetermination on a reference made under regulation 16(2) (application for redetermination by rent officer),

the authority may apply to the rent officer for a redetermination of any determination or redetermination he has made which has effect at the date of the application.

(2) No application shall be made for a further redetermination of a redetermination made in response to an application under paragraph (1).

Application for a redetermination by a rent officer

16.— (1) This paragraph applies where—

(a) a person affected makes written representations which are signed by him, to a relevant authority concerning a decision which it makes in relation to him;

(b) those representations relate, in whole or in part, to a rent officer’s determination or redetermination in exercise of the Housing Act functions except for functions relating to broad rental market area determinations and local housing allowance determinations or amended determinations; and

(c) those representations are made no later than one month after the day on which the person affected was notified of the decision by the relevant authority.

(2) Subject to paragraphs (3) and (4), where paragraph (1) applies, the relevant authority shall, within 7 days of receiving the representations, apply to the rent officer for a redetermination or, as the case may be, a further redetermination in exercise of the Housing Act functions and a copy of those representations shall accompany the local authority’s application.

(3) Except where paragraph (4) applies, a relevant authority, in relation to any determination by a rent officer of an application under regulation 13D(10) (board and attendance determination) or 14(1) (requirement to refer to rent officers), shall not apply for a redetermination under paragraph (2) more than once in respect of an individual claimant’s dwelling to which that determination relates.

(4) Paragraph (2) shall operate so as to require a relevant authority to make a second application where the following conditions are met in addition to those imposed by that paragraph—

(a) the written representations made under paragraph (1) relate to a redetermination by a rent officer made in response to an application by the relevant authority under regulation 15 (application to the rent officer for redetermination);

(b) by the time of that application, the rent officer has already provided a redetermination under this regulation of a determination made in response to an application under regulation 13D(10) or 14(1); and

(c) both the application under this regulation referred to in sub-paragraph (b) and the second application for which this paragraph provides relate to the same claimant.

(5) Where a decision has been revised in consequence of a redetermination, substitute determination or substitute redetermination by a rent officer in exercise of the Housing Act functions (except for those relating to broad rental market area determinations and local housing allowance determinations or amended determinations) and that redetermination, substitute determination or substitute redetermination has led to—

(a) a reduction in the maximum rent, the redetermination, substitute determination or substitute redetermination shall be a change of circumstances;

(b) an increase in the maximum rent, the redetermination, substitute determination or substitute redetermination shall have effect in place of the original determination.

Substitute determinations or substitute redeterminations

17.— (1) In a case where either—

(a) the appropriate authority discovers that an application it has made to the rent officer contained an error in respect of any of the following—

(i) the size of the dwelling;

(ii) the number of occupiers;

(iii) the composition of the household;

(iv) the terms of the tenancy; or

(b) the rent officer has, in accordance with article 7A(1) or (2)(1) of the Rent Officers Order, notified an appropriate authority of an error he has made (other than in the application of his professional judgement),

the authority shall apply to the rent officer for a substitute determination, substitute redetermination, board and attendance redetermination, substitute board and attendance determination or substitute board and attendance redetermination, as the case may be.

(2) In its application to the rent officer the relevant authority shall state the nature of the error and withdraw any previous application relating to the same case for a redetermination or substitute determination or substitute redetermination, which it has made but to which the rent officer has not yet responded.

Application of provisions to substitute determinations or substitute redeterminations

18.   Regulations 15, 16 and 17 apply to a substitute determination or substitute redetermination as they apply to the determination or redetermination it replaces.”.

(1)

Article 7A was inserted into the Rent Officers (Housing Benefit Functions) Order 1997 by S.I. 2000/1 and into the Rent Officers (Housing Benefit Functions) (Scotland) Order 1997 by S.I. 2000/3. It was amended in both instruments by S.I. 2003/2398 and 2007/2871.