The owner of a Southend property allegedly occupied by squatters has said the local council paid them housing benefit when they moved into her property without having a tenancy agreement.
Rita Patel, 45, says the situation has so far cost her £7,200 in unpaid rent and legal fees trying to evict the current tenants from her property – but Southend Council is maintaining that it is within its rights to pay housing benefit to the tenants living there
Local publishers the Echo reports that the previous tenant Teresa Usowicz was evicted from the property last autumn, after which her estranged husband Romuald Usowicz and his extended family moved into the property in Southend without a tenancy agreement.
Mrs Patel said:
“I am trying to get them out through the court and the council goes and starts paying housing benefit to them when they are not even paying me rent. With lost rent and legal costs, I am now seriously out-of-pocket.”
It is reported the tenants received £1,360 over two months in housing benefit – the council has now stopped their housing benefit, however.
The council said that it was unable to discuss individual cases because of confidentiality, but council spokesman Joe Chesterton – head of finance and resources at Southend Council – said:
“… the council takes every reasonable step to make sure housing benefit is lawfully paid – and in this case, we are satisfied it has been.
“The relevant law enables us to recover any housing benefit where it ought not to have been paid – or where there has been fraud.
“Although it is good practice to have a written tenancy agreement, there can be informal arrangements – say in a case where a partner remains in the property and the original tenant leaves.
“If the landlord accepts the housing benefit payments, then these can be paid even if the tenant has no formal tenancy agreement.”
Mr Usowicz’s daughter – who spoke on behalf of the family because her father’s English is limited – said that her father had told her they had stopped paying rent for the property because Mrs Patel had failed to deal with problems such as mice and a gas leak at the property.
She said that the family had tried to pay her the rent again, but Mrs Patel “just wanted them out”.
“She said she could not do anything,” Mr Usowicz’s daughter told Echo reporters.
“We have tried to pay the rent again, but she does not want it because she just wants us out.
“We have nowhere else to stay and the council is not helping us yet.”
Since the Coalition government came to power in May 2010, it is estimated that around £500 million has been wrongly paid or overpaid to housing benefit claimants and has not yet been recovered.
Duncan Lewis Housing Solicitors
Duncan Lewis is a leading firm of housing solicitors and can advise on issues such as Landlord & Tenant disputes, as well as disrepair of rented property, unlawful eviction and housing benefit.
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For expert help with housing law, contact Duncan Lewis solicitors on 020 7923 4020.