UC think my tenancy agreement is fraudulent/contrived. Advice please

[Tenancyproblems]

I have just moved in to a privately rented property. I do not know the landlord personally and had never spoken to them before in my life until I applied to the advert on the open rent website.

I receive (atleast I did) the housing element of universal credit to help me to pay my rent.

When I moved in I uploaded the tenancy agreement on my UC portal as advised. They came back to me and said I need to provide evidence of my address and housing costs.

I was confused as the rent etc is all detailed in the tenancy however the landlord promptly wrote me a signed letter addressed to me at the new place FAO universal credit with the required details to support my claim.

Somebody called me the next day to clarify a few points (making sure I don't know the landlord personally, asking who else lives with me etc)

I answered honestly and UC said they'd get back to me shortly with a decision on my housing costs. That decision came back and the verdict was they would not be paying my housing costs. A generic letter was put up on my UC portal saying I hadn't provided enough evidence to satisfy them that I lived where I said I live and haven't shown evidence of housing costs(??)

Confused, I called them pretty upset and said I don't know what's going on here but I've done everything asked of me. The UC representative was sympathetic and said she would escalate it to a manager who would look at the claim.

Days later I check my UC portal and the decision has come back exactly the same. I'm entitled to my personal entitlement but no housing costs.

I contact them again, and again, and eventually they make an appointment for me to take my documents (IE tenancy etc) to be verified at my local job centre - that appointment was today.

I arrive there at 1pm with my tenancy agreement and some new documents I've been able to collect (a council headed letter regarding my children's school meals, more paperwork from the energy company) and before I've even sat down the advisor tells me that it's already gone above his head and the decision maker has rejected the housing element of my claim.

I'm completely baffled by this point and ask him what the problem is. He said there was several things "the decision makers" weren't happy with, a spelling mistake of the landlords name was one thing he mentioned but he offered no further context. He went on to say that during lockdown they saw a huge influx of fraudulent / contrived claims and now they leave no stone left unturned. He asked whether I could provide anything else. I said well no I've only been here just over a week I don't have anything else.

I'm then reminded of the tenancy deposit protection scheme and he asked whether I could provide the certificate for that. I was able to and said of course. He added a "to do" task for me on my journal which was exactly the same "to do" as I've done three times now (uploading the same documents) and said I could ask for a mandatory reconsideration and I'm now at the mercy of the same decision maker again I think.

If they reject it again I won't be able to remain here as I can't afford to.

I don't know what's going on here. I don't know the landlord personally. I'm not trying to defraud anybody of anything. I'm a lone parent who has never had any issues with the housing element of UC and now I may be at risk of homelessness.

Landlord is equally as dumbfounded. We are both completely genuine.

What on earth am I going to do?

In my experience there are plenty of jumped up little jobsworths at HMRC too ! They will likely all be switched over to DWP when everyone is migrated over by the end of 2024.

This is worrying. No-one really gets refused for UC unless the DWP suddenly find hidden funds of more than 16k which had not been declared or they are found to have no recourse to public funds or something and therefore not eligible due to their immigration status..

It's very unusual isn't it?

I have many working friends who have been able to claim supplemental universal credit with no problem whatsoever.

There was no problem whatsoever with me getting housing costs at the old place.

Thanks! But it's probably not worth it anyway, my youngest dd is nearly 17 so my claim will be ending in around 18 months - 2 years when she leaves full-time education anyway.

Some other considerations as I've been wracking my brain..

When I moved in there was a large stack of unopened letters addressed to multiple people. I've counted 4 different surnames and then some addressed to the landlord personally.

Landlord said they'll need to be picked up as there's some important ones that need to be tended to.

One in particular caught my eye due to what was written on it, something about "final notice you could lose your home" or something like that. I didn't think anything of it at the time as its obviously not addressed to me.. but now I'm wondering whether that's something to do with it and the fact there's loads of post to different people?

Council tax reminder that's what it is. Addressed to landlord. The front says

"Your home is at risk if you ignore this notice"

Relevant or not?

The letter in question with all identifying information removed obviously.

Am I clutching at straws?

Potentially yes. Unless he has only picked up the C Tax bill while the property was empty (but why not send it to the address he lives at? It is possible) then he could be claiming to live at the property that is also being let to you.

When I rented and had to make a claim for housing benefit after being made redundant(pre UC) I had put down what I thought was my landlady's name on the forms. It was actually her mother's property that was being rented out to provide some income towards carehome fees so she didn't show on the land registry as the owner. They had to provide all their details of the power of attorney, land registry/deeds etc for my claim to be valid

If the council tax reminder is addressed to the landlord then that suggests that the last tenant perhaps never switched it to his name ? No idea why though. It does all sound a bit dodgy to be honest.

Potentially yes. Unless he has only picked up the C Tax bill while the property was empty (but why not send it to the address he lives at? It is possible) then he could be claiming to live at the property that is also being let to you

WOW something just clicked.. the DWP lady who called me to go over the details of my housing costs specifically asked me whether the landlord lives here with me!

I thought that was a routine question, but if the landlord was thought to live here that would totally explain the question wouldn't it!

And ofc they wouldn't pay my housing costs if they think I'm living with the landlord...

It sounds to me as if you've been given the runaround by more than one jobsworth.

Take this complaint to your local MP at their constituency office. I would start with a clear written account of what's happened (similar to your OP here) and request the MP's to take up the issue on your behalf.

IME, the involvement of my MP had electrifying results on the DWP.

I hope you noted the name of every person you've been dealing with; and the date of each contact.

That is a routine question asked on a few benefit forms though. I guess he could be living with a partner who is claiming as single and he is making sure he is registered at another address so he's not linked to her !

This kind of benefit fraud is pretty common. My adult ds's gf's mum was doing this and ds and his gf were renting her new partners house and they wanted his name left on the CT bill to look like he was still living there so she could claim as a lone parent ! My ds and gf wanted it all above board with their names on the CT bill but her mum just kept saying "leave it as it is as it includes the single person discount ". they quickly moved back home with me !

I had an issue with housing costs back in January after my partner moved in with me. It then became a joint claim- as it should be, but they then asked to verify my housing costs- it was sent to my landlord as it’s a housing association but wasn’t verified for a number of weeks. I provided my tenancy agreement, proof of rent payments, rent statement and rent increase letter. All of it wasn’t “enough” eventually they got my landlords verification (I was told I would need to do a change of circumstances to get it resent which I did) I was then told that as I had “reported the change late” January’s housing payment wouldn’t be paid.

the issue they were having was that my tenancy was with x housing association which has now been merged with y housing association and despite explaining that they ignored it (although a little google would have shown what I was saying was correct!)

I have spent almost 4 months back and forth and finally januarys payment was made at the end of last month! It seems that they are making it almost impossible.

Blimey! I didn't know things like that were a frequent thing until all of this pallava came about and I started looking into what constitutes a contrived tenancy etc.

My landlord is a woman so landlady rather than lord (I was trying to be vague as its probably quite outing already) and she has a child although I don't know how old and what her relationship status is. She strikes me as a really decent, kind person and not somebody who would commit benefit fraud. She runs multiple pubs so I don't think she'd even be in receipt of benefits would she? No idea about the council tax though.

I'll have a chat with her tomorrow and ask If she's aware of any reason the DWP / council would have to believe she lives here.

It could be nothing. She may have thought that previous tenant had put the Council tax in their name and they never did and she doesn't know there is now an overpayment ?
Also people will always seem decent and kind when they want your trust and your money.

Wow thats so frustrating, 4 whole months. Was you at risk of losing your home? I've never been a tenant in a H.A (unfortunately, wish I was!) but I can't imagine many landlords would be very tolerant of that length of wait. It's terrible that they can do this to people when they'd easily be able to get the information they need if they bothered to make contact with the necessary department and or people. I'm glad you're finally sorted, what a headache.

Valid points!

God this is so confusing. The lack of feedback from UC is making me wonder about all sorts.

It sounds like landlord hasn't picked up the letters yet?

Could you fill in your name & move-in date on the envelope, and send it back to the appropriate department?
(I can't tell whether they expect you to open the envelope if you're not the addressee, but presumably not as they have a space to write on the outside.)

Maybe that will help a little with getting the various council systems to recognise that landlord doesn't live there.

Can you upload a copy of your bank statement showing the first months rent being paid, and a copy of the original advert for the property, as extra evidence?

I can definitely fill in my details on the C.T envelope and get that back to them, I probably should have taken a proper look and done that already given the apparent urgency.

I've been waiting for landlord to come and collect all of those letters as she told me she had some important ones to tend to so I didn't want to steam roll in if she had it in hand iykwim?

She planned to come this week but couldn't get over so is aiming to come and get them next week.

I'll raise the letter with her tomorrow and see what's best to do.

Absolutely. I've actually offered to show them both of those things in my long rambling complaint on the UC journal today. I've even offered to give them my log in details for OpenRent so they can go in and look at it all for themselves.

When completing the (2 now) To-Do lists you only have the space to upload a few documents, which is annoying, as I had to use those spaces to show the most pressing docs IE tenancy, proof of address. I've asked for another To-Do link to be created so I can upload more evidence.

You could check companies house for the businessss and see if your current home is listed as the mailing address for her businesses.

also things like (but not sure) if the property is registered as an actual let and not a permanent residence for her own home. The mortgage should be in a letting type mortgage not a home one, so she may never have registered it as a let and still claiming on paper to live there but actually living in the pub. She may be getting some sort of reduction or increase in something. Buy to let mortgages aren’t cheap, usually higher interest rate etc than a normal residence . Not sure but worth thinking about.

The landlady sounds dodgy or incompetent. I’d definitely be going round to Citizens Advice and having them look at your tenancy agreement. It may not even meet minimum legal requirements for an AST.

Council Tax or mortgage arrears are very important too as if the landlady loses the property- it is you who is made homeless even if you’ve paid all your rent on time and all your utility bills.

Definitely worth thinking about and a v reasonable theory, thank you!