The Housing Benefit Regulations 2006

[F1 Eligible rent E+W+S

12B.— (1) The amount of a person’s eligible rent shall be determined in accordance with the provisions of this regulation except where regulations 12C (eligible rent and maximum rent) or 12D (eligible rent and maximum rent (LHA)) apply, or paragraph 4 of Schedule 3 to the Consequential Provisions Regulations applies.

(2) Subject to paragraphs (3), (4) and (6), the amount of a person’s eligible rent shall be the aggregate of such payments specified in regulation 12(1) as that person is liable to pay less—

(a) except where he is separately liable for charges for water, sewerage or allied environmental services, an amount determined in accordance with paragraph (5);

(b) where payments include service charges which are wholly or partly ineligible, an amount in respect of the ineligible charges determined in accordance with Schedule 1; and

(c) where he is liable to make payments in respect of any service charges to which regulation 12(1)(e) does not apply, but to which paragraph 3(2) of Part 1 of Schedule 1 (unreasonably low service charges) applies in the particular circumstances, an amount in respect of such charges determined in accordance with paragraph 3(2) of Part 1 of Schedule 1.

(3) Where the payments specified in regulation 12(1) are payable in respect of accommodation which consists partly of residential accommodation and partly of other accommodation, only such proportion of those payments as is referable to the residential accommodation shall count as eligible rent for the purposes of these Regulations.

(4) Where more than one person is liable to make payments in respect of a dwelling, the payments specified in regulation 12(1) shall be apportioned for the purpose of calculating the eligible rent for each such person having regard to all the circumstances, in particular, the number of such persons and the proportion of rent paid by each such person.

(5) The amount of the deduction referred to in paragraph (2) shall be—

(a) if the dwelling occupied by the claimant is a self-contained unit, except in a case to which sub-paragraph (c) applies, the amount of the charges;

(b) in any other case, except one to which sub-paragraph (c) applies, the proportion of those charges in respect of the self-contained unit which is obtained by dividing the area of the dwelling occupied by the claimant by the area of the self-contained unit of which it forms part;

(c) where the charges vary in accordance with the amount of water actually used, the amount which the appropriate authority considers to be fairly attributable to water, and sewerage services, having regard to the actual or estimated consumption of the claimant.

(6) In any case where it appears to the relevant authority that in the particular circumstances of that case the eligible rent as determined in accordance with the preceding paragraphs of this regulation is greater than it is reasonable to meet by way of housing benefit, the eligible rent shall be such lesser sum as seems to that authority to be an appropriate rent in that particular case.]

Textual Amendments

F1 Regs. 12B-12D inserted (7.4.2008) by The Housing Benefit (Local Housing Allowance and Information Sharing) Amendment Regulations 2007 (S.I. 2007/2868), regs. 1(3), 5 (with reg. 1(6))