We are currently working on some maintenance issues with our landlord portal. This has led to a few breaks in service and we are expecting some further interruptions, although unfortunately I’m not able to say exactly when they are likely to occur.
We will also have some further interruptions from the reporting and upgrading work that is carried out across our service as the end of the financial year approaches from 26 February until around 3 March 2022.
So if you do attempt to log on and find that you can’t – please bear with us and try again later or the next day. When you have got access, remember that you can export files from the portal directly to Excel, so if there is a page you are likely to need to refer to again – it’s very easy to transfer the information directly to a format that you can keep safely elsewhere.
Contacting Revenues and Benefits Housing Benefit Landlord portal Problems with housing for the vulnerable
Contacting Revenues and Benefits: If you need to contact Revenues and Benefits by email – please don’t forget that the only way you can do this now is via the MySandwell facility at https://my.sandwell.gov.uk/
To use MySandwell, you first need to set up a user account. (Please remember that if you are using MySandwell on your employer’s behalf for work purposes – only add your work contact details not your personal ones). Registration is quick and easy. You should use MySandwell to make any enquiry about Council Tax, Council Tax Reduction, Discretionary Housing Payment or Housing Benefit for your tenants. We have produced a very quick guide on how to use MySandwell for Revenues and Benefits stakeholders (see link below to download this).
Please remember we can only share information with you about someone if we have their written permission to do so. This can be given via our data protection waiver form which you can find here https://www.sandwell.gov.uk/dataprotectionwaiver
We can no longer accept any variant of this form – so please make sure you use this one.
However – although the new portal is working fine and we’ve had some very positive feedback –annual procedures for updating the IT system that links into it mean the portal will need to be temporarily closed while some work is carried out. It will shut on 26/2/21, probably for one week. Obviously, our apologies for any inconvenience.
Finally – below is a word from your other blog editor – Liz Mooney.
Oliver
You might have seen recent press stories, about organisations who provide homes for ‘vulnerable people,’ in what’s known as ‘Special Exempt Accommodation.’ There can be all sorts of problems associated with this type of housing and the companies who provide it, even though they are supposedly either ‘not-for-profit groups,’ charities or ‘registered social landlords.’ The official body that regulates this type of housing is increasingly starting to have concerns as are various community organisations and different public bodies including the police. The whole subject is starting to pick up more and more political and media attention.
Most of the organisations that run the housing don’t actually own the buildings in which their clients get housed. Instead, instead operate various types of arrangement where they work with ordinary private sector landlords who have properties that need filling. These landlords more often than not are perfectly decent and believe in good faith that they have simply entered into an ordinary commercial agreement; what’s more, with an organisation that is essentially charitable in its aims. So not only does the landlord get the financial return they are reasonably entitled to – they can think that they doing something socially useful by providing properties that will be used to house people who are vulnerable and in great need.
Sometimes though, landlords can find they have relinquished control of their asset to someone who was not as reliable a partner as they expected. We have seen some unfortunate cases in Sandwell of landlords being let down badly by apparently respectable and philanthropic housing bodies who have either gone bust, had shoddy financial arrangements or just very poor management skills. When the dust settles, it’s the innocent landlord who’s left with the mess to clear up or the unpaid (and sometimes substantial) set of bills to pay.
Of course some of these housing providers are absolutely fine. There are some fantastic people out there, operating both commercially and non-commercially, working in this specialist field. They offer homes to those who would normally struggle to find a roof and who really need help. Let me really stress this because it’s such an important point: There are some perfectly decent or even excellent people working in this field who might approach you; wanting to take your property and use it to house their clients who have particular social needs or vulnerabilities.
Sadly though, there are those who although they might have a nice sounding name and a very lovely website (and we’ve seen some beautiful ones) are not either, reliable, efficient or even honest. I’ve seen the fall-out when things have gone badly wrong because a landlord was a little bit too trusting. So if someone approaches you offering you any sort of arrangement to manage your property or to help you achieve rents above normal market value by housing ‘vulnerable people’ be very careful before you agree to do any business with them.
We are pleased to tell you that the landlord portal – the online system which lets landlords access information about Housing Benefit payments is up and running again.
It’s a brand new version with improvements over the old portal which was discontinued some time ago and we’ve already had positive feedback from the landlord who has helped with testing it. If you are a landlord receiving direct payments of Housing Benefit, we really would encourage you to sign up as a user.
The portal shows records of all payments we’ve made directly to you as a landlord of both Housing Benefit and Discretionary Housing Payments. You can view information about an individual tenant; the amounts of their payments and their different levels of entitlement. Or, you can view the bulk payments made to you which cover more than one tenant; with a breakdown of how a payment was made up, e.g. who it covered, how much each tenant was paid and the relevant dates. You can then export the information onto a spread-sheet with a single click and store or organise the information as required. Claim status is also shown – whether an application is still being processed, is in payment, or has been cancelled or suspended (but not the reason why).
As the portal is online – information is accessible 24/7 via any PC, laptop, Android or Apple device.
Just a few things about registration: Please don’t be put off if this looks a little long-winded. It’s actually a fairly easy process and of course, you only need to complete the process once, after which accessing the portal is quick and simple.
If you haven’t done so already, you’ll first need to open a ‘MySandwell’ account. MySandwell is our online facility for contacting Revenues and Benefits. It allows you to access various council services including anything to do with Housing Benefit or Council Tax. Setting up a MySandwell account is very quick, but please remember if you are setting up the account for work purposes and you are an employee within a landlord company or organisation, you should enter your work details (office phone number, office address and work email account) rather than personal details. If you are a small private landlord – not a company, you should enter your personal details as normal. Once you have a MySandwell account you can then go on to completing the Landlord Portal registration form.
Even if you were a user of the old version of the portal, you will need to complete a new registration. This is to allow us to make sure our records are completely up to date. Any password you might have been issued for the older version of the portal will not work on the new version.
Types of portal users.
We have slightly different requirements for registering different types of landlords. However, all registrations should be made using the same form, (linked to above) which will guide you appropriately.
If you are a sole-trader or private individual acting as a landlord you only need to give details for yourself. For organisations and companies such as housing associations or lettings or estate agents, it’s slightly different.
You need to nominate a ‘lead officer’ (and the form will ask you whether you wish to complete it as lead officer). It’s up to your company / organisation to decide who the lead officer will be, but it is normally a proprietor, manager or supervisor on the rents/income team. The lead officer accepts responsibility for the organisation’s compliance with all rules about portal use. They will complete their own personal registration but then can also nominate staff or colleagues to be given separate portal access. These staff should then complete their own portal registration forms. Lead officers should complete their own form before allowing staff to submit theirs. This is because the lead officer needs to be in place to approve the applications of their staff members. When a staff member completes a portal registration form, the lead officer receives an automatic email asking them to confirm that person is permitted to access the portal on the organisation’s behalf.
IMPORTANT: If you or your organisation has not previously received direct Housing Benefit payments from us, please don’t attempt to register for the portal until after you have received your first benefit payment.
Data protection and GDPR.
Any information shown on the portal is confidential. If you register for the portal you need to confirm that you accept your obligation to comply with all relevant Data Protection legislation and the council’s own requirements. Any failure could be a breach of the law and you may be personally liable for substantial penalties or even criminal prosecution. The log-in details (the user ID and password) we provide you with are strictly confidential and must not be shared with any other person. They are for your personal, exclusive use only. Should another person need their own access to the portal, they must complete their own application to register as a user.
We really hope that you find the portal easy to use. Please let us know your feedback.
Eviction delays (again) and the possible abolition of section 21 notices.
Apologies but for unforeseen and unavoidable reasons, the blog has temporarily been more or less out of action for the last 2 months. But we’re back! Here are a couple of quick updates on the landlord portal and the current restrictions on evictions.
Landlord Portal.
As you probably know, our old version of the landlord portal was discontinued late last year. We have been working on a new improved version but have had various obstacles along the way. We are hopeful the new portal will be in place soon and will make an announcement as soon as we can. Please note that many former users will have to complete a new registration before they can be given access. Obviously, we will tell people what they need to do once arrangements are finalised.
Evictions and section 21 notices.
In March, when the COVID-19 crisis first emerged, the government put in place a temporary block on landlords ending tenancies without tenant agreement and on evictions. These were eventually lifted but new restrictions are now coming in, at least in areas of high COVID-19. In areas with a COVID Tier 2 or Tier 3 alert, courts can award possession against a tenant, but it has been announced that bailiffs (or enforcement agents) will not actually carry out evictions. https://www.landlordtoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2020/10/bailiffs-not-enforcing-possession-court-orders-in-tier-2-and-3-areas. The government is also considering proposals to end Section 21 notices (the standard way to end a tenancy and against which there is no legal defence for tenants). At the moment, this is a proposal only – but be warned, it could happen. If Section 21 goes, the only recourse for landlords would be to serve a Section 8 notice. These can work but there are significant limitations on how and when they can be served and courts can refuse to allow a Section 8 to go through. There are some important things you should be doing to maximise your chances of success in the courts should you ever need to serve a Section 8 notice:
Ensure you have followed all the appropriate regulations about how to manage a tenancy throughout it’s course.
Keep completely accurate records of all aspects of how a tenancy has been managed, so that it can be demonstrated how you have managed the property and keep a completely accurate record of all payments received from or demanded of, the tenant.
Act professionally at all times – even if provoked by a difficult tenant.
We will post on this subject again if more changes on ending tenancies / evictions are announced.
The Sandwell Landlords Blog 