Can anyone give help with this please?
Daughter moved out of rented accommodation in 2010 after giving notice to both landlord and LA who were paying all her rent direct to the landlord.
She moved into new home in different LA and gets LHA. While she was still getting mail from old home, she got a letter from the old LA saying that she had been overpaid HB. She contacted them to say she, personally, didn't ever get the rent it went direct and therefore they surely should be asking the old landlord for it back if they had overpaid them. They appear to have overpaid for 2 months after she had gone.
She heard no more and obviously thought they had sorted it. She has had a letter stating she was overpaid HB and that they will be taking it back from the end of July, no other information. She had to check and discovered it was the old LA who had sent the letter via their Debt Management service in Corby. She explained again that she hadn't ever received the money and that they should ask the landlord for it back. The clerk said that the landlord had refused to pay it back so she would have to do so. She asked why had they waited so long and was told they had written several times and that she was out of time to appeal it. When she asked where the letters had been sent, they said to her old address. When she pointed out she hadn't lived there for 2.5 years, she changed her mind and said they were sent to her new address, not possible because she never gave it to them. They said she must have done because she had their latest letter, she said they had obviously found her through the system which the woman admitted was likely.
Anyway, they are insisting the debt is hers despite it being their !!!! up and won't be chasing the landlord because it's "too expensive" to go through the courts.
Can they make her pay for what is their mistake even when she never personally received any of the money? Can she insist on seeing any correspondence from the landlord where it says they aren't going to repay it? She thinks that she is just a soft target, what, if anything, can she do?
Thank you so much for your time.
Daughter moved out of rented accommodation in 2010 after giving notice to both landlord and LA who were paying all her rent direct to the landlord.
She moved into new home in different LA and gets LHA. While she was still getting mail from old home, she got a letter from the old LA saying that she had been overpaid HB. She contacted them to say she, personally, didn't ever get the rent it went direct and therefore they surely should be asking the old landlord for it back if they had overpaid them. They appear to have overpaid for 2 months after she had gone.
She heard no more and obviously thought they had sorted it. She has had a letter stating she was overpaid HB and that they will be taking it back from the end of July, no other information. She had to check and discovered it was the old LA who had sent the letter via their Debt Management service in Corby. She explained again that she hadn't ever received the money and that they should ask the landlord for it back. The clerk said that the landlord had refused to pay it back so she would have to do so. She asked why had they waited so long and was told they had written several times and that she was out of time to appeal it. When she asked where the letters had been sent, they said to her old address. When she pointed out she hadn't lived there for 2.5 years, she changed her mind and said they were sent to her new address, not possible because she never gave it to them. They said she must have done because she had their latest letter, she said they had obviously found her through the system which the woman admitted was likely.
Anyway, they are insisting the debt is hers despite it being their !!!! up and won't be chasing the landlord because it's "too expensive" to go through the courts.
Can they make her pay for what is their mistake even when she never personally received any of the money? Can she insist on seeing any correspondence from the landlord where it says they aren't going to repay it? She thinks that she is just a soft target, what, if anything, can she do?
Thank you so much for your time.