Universal Credit Refusing Direct Payments?

Hi, I have been having difficulties with one of my tenants who are in receipt of UC. All rental payments have stopped, and they are not accepting my phone calls. The rent account now shows arrears in excess of 2 months.

Earlier in the week, I applied UC under the online application to have the rent directed to myself and the arrears to be chipped away at until the rent account is clear to which I received the reply below this morning. Being a member of the NRLA, I reached out to them, but they were of no real help. Has anyone had this reply before or know of any advice on how to get direct payments. After all, my understanding is that it is mandatory to make payments to the landlord once the arrears are in excess of 2 months?

Thanks in advance.

Trapped Landlord

We are unable to set up direct rent payments to you.

Direct rent payments could not be set up for one or more of the following reasons:
• your tenants do not get Universal Credit
• your tenants do not claim housing support for the address you supplied
• your tenants must be in at least one month’s worth of arrears, accrued over two or more months
• One of the tier 1 or 2 conditions haven’t been met

We cannot give you specific details because of data-sharing regulations.

You should speak to your tenants to make sure the correct information has been supplied to Universal Credit.

If you think you gave us the wrong information, such as the wrong house number you can request direct rent payments again with the correct information.

Your tenants need to pay their rent, and any rent they owe, directly to you.

You can make another request for direct rent payments if your tenants’ circumstances change.

For more information, search for “universal credit and landlords” on GOV.UK

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