Are you a HAP tenant and thinking of moving? If so make sure you are aware of the following.
According to the Local Authority, individuals or families who have held a HAP tenancy for 2 years or longer and have an up to date rent account, can apply to transfer their HAP to another property.
Individuals or families that decide to leave their property before finishing their application to move, can lose out on their HAP payment and will not be eligible to benefit from another HAP payment for a period of 1 year. The HAP claimant can only move in exceptional circumstances and they must receive permission from the Local Authority before they move.
When a HAP applicant moves into their home they are considered “housed”. This technically means you are to stay in this property and not jump from property to property unless due to exceptional circumstances. If a homeless HAP tenant who is receiving €1850 rent supplement per month decides to move property and it isn’t due to an exceptional circumstance, they risk losing a proportion of their rent supplement as they aren’t considered homeless anymore as they have been “housed”.
The local authority will always inform you of how much rent supplement you may receive. It’s important that when you are deciding on your first property on HAP that you make sure you are satisfied with the property so that none of the above issues will affect you.