Valuation Office Agency Rent Officers

Rent Officers work within the private rented sector in England, providing valuation services for local authorities, landlords and tenants. Independent of commercial interests, Rent Officers work with thousands of professional landlords and letting agents to compile a unique view of the private rented sector. Rent Officer valuations and determinations are currently based on information from around half a million private rents agreed within the previous twelve months.

Our main statutory functions are to:

Determine and publish monthly Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates for every Local Authority in England.

Local Housing Allowance (LHA) applies to those private sector tenants who make a new claim for housing benefit or have changed address on or after 7 April 2008. Rent Officers publish 152 sets of Local Housing Allowance rates every month.

Provide LRR scheme Housing Benefit determinations to Local Authorities

People who have been claiming housing benefit prior to 7 April 2008, continue to receive the benefit based on a range of valuations provided to local authorities by the Rent Officer. Rent Officers made 354,000 individual housing benefit determinations for local authorities during the 2010-11 business year.

Provide 'Fair Rent' registrations

Rent Officers can register a Fair Rent for most private sector tenancies which started before 15 January 1989 under the Rent Act 1977. They can also register a Fair Rent under the Rent (Agriculture) Act. A Fair Rent is the maximum rent that can be charged for the tenancy. We registered over 61,000 Fair Rents during 2010-11.

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