Refunds - paying to joint tenants

The refund remaining after the housing provider has been paid may be due to joint tenants.

Where a decision has been made to issue a refund to a tenant in a joint tenancy situation, you must seek agreement from the joint tenants as to where and who the refund should be issued to. The refund can either be:

• issued to one of the tenants on the tenancy
• split between all the tenants on the tenancy or
• issued to a joint bank account

If you are unable to get agreement after contacting or attempting to contact each of the tenants on the tenancy:

• if you can identify what each tenant paid towards the Income Related Rent over the period, you should issue the refund to all of the tenants on the tenancy based on the portion of the Income Related Rent they paid
• if you cannot identify what each tenant paid towards the Income Related Rent over the period, you should issue the refund in equal portions to all of the tenants on the tenancy

A tenant's share of any refund may be used to repay current MSD debt only if the relevant tenant agrees to this. If the tenant does not agree, or you are not able to contact the tenant, the refund must be issued directly to the tenant.