About Us

Philosophy

We believe fundamentally, that the laws of the land should be adhered to, both by the landlords AND by the councils.

We have observed that councils are not fully aware of the legislation and on far too many occasions the decisions made have been erroneous.

Given the frequency of this, we felt it incumbent upon us to balance the situation and to give housing associations and landlords the support needed to ensure that this imbalance in the law is redressed.

Experience

To ensure we provide the best service, we have built a team that has the diverse skills necessary.

Bill Irvine

Bill Irvine, a landlord himself, was Head of Benefits & Revenues at one of the UK’s largest councils; acted as local government advisor to the HB Standing Committee in London; and more recently provided written and oral evidence to the LHA Inquiry, Westminster with some of his recommendations being adopted by the Standing Committee.

As well as offering advice and assistance to landlords (Private or Housing Association) in their individual disputes with Council Housing Benefit sections, he also provides representation when disputes can't be resolved through negotiation and there’s a need to be scrutinised by both First and Upper-tier tribunals. Ample evidence of his success at this level is found by examining the Articles section of the website. His articles for Your Property Network and UK Landlord offer landlords practical advice and assistance and have enabled Bill to advertise his unique HB knowledge and advocacy skills to a much wider Landlord and Letting agency audience.

Sandra McKeown

Sandra recently took early retirement from one of the UK’s largest councils where she was Benefits and Revenues Manger with responsibility for rent and council tax collection, and the administration of housing and council tax benefit, including managing Private Benefit sector (LHA).

Prior to this she worked as a welfare rights advocate, representing clients before all types of Social Security Appeal Tribunals and achieved many notable successes in this respect. For 20 years she also held down senior positions within the DHSS which allowed her to accrue a comprehensive wealth of knowledge and experience of the UK's benefits system. Compiling and delivering training courses within local government circles, universities, and the many professional organisations associated with social work and housing (Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland) became a regular sideline.