# The Rent Officers (Housing Benefit Functions) Order 1997, Paragraph 5: Single room rents

Extent: E+W+S

(1) The rent officer shall determine a single room rent in accordance with the following formula—
S=H+L2where—S is the single room rent;
H is the highest rent, in the rent officer’s opinion,—
(a) which a landlord might reasonably have been expected to obtain, at the relevant time, for an assured tenancy of a dwelling in England, or an occupation contract of a dwelling in Wales, which meets the criteria in sub-paragraph (2); and
(b) which is not an exceptionally high rent.
L is the lowest rent, in the rent officer’s opinion,—
(a) which a landlord might reasonably have been expected to obtain, at the relevant time, for an assured tenancy of a dwelling in England, or an occupation contract of a dwelling in Wales, which meets the criteria in sub-paragraph (2); and
(b) which is not an exceptionally low rent.
(2) The criteria are—
(a) that the dwelling under the assured tenancy or occupation contract is in the same broad rental market area (local reference rent) as the dwelling and is in a reasonable state of repair;
(b) that, under the assured tenancy or occupation contract, the tenant—
(i) has the exclusive use of one bedroom;
(ii) does not have the use of any other bedroom ...;
(iia) shares the use of a room suitable for living in
(iii) shares the use of a toilet and bathroom; and
(iv) shares the use of a kitchen and does not have the exclusive use of facilities for cooking food; and
(c) that the rent does not include any payment for board and attendance.
(3) Sub-paragraphs (3) and (5) of paragraph 4 apply when ascertaining H and L under this paragraph as if the reference in those sub-paragraphs to H and L were to H and L under this paragraph.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1997/1984/schedule/1/paragraph/5 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/rent-officers-housing-benefit-functions-order-1997/schedule-1/paragraph-5
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.