Rental income

If you don't tell us about rental income we may not pay you enough, or we may pay you too much and you'll have to pay the debt back.

What is rent

A renter is someone whose accommodation costs cover the room or property they stay in or use. This may also include services costs (e.g. gardening).

How much of your rent payments count as income

How much of a rent payment counts as income depends on the type of rent you're being paid for.

Rent payments from someone who lives with you

If someone lives with you and is paying you rent, we work out the income from this by:

• looking at how much rent you are paid
• comparing this to your accommodation costs

If the rent payment is higher than your accommodation costs, we work out the difference – that difference counts as income.

If the rent payment is lower than your accommodation costs, the rent payment does not count as income. However, it will affect the amount of any housing subsidy you get from us.

Rent payments for a property you don't live in

If someone is renting a property from you that you own but do not live in, some of the rent money can be used for certain expenses without it affecting your benefit. These expenses include:

• interest payments earned on the money borrowed to buy the property
• rates
• house insurance
• fees and commission if a property manager or agent is used
• repairs and maintenance
• other fees e.g. bank administration fees for the mortgage, tenancy agreement costs, any valuation required by your bank, accounting fees.

Any rent payments you receive after these costs are paid is considered income.

Rent payments for a self-contained part of the property

If the self-contained part of the property is a granny flat or unit, it must have a kitchen or kitchenette and a bathroom.

If it's a mobile home it needs to have facilities for:

• day-to-day living
• sleeping
• preparing and cooking food.

It must also have a:

• sink
• toilet
• fresh water tank
• waste water tank.

To work out how much of the self-contained property's rent payments count as income, we:

• look at the accommodation costs for the whole property
• look at what proportion of the whole property is self-contained, to work out the percentage that you live in
• reduce the accommodation costs for the whole property to the percentage that is self-contained
• the final amount is your personal accommodation costs.

If that final amount is lower than the rent payment for the self-contained dwelling, these rent payments do not count as income.

If that final amount is higher than the rent payment for the self-contained dwelling, we work out the difference – that difference counts as income.

Rent payments for non-accommodation property

Non-accommodation property is when someone rents an area of your property, but they do not live there, e.g. a garage used for storage.

All the rent payment you receive for this type of rent is considered income.

How your benefit will be affected

You can check how your income will affect your benefit using the income deduction tables.

How to tell us

The easiest way to tell us is online in MyMSD. Once you've logged in, select:

• 'Declare boarders and renters' to let us know about rent payments from people who live with you, or
• 'Declare wages' to let us know about any other payments you get for a rental property.

When you 'Declare boarders and renters' in MyMSD, you need to tell us:

• the address
• details of the person paying you rent
• how much the rent is
• when you get paid, and how often.

We will continue to use this amount every week, so make sure you let us know if it stops or changes.

If you can't use MyMSD to tell us about renters who live with you, you can also fill out our PDF form:

You need to print this form, complete it, and either post it to us or bring it into one of our services centres. You can also pick one up from any of our service centres.

If you need to tell us about other payments you get for a rental property and you can't use MyMSD, you can call us.