Can I claim housing / council tax benefits?

First of all it needs to be said that the fact that you are paying back your parents re: the house will not be taken into account as regards your eligiblity for benefits. As far as they are concerned you own it.

Are you on contribution based JSA? The reason I ask this is because if you are on income based JSA then you may not have been entitled to JSA because of your house in Wales. When you moved to London did you inform them that you owned a house? This would have been counted as capital (except for the circumstances BigAunty has listed above.)

Ignoring this issue for the moment. You are only eligible for HB if you are liable for rent. You would have to produce a tenancy agreement or letter from the landlord to prove this when you made an application for HB. From what you say this is not the case.

If you rent out your property in Wales then you would have to declare the income for tax purposes plus all the responsibilities of being a landlord. You would also have to declare this when applying for benefits and this income would be taken into account. Again the fact that you are repaying your parents from the rent would not be taken into account.

The best thing I can suggest is to go to CAB to get help to sort this out or return to Wales and sell/rent out your house and find a job first before moving to London. Whichever way it is looked at you are going to have problems with supporting yourself financially.

Rent out your house for £550, pay your family £220 and use the other £310 towards rent where you are now.

redsquirrel111 wrote: »

Hi a quick update. I was able to claim JSA whilst i was on contributory JSA.

But now thats run out.

BigAunty said:
"If the property is occupied by an elderly or disabled relative as their home, its value is not taken into account for as long as it is so occupied."

Thanks for that advice.
My elderly mother is in fact living at the property. She claims Disability living allowance. She lives there with my step father, 50 years old, doesn't claim any benefits but would probably qualify if he wasn't too proud to claim them. He only has 27% lung capacity and so can't work.

Will they rule that exemption out because someone other than an over 60 is also living there?

Before anyone asks no they don't pay me any rent.

I'm not sure you can qualify for CT discount for a property where you do not live. See the hierarchy of liability that councils publish to understand who is liable to pay CT and thus apply for CT discount themselves.It's usually the occupiers, the tenants, if the owner doesn't live there.

Are your parents the previous owners? Is this why they aren't paying any rent - because owners cannot claim HB for a property they owned and occupied in the previous 5 years? Did they do that daft thing of transferring their property to their child to avoid care home fees, taxes and so on, without anyone looking into the risks and complications?

Are you actually going to be able to evict them in order to rent out the property so you can achieve some rental income or it will cause a family dispute? We often see problems like this when relatives let out properties to tenants to whom they are related, including a recent one where a son had to evict his non-paying father who trashed the place.

The rental income received will invariably reduce means tested benefits. It is income, end of, so yes, it will affect income related/means tested benefits like CT, HB and JSA income based!

A proper landlord is able to include the interest part of the mortgage as a legitimate expense on their tax return and when it comes to benefit calculations but I don't know where you would stand on a personal loan or IOU. On paper, you appear to own 100% so perhaps this is how it is treated -- officially you have no expenses. I don't know, you'd need to check.

How old is your mother? I don't know what the DWP class as elderly in terms of years, whether they mean state retirement age. I advise you to look up those specific housing acts that that summary that I provided actually references.

This money that you owe on the part-share - is there any formal documentation on this loan drawn up by a solicitor or similar or is this some kind of verbal agreement? Naturally enough, benefit claims can be complicated when a person appears to own capital on paper but say they don't in reality.

You may be able to get income based JSA if you qualify, though I'm not really familiar with the grounds for this.

The HB rules for claimants who own but do not occupy their property are a minefield. Doubt if anyone can answer this query for you. Hopefully, that the poster who actually works in the HB department of a local council picks up this thread and can answer it for you.

Best ask the local council when you submit your HB claim which will invariably ask about home ownership. Or Citizens Advice.

The other thing that strikes me is that a person can only receive HB when they have liability to pay rent. Do you have a tenancy agreement from your friend (if they are operating as the De Mesne or intermediate landlord with the permission of the actual landlord, the property owner?) or one from the true chief landlord? It's possible to claim HB without a tenancy agreement but are you just crashing at your mate who is subletting it informally to you? Will your mate get into trouble with the landlord for letting you stay there?

Basically, owning a property that you don't occupy and claiming benefits is complex, being a landlord of a property where relatives live is a nightmare, applying for housing benefit in a casual sublet is also a nightmare. You've got all 3 issues together, good luck with that...

the words !!!! and bull spring to mind

Redsquirrel69 wrote: »

I can afford to let them live there because its mortgage free, thanks to the family loan. I've had to stop the payments I was making to them which has drastically cut their retirement income.

I'm not claiming any HB as I'm living on a friend's couch for free until I find work.

I am worried that I may have to pay council tax on the property I'm not living in. I guess they'll have to decide if my parent will qualify for any low income discount.

Surely it's your parents who should be paying the council tax, as they are the ones living there!