Buying my mums council flat

Steviec321 · 25 January 2006 at 5:24PM

Hi.

This is a question posed on housing benefit and Right to Buy.

I need help to see if i could expose a loophole in the housing benefit.

I wish to purchase my partners mothers council flat. At present her mother receives DLA and gets housing benefit to pay her rent.

If i was to lend my partners mother the money to buy her flat could i

a. become the landlord
b. get my partners mother to claim housing benefit to pay the rent which in turn will pay my mortgage.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Also, if this is not possible would i be able to get an interest only mortgage based on the fact that i will pay the capital back at the end of the mortgage with the profits from selling the house within the agreed mortgage period.

Hope this makes sense. :

calleyw · 25 January 2006 at 5:39PM

How can you become landlord when you don't own the property

Your name would not be on the mortgage or the deeds as only your partners mother could buy the property and not you. That is what RTB is for the people living in the property.

She might be able to claim housing benefit to help pay the mortgage but not 100% sure. As I know to claim help with mortgage payments if you are not working you have to 36 weeks just to get help with the interest let alone the payments.

If you are lending her the money that is a different matter and you would need to make sure that you an proper legal agreement. Also you would need to make sure she is going to leave you the flat as other wise you might get nothing.

Think you might need to read this tells you who has the options for RTB.

Even if you could do it which to you can't. I have heard horror stories if buying a flat and everyone else is still council. With they being landed with huge bills for work carried on the flats.

Yours

Calley

black-saturn · 25 January 2006 at 5:44PM

You could lend your mother the money to buy the flat and then buy it off her. Making you the landlord and therefore she could get housing benefit.

calleyw · 25 January 2006 at 5:46PM

black-saturn wrote:

You could lend your mother the money to buy the flat and then buy it off her. Making you the landlord and therefore she could get housing benefit.

Which you would not be able to do for least 3 years and I see that since Jan 2005 they have changed the rules and it is 10 years in some cases and first refusal has to go back to the council you bought it from.

Yours

Calley

Steviec321 · 25 January 2006 at 5:52PM

black-saturn wrote:

You could lend your mother the money to buy the flat and then buy it off her. Making you the landlord and therefore she could get housing benefit.

Thanks, i could buy it of her after 5 years for a pound possibly and charge her rent.

do you think the housing benefit will pay me?

black-saturn · 25 January 2006 at 5:56PM

Yes they will pay your mum housing benefit as long as she is entitled to it.

dander · 25 January 2006 at 6:16PM

I don't see how you could get a mortgage to buy a property in someone else's name. If a mortgage company lends you the money for the flat, they will expect the title deeds to be in your name. However, council right-to-buy would insist that the title deeds are in your partner's mother's name for a certain number of years. You could only achieve something like this if you had the money to give a cash lump sum to the lady in question.

elisebutt65 · 25 January 2006 at 6:21PM

So what if your partner and you split up??

What if her mum then dies and leaves her/him the property instead??

This sort of happened to a friend - He bought his mums house for her and then she died leaving it to him and his sister equally -He couldn't do a thing about it and only got half the proceeds from the house!

angeluk69_2 · 25 January 2006 at 6:31PM

As far as I know you are not allowed to rent a property to a family member and then claim benefits, I used to rent a house owned by my MIL and was told when we wanted to move into a new house that this was actually being stopped to protect the older generation from being made homeless.

But you would have to take out the mortgage or you would not be the landlord, you can't give money to someone to buy a house and then ask them to pay rent, to claim HB on top of this would be an extreme case of fraud, as you would have to declare the fact that the money has changed hands.

If you were t go ahead with thsi plan, your partner's mother could actually end up homeless, and would possibly lose any right to benefits in the future. Oh and the fact that you could actually end up in prison for this.

(please note I do not claim, that this is the current and correct info, it it what I have been told by my financial advisor and the bods at the local council)

DaisyNelson · 25 January 2006 at 6:36PM

Are you saying you want the tax payer to fund your mortgage for a house you don't live in, so that in future you can sell it for a profit. Your motives are dubious in my opinion.

black-saturn · 25 January 2006 at 6:37PM

dander wrote:

I don't see how you could get a mortgage to buy a property in someone else's name. If a mortgage company lends you the money for the flat, they will expect the title deeds to be in your name. However, council right-to-buy would insist that the title deeds are in your partner's mother's name for a certain number of years. You could only achieve something like this if you had the money to give a cash lump sum to the lady in question.

Hes not. If you read back he is going to give his mum the money to buy it and after the stated amount of time she is going to transfer it to him.

Buying my mums council flat

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