Can I charge Mum rent?

Carol57_2

Hi all
Hope somebody can help, a friend of mine owns a property (mortgage free) where her widowed Mum lives alone, rent free at the moment and has done for 5yrs, with times getting hard she's thinking about charging her rent and as she's a widow will probably get help from the council in paying it. She has visited the citizens advice this morning and been told that as her Mum is family she is not allowed to charge her anything, i can't believe this and said i would ask on here for advice. Her Mum pays the council tax on the property at the moment along with all the bills etc.

thanks
Carol

Premier_2

Legally, your 'friend' can charge your 'friend's' mum what she likes.

Morally it may be a very different answer.

I'm sure what the CAB advised your 'friend' was that the council won't pay your 'friend' for housing her own mother mother.

Carol57_2

it really is a friend, i don't own my own house let alone one for my Mum to live in...what they said was move her out into a council house(like there available at the drop of a hat) and rent it to somebody else, they also said that council tax is the owner of the house's responsibility and not the tenants so you can understand why she's a bit hesitant in taking their advice.

dmg24

She will be able to give LHA if they can prove that it is not a contrived tenancy. However, as the mother has lived in the property rent free for so long, it would be very difficult to prove this.

kerryi27

hi,

my aunty bought a house 6 years ago and her daughter rents the house and the housing benefit pay it and they know they are mother and daughter. They have the same surname aswell.

Carol57_2

thanks for the replies, she did wonder about her Mum having lived there so long rent free and what problems that may cause, but circumstances change that affect everything around you.

Premier_2

Carol57 wrote: »

it really is a friend, i don't own my own house let alone one for my Mum to live in...what they said was move her out into a council house(like there available at the drop of a hat) and rent it to somebody else, they also said that council tax is the owner of the house's responsibility and not the tenants so you can understand why she's a bit hesitant in taking their advice.

Is that why the title of this thread reads:

"Can I charge Mum rent?"

I suggest your 'friend' goes back to the CAB and listens again to the advice. I'm sure they didn't say that council tax is the responsibility of the property owner.

Council tax on a dwelling is decided according to the following hierarchy of liability

1. a resident who has a freehold interest in the property
2. a resident who has a leasehold interest in the property
3. a resident who has a statutory or secure tenancy
4. a resident who has a contractual licence
5. a resident

Only if nobody is resident is the owner of the dwelling liable.
(some exceptions apply where the owner is always liable, i.e. residential care/nursing homes/hostels, dwellings occupied by religous communities or ministers of religion, dwellings in multiple occupation, dwellings occupied by domestic servants, dwellings occupied by asylum seekers)

Carol57_2

Thanks for the input, i'll go back and change title of thread to keep you happy. She did listen properly and even questioned what she was saying but the lady was adamant but hey we're not all perfect even CAB advisors get it wrong sometimes and as it's only a tiny office in the middle of nowhere maybe they don't have a wide supply of experts on all subjects.

tbs624

Carol -
Was the house originally your friend's mother's, and did she buy her out and then allow her to live in it?

Have a look at this with your friend - someone has already mentioned "contrived tenancies" above but each situation varies:
http://england.shelter.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/23384/Shelter_guide_HBandLHA.pdf

Its a difficult area this one, but undoubtedly some people do seek to "play the system" to their own advantage.

On the CAB Council Tax info - it's possibly a misinterpretation by the advisor.For HMOs the owner/LL *is* liable but not for bog standard rentals unless agreed within the Tenancy Agreement: the situation can always be clarified by a quick call to the c tax office at the council

Carol57_2

thanks for the reply. She inherited some money so bought the house 5 yrs ago for her Mum to live in, she had never lived their previously, there is virtually no social housing in this area and private rentals are quite high, it was a way of keeping her Mum close to hand, but with costs rising it's becoming more difficult to keep on top of the maintenaince etc so thought that charging her a small rent would be the way forward, but she only has a widows pension so rightly or wrongly assumed the council would help.

Generali

AFAIK, her mother would only qualify for social housing if she was evicted by your friend through the courts.

As I understand the rules of Housing Benefit I think that the council will allow someone to charge rent to a family member but they are pretty iffy about it. I would imagine that going from nil rent to some rent would be frowned upon.

I guess the way around it would be for Mum to move out and then back in again. There's still no guarantee that the rent would be paid of course and your friend may be skirting around the edges of benefit fraud.

Given that in most areas the rent on a house is far less than the interest can be earned on its value, perhaps your friend could consider selling up and using the cash realised to pay rent on another place for her mum.