Housing Benefit

EX2

Hi, can anyone help with this ?

My brother rents the house next door which is owned by my parents. The rent is £ 300 every calender month.

I currently live mith my parents, but they want me to move in with my brother next door as they want their own space.

If we drew up a commercial tenancy agreement, as she would kick me out if I did not pay the rent, could I claim housing benefit and council tax benefit, as I cannot just survive on jobseekers allowance.

If i found employment I would cease claiming of course, but I would need both benefits whilst I am searching for work.

Can anyone help ?

The rent would still be £ 300 split between me and my brother.

dmg24

Always good to do a search before posting. The thread currently below yours has lots of information ...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1158353

real1314

That thread may have some points, but in that case the problem is that the proposed "tenant" is a former owner too.

In the OPs case it should be ok in general imho, but it may need extra checks being passed to assure that the tenancy is on a commercial basis.

EX2

Thanks for that, do you know what these extra checks would be, by the way forgot to say my brother has a job and is not on any benefits - dont know if this would change anything would it ?