Here goes.....

gmrsupplies

OK, my mum and dad are splitting up after 37 years together! I have taken it upon myself to arrange my mums finances. This is the current state of affairs. They have a house worth £150000, with a mortgage of £40000 left which is covered by 2 endowments which expire in 4 yrs time which is when my Dad is 65. They have minimal savings, my Dad has a work pension from previous which is £500 per month and is still working as a HGV driver. He wants £10000 out the house and to keep the endowments which makes £50000 in total, he wants to sell the house which will leave my Mum with £100000 approx, he will give my mum half of his pension whcih will be £250 per month. My Mum works part time and gets £85 per week approx, she is 60 next October but will carry on working anyway. My Mum ideally wants to keep the house but obviously needs £50000 to pay the £40000 mortgage and give my Dad £10000, due to her age and income there is no chance of getting a mortgage. The house is a 3 bed semi, could I buy the house for £50000 (I would need a mortgage for that amount) and my Mum live there as a tenant and claim housing benefit to the amount of my repayments, approx £350 ? or would the fact that they sold a 150000 house for 50000 be questioned. All advice on this oprion welcome and any more options available to us all again welcomed. Apparently housing benefit is only availabe to people renting, but obviously my mum wouldn't get ti if she sold the house and rented somewhere as she would have 100000 in the bank, the propertes available in our area for 100k are extremely limited. What about if they sold it and my mum only took £60000 out of it and bought a part buy/part rent apartment with the 60k, could she claim the rental under housing benefit as she would not have any savings in the bank, also would she classed as a first time buyer as she has never bought a property on her own, she is clueless and has relied upon my Dad for all these years but after reviewing it myself he has not been very good with finances, I went to the local citizens advice yesterday but closed due to staff shortage!

gmrsupplies

any help/advice please

rchddap1

I'm sure someone will be along soon. Personaly I'm not sure how to answer your question....but someone will.

Penny-Pincher!!

Hi

I dont think you can claim housing benefit on family owned properties!

PP
x

mummysaver

Sorry I can't help personally, but don't the local council have a housing officer that you could speak to, either over the phone or in person, or perhaps you and your mum could both speak to an independent mortgage adviser who might be able to give you options about buying out your dad, perhaps if you took on the outstanding mortgage or something the building society or bank might be willing to help you.

Good luck to all of you.

never_enough

I've no knowledge about some of the things that you suggest, however a friend has recently been through the same with her parents. She took over her parents mortgage but as a joint owner with her mother. They set it up as (I think) tenants in common, anyway it meant that when one died the house was owned automatically by the other without forming part of their estate (to save on inheritance tax). My friend had to take out life insurance to pay off the mortgage if she died, as her mother had no income. As the mortgage was only on my friends income her mother did not need to take out life insurance.

Not sure about housing benefit rules now, but know I did get help towards my mortgage when I was out of work about 20 years ago. I'm also sure the DSS would not take kindly to you/her setting up a mortgage to be paid solely by housing benefit so that would need to be looked into carefully. I would be surprised if you can have housing benefit paid to a family member.

Do you have any over 55's/over 60's property nearby? It is often cheaper than comparable property & usually well situated. She may not be keen on moving into a flat, but it is also more secure & often less upkeep than a house.

Slightly differant thinking but could you buy a property together, with 'granny annex' potential so that you're not actually living together (unless you feel you could cope with that?!) Or altering your existing garage or building something new in your garden?

Persevere with the CAB, & hopefully they'll be able to sort out some of your issues.

Good luck

johannamse

Post your same post on the benefits board AND the mortgages board AND maybe the house buying board. I think you will get more help.