Housing and council benefit help needed????

Bizzleb109

I was made redundant in september 2008 after 4.5 years, I have a house with a mortgage in portsmouth I receive rent of 700.00 per month my mortgage there is 845.00 per month so i top up the rest. I live with my brother in london and my rent with utilities comes up to 800.00 per month. I have just signed on for contribution based job seekers allowance at 59.00 per week. I would like to apply for council tax and housing benefit to help me with my rent here in london would i be eligible to apply would i receive any help?

bhaza

robpw2

no... you are recieveing 700 in rent ... they will not pay you housing benefit whilst your earnng

Bizzleb109

The thing is though i have a mortgage and the rent goes directly into the mortgage so will they not even help a little bit???? or is there another way i can deal with this issue till i find a job????

robpw2

the lha would be for your house if you were living alone
But if your not then you would normally only get the 0 room rate = to about £50 a week to your share off the rent etc
so that would be 700+ jsa contribution- what the government says you have to live on - £50 and you would get whats left but the amount the govt says you need to live on as a single person is 54.00 a week so you are earning approximately 700 too much ( rental income is an earning)

I suggest perhaps you consider upping the rent, get a new tennant or
but even if you have the house as a single person you would only get the amount paid= to 1 room rate in your area and you would be expected to pay the difference

robpw2

do these people pay you money for bills?
im suprised they paid you jsa , but i assume you havent told them you have people giving you money each month for property.....

robpw2

i think you should .. perhaps condiser selling the property in portsmouth and either live in london/ or move back to portsmouth and give up on london

healy

robpw2 wrote: »

do these people pay you money for bills?
im suprised they paid you jsa , but i assume you havent told them you have people giving you money each month for property.....

As the OP has been working for at least 4 and a half years they would have been awarded contribution based JSA which would not be affected.

robpw2

i thought that if you were earning money you couldnt claim and being a landlord is a job ,...but i stand corrected

LizzieS_2

healy wrote: »

As the OP has been working for at least 4 and a half years they would have been awarded contribution based JSA which would not be affected.

Agree, but just add on that JSA is only payable for 6 months.

dmg24

healy wrote: »

As the OP has been working for at least 4 and a half years they would have been awarded contribution based JSA which would not be affected.

Thank goodness somebody with good advice found this thread!

The issue of having a BTL property does complicate things with regard to claiming other benefits, but would not necessarily exclude you. There is also the question of whether you have any equity in the property?

With regard to claiming LHA and CTB, do you have a shared tenancy with your brother, or does he own the property? If you are living with your brother in his property, you will have difficulty claiming benefits for this. However, if it is a shared tenancy, the fact that you are living with a close relative would not preclude you from claiming. If this is the case, I would take advice on how the BTL property affects your claim.

real1314

Ok, OP, ignore all the blase comments saying that you can't get HB as you've got another property, here's the reality:

Your BTL property has to be looked at according to how you've set it up.

Have you set it up as a separate business? Or as your own private investment?
How much is it worth and how much is the total mortgage outstanding?

Once all that's sorted, it either will be:

1. A company asset, which doesn't affect the HB claim, although income from it would (if there were any, which there isn't)
2. A private assest as capital - in which case income from it would be disregarded, as is the case from any capital asset
3. A disregarded capital asset, in which case they have to look at the income from it. (in this scenario, I'm not sure whether they'd look at the mortgage payments as coming off the income )

Now, I'd suggest that if your BTL was worth £200k and the mortgage was £150k, they'd say it was a capital asset. They'd allow 10% off the total value, leaving £180k and then knock off the mortgage, leaving £30k and say you can't have HB as you've over £16k, which is the cut off level for savings.

So, I don't see why it should be treatd any differently if the mortgage is £150k and the value is £170k (guessing at the actual figures here) you'd then knock off 10% leaving £153k and then knock off the mortgage leaving £3k and that would not stop you from getting HB.

All based on my understanding of HB rules, which I'd guess is based on more facts than some of the other things posted on this thread