Housing Dilemma

Ramjet1000

Its a very long story but after being made redundant from my job in Surrey, I was offered a contract in Wiltshire that I accepted and subsequently moved from Surrey to Wilts. A few days before starting my new job, the head company made cuts and my job offer was withdrawn leaving me with a 6 month lease on a flat and no job!.

After some great advice from people on this site (thanks) I immediately signed on and am now receiving JSA whilst applying for every job under the sun!

As soon as I found out about the job withdrawal I notified my new landlord as I was terrified of having no work and still being tied down to a six month contract with them. They kindly put the flat back on the rental market before xmas.

I then discovered I would be eligible for housing benefit that would cover 75% of my rental agreement and all of my council tax; which eased the burden somewhat.

Today, somebody has viewed the flat and would like to move in which is good news obviously; however I now need somewhere to live.

My dilemma; the only person I know who has a room advertised for rent currently is my partner in Surrey. The room is advertised on various websites (gumtree; spareroom etc) and her current tenant is moving out on 26th January after giving one months notice.

1. If I took the room would I be eligible for Housing Benefits still to cover the £350 rent and Council Tax (or a pencentage of it) until I found a new job?
2. Would I still be able to receive JSA whilst living with her or am I then not entitled to a penny? (She earns £20k a year)
3. Am I better off simply moving in as a tenant and not mentioning the partner thing (we have only been seeing each other for 6 months)?
4. She doesn't have any official tenancy agreements / contracts with her tenants as she rents the property direct from a friend and then fills the extra room.

Also; when I moved in to the flat in Wilts; I signed up for a BT line - does anyone know if this contract is easily transferable to a new tenant?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

PasturesNew

1. If you are a genuine lodger of your partner and if there is no connection between you (not married, no kids), then it's a business transaction and would be OK. You would get the LHA appropriate to your age/situation/region.

2. You wouldn't be living with her, you'd be her legal lodger, so JSA is fine.

3. Oh, now you've complicated it because you have a relationship. That would be fraud. I hadn't spotted she's your current partner.

4. No problem, IF you're a genuine lodger.

Caught in a rock and a hard place. If you can legitimately, hand on heart, be her genuine lodger, then it looks like moving in with your partner (not married/no kids) would be a solution. But, if you're moving in as her partner then you'd have a joint claim for any benefits and her earnings might prevent any being payable (except if you qualified for contributions-based JSA, which is I think for 6 months max).

Personally, my advice would be to stay away from moving in with her. It could all get complex and potentially fraudulent. also, if you weren't ready to move in together anyway, it could put the relationship under strain.

Tricky as you're going to be homeless.

Overall: I really don't know. Sorry, but good luck.

dmg24

Are you honestly saying that you would move into the spare room and not share her bed? I find this hard to believe, and I imagine that the DWP and LA would also.

If you are being assessed as a couple (which you are), then her income would be taken into account in any LHA calculation. PasturesNew is correct about JSA, you will still be able to claim if you receive conts based JSA, but not income based.

Surely there are other properties available to rent, or could you move back to your parents?

robin_banks

Had you accepted and signed a contract with your new employer ?

Ramjet1000

robin_banks wrote: »

Had you accepted and signed a contract with your new employer ?

Yes - Didn't make the slightest bit of difference sadly.

robin_banks

Why ?.

They offered and you accepted employment.

The reason why I say this is that I was offered a job with a c/card company in Sept 2001, after 09/11 they withdrew the offer after I had submitted my resigantion letter. I recieved some compensation form them.

hanny83_2

i am telling you now, as a benefit fraud investigator, do not do this, it really is not in your best interests.

Ramjet1000

I'm not sure what other option I have to be honest.

I'm still waiting for money to come through from JSA despite signing on in early December; no money as yet from Housing Benefits and nothing coming in to my bank account.

It makes sense to rent her spare room as it would do her a favour and me if it's somewhere to stay whilst I'm looking for a job.

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Would it be a different case for JSA (forget Housing Benefit for a second) if I simply doss down there until I get a job and she rents the spare room to somebody else?

Oldernotwiser

Ramjet1000 wrote: »

I'm not sure what other option I have to be honest.

I'm still waiting for money to come through from JSA despite signing on in early December; no money as yet from Housing Benefits and nothing coming in to my bank account.

It makes sense to rent her spare room as it would do her a favour and me if it's somewhere to stay whilst I'm looking for a job.

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Would it be a different case for JSA (forget Housing Benefit for a second) if I simply doss down there until I get a job and she rents the spare room to somebody else?

If you're only claiming contributions based JSA then it doesn't really matter where you live. You could move in with her and then she could get a paying lodger. However, after 6 months your JSA will run out and you would have to claims means tested JSA and THAT would be affected by her income.

I can't see why you think that you have only the one option; the world is full of flats to let and flatshares, even if it is a bit more tricky when you're claiming benefits.