Starting to think we're in a real predicament.

socrates

Fire_Fox wrote: »

the council do not care PROVIDING your rent is paid to the landlord. If you receive LHA yet your rent goes unpaid that is when you get into a lot of trouble from the council: I believe that is classed fraud

You could have stopped that sentence at "the council do not care"

I have not come across one story where any tenant not using their LHA to pay their LL got into trouble.

They do not class it as fraud and in fact they are very relaxed about it.

Look on LandlordZone this subject has been done to death - one LL took a local authority to court and won an important case on this exact subject.

I do not agree with the workings of LHA but the councils are not concerned if LHA goes unpaid until (in their understanding) 8 weeks have lapsed.

BitterAndTwisted

That's fine but in this particular instance the OP and her boyfriend have had their rent paid in advance by the OP's parents, so there's no possibility of the LHA being withheld fraudulently

ViolaLass

Elkiemoo wrote: »

My boyfriend and I have discussed moving out of London on numerous occasions. It just seems unfeasible to move far away if we have so little money. Particularly Wales, where we would need to be able to drive to get around. I don't know what kind of work we could get outside of London without our own transport. And if either of us ended up traveling into London from work we'd have to pay a fortune in train tickets.

You could consider Cardiff, for example, which is loads cheaper than London but, shock horror, has public transport. (and is really nice - I have been suggesting to OH that we move there)

Not sure what you mean by travelling to London from work - do you mean travelling to London /for/ work? If so, why would you be doing that? The point would be to get work locally. If you mean to see friends or for entertainment, that's the kind of sacrifice you'd have to make (plenty of good stuff going on in Cardiff). Incidentally, for when you HAVE to, a return from Cardiff to London booked well in advance is really not that expensive - I was pleasantly surprised given the distance.

Sharon87

If you really want to stay in London I would suggest house sharing. I do it I live in one of 4 bedrooms and live with a couple who are paying £600 a month for rent and bills (zone 2), so Lewisham will probably be cheaper.

As for now, I know you're concerned about how your parents have paid the rent but don't be. It's a loan, not income. There is sometimes a section on the form that asks how you have managed to pay rent before, I would tell them your parents lent you it and get a short, signed letter from them confirming it. I had to do this for my old house. Also when you submit your form make sure you have everything they require otherwise the claim will take longer. And yes you can get the form from your local council offices, so it saves you ink

Also if you are both under 25 you will only get the Housing Benefit rate for house sharing, not a 1 bed place, so maybe house sharing is the way to go. If you claim HB/LHA now you can use some of it as a deposit.

Hope it all goes well.

Elkiemoo

Thank you everyone for your advice. House share does seem the way to go, I do worry about getting on with house mates though, as I've had this problem before... I wonder if a studio flat would be a good compromise? As for moving out of London, I suppose the real concern, after all your reassurances, is being able to afford to travel to destination x and do viewings...

Update: I have sent off for a Housing Benefit form. I tried filling in the form online, which was easy enough, only we have no printer ink so I wouldn't be unable to print the declaration page, which I would need to bring to Lewisham with me. I will go to sainsbury's today and get a £5 DIY ink refill kit. I have checked and double checked all the evidence we will need to support our claim, and the only thing we are still waiting for is evidence of benefits for our new joint claim. Once we have that I will go down to Lewisham nice and early, having either submitted the claim online and printed the declaration, or with form I have just sent off for filled out by hand - whichever I am able to do first.

BitterAndTwisted

Elkiemoo wrote: »

Thank you everyone for your advice. House share does seem the way to go, I do worry about getting on with house mates though, as I've had this problem before... I wonder if a studio flat would be a good compromise?

Once you know what your LHA will be for a couple you might find out that becoming a lodger or a taking a house-share might be your only options. Finding a landlord willing to accept tenants on JSA and LHA will be an additional challenge.

I would advise you in the strongest possible terms to not even consider a studio-apartment. It would be hard enough on one's own but with two it would be absolute hell! It's entirely possible that your LHA wouldn't be enough to cover the rent on one in any case.

One of life's most valuable lessons is learning how to get along in harmony with other people so flat/house-sharing might be the making of you. At the very least it would develop your tolerance and your negotiating skills: these are things more valuable than diamonds out here in the real world with the rest of us adults.

MrsTinks

Elkiemoo wrote: »

I will go to sainsbury's today and get a £5 DIY ink refill kit. I have checked and double checked all the evidence we will need to support our claim, and the only thing we are still waiting for is evidence of benefits for our new joint claim. Once we have that I will go down to Lewisham nice and early, having either submitted the claim online and printed the declaration, or with form I have just sent off for filled out by hand - whichever I am able to do first.

Could you go to the local library and print it? Think ours charges £0.10 per item printed... cheaper than £5

Elkiemoo

I have just completed in pencil the JSA1 ans JSA3 forms we were asked to complete after we had made our new joint claim. We were told these were to get additional details from my boyfriend (the main claimant) as his circumstances have also changed since I stopped working. No one was entirely sure if we had to fill out both, but we were told to do so to be on the safe side. (I suppose he will now go from contributions-based to income-based?) I am now very frustrated because my boyfriend has yet to sign and date and check all the information is correct and he's now gone to see a solicitor with his Mother concerning a family affair. This means that the completed forms will have to be handed in on Monday and then sent to Belfast before we will get the documents needed to continue with our Housing Benefit claim. I also realised that we can't pick up the claim where we left off as there is now a change of circumstances with me being unemployed. (It was just my boyfriend who was unemployed when we tried to claim first time round). I will push my luck and try to back date it as far as the date my boyfriend became unemployed. At that time I was pulling in £600 a month, with the rent at £850 monthly... What is a reasonable answer for the reason we didn't claim sooner? Someone mentioned missing documents... which would have been the REAL tenancy agreement. I don't think "I am useless" will cut it. Maybe we could say we were unsure we could claim Housing Benefit since A) my parents had already paid the rent upfront and we didn't think we could claim on a property that didn't welcome DSS tenants?

At this rate, I'm worried we're going to loose another week before we have all the documents we need. *sigh*

BitterAndTwisted

Tell them the truth: so, both A) (but your parents didn't pay the rent upfront, they LENT it to you. Which in effect they have) and . Or just tell them that you were unaware that you might be entitled to LHA. You're both very young and there's no guarantee that everybody else in the UK is aware of how it works either.

Elkiemoo

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

One of life's most valuable lessons is learning how to get along in harmony with other people so flat/house-sharing might be the making of you. At the very least it would develop your tolerance and your negotiating skills: these are things more valuable than diamonds out here in the real world with the rest of us adults.

I completely agree, it's not pleasant, but I've done it before. I lived in shared accommodation at uni, and I even had to share a room in halls for 8 months when I studied in Russia. Luckily my room mate was delightful - we still keep in contact after 2+ years. My boyfriend however is really squeamish about the whole idea. This may be to do with the fact that we both moved in with a childhood friend of his when I left uni. They got in to a massive row (about money) and we had to move out. We ended up at my parent's house, renting their spare room. We also had a few bad experiences with the lodger we recently had. She was a friend of my sister's, so maybe felt a little too comfortable here. She thought it was appropriate to bring home two drunken friends we had never laid eyes on before, set them up on our couch for the night, and leave a note on the door saying they would be gone by 11AM! Then there was the Alcoholic Irish plumber who my boyfriend lived AND worked with in Brighton. He was extremely controlling and domineering and had violent tenancies. Plus we both lived with my younger brother for the first 6 months here. He stopped going to school in favour of smoking naughty things, and I was powerless to do anything about it. This led to many tantrums and arguments.
I can understand if he's feeling a little weary after all that... And I have tried convincing him about house share, many (oh so many) times, but he's not biting. If, however, I eventually coerce him into it, and it all goes pear-shaped AGAIN, it will be my fault. I don't want it to be my fault again, like my sister's friend, and my brother. I want the peaceful alternative.