is it possible......

tterrabllessur

hey everyone,

i'm looking for some advice,

i currently own a 2 bed terrace house, my fianceis living in a council house. the thing is we want to move in together but at the same time i don't want to sell my house yet as i need the prices to go up a bit more.
the complication is that we want to live at my fiances house as its in a nice village and theres a good primary school for the child.

i dont know whether the council will let us continue to have the house if i own one as well.
is there any way around this?

my thought was:

is it possible to start some sort of 'house letting business with my house. if so how would i do this?

i know its all a bit vague but i would really appreciate some advice.
many thanks

poppysarah

You "need" the price to go up?
Have you asked for valuations and it's less than the mortgage?

National Landlord Association probably has a forum.

Sell the house and never be stressed by it again.

theartfullodger

Great idea!!

You clearly think renting a council house is a good thing, so why not rent out your place at the price a similar council property would fetch....

What, you ain't prepared to do so at such a low rental price??

Surely it ain;t the British way to sponge off the state when you have your own place & resources... but I guess your situation is different, & my views are entirely miss-guided...; silly me...

Cheers!

Lodger

tterrabllessur

its not that its not enough to pay off my mortgage its just that its a few grand short of me being able to pay off my dad and with interest rates being so low at the minute i'm kinda hoping that the amount it goes up by will be more than i put into it.

lodger, its not a case of sponging off the state (which is pretty much responsible for the stae of housing market) its that i am unable to sell it for such a low value and the girlfriends house is in a nice area where there is a nice village school.

i'm not even bothered about renting the place out its just that we want to keep the council house and i'm not sure if we can do this when i own a house.

adg1

Knowing that you are together the council will expect you to support each other. That means financially as well as oll the other bits. You have an asset which could provide an income for you and hence your fiance.

If you move in together you will be expected to support her and hence she will not be due all the benefits she is currently getting. I assume you are working and supporting yourself (and her too maybe?)?.

If the house your fiance is living in is a private let with LHA being paid then you could continue rental payments yourself to the landlord as the LHA will take your income and assets into account in their calculations thereby reducing the benefits your fiance is currently getting.

If its an actual bona fide council house then they will probably insist you move on to another property as there will be other people who are far more entitled to that council house than you and your fiance are as you have a house!

Fire_Fox

tterrabllessur wrote: »

its not that its not enough to pay off my mortgage its just that its a few grand short of me being able to pay off my dad and with interest rates being so low at the minute i'm kinda hoping that the amount it goes up by will be more than i put into it.

lodger, its not a case of sponging off the state (which is pretty much responsible for the stae of housing market) its that i am unable to sell it for such a low value and the girlfriends house is in a nice area where there is a nice village school.

i'm not even bothered about renting the place out its just that we want to keep the council house and i'm not sure if we can do this when i own a house.

Firstly once the house you own increases in value so will anything else you might be interested in buying. Secondly it seems to have escaped your notice that the current recession is a global event, starting with the sub-prime mortgage market in the USA. Thirdly a large part of the reason house prices have crashed is that, in many areas, even starter homes values were valued at huge multiples of the average man's salary: historically this is not sustainable. :rolleyes:

If you want to keep the council house, then sell your house, save hard and exercise your girlfriend's right to buy. You selfishly WANT to keep two houses and there is a strong moral argument against. It's not the state you are getting one over on, it's the man who has been made redundant and desperately NEEDS a council house for his family. It's not the state's money that subsidises council housing, it is the hard working taxpayer.

I hope since you have such strong political views you vote in every local and national election? Presume you have also voted in the Power2010 democratic reform campaign? http://www.power2010.org.uk/votes

blckbrd

OP if your GF is a secure tenant and you move in with her (whether you own a house or not) I can't see that there's any issue for the council.

For her own protection, and it may not be allowed anyway, your GF should remain the sole tenant while you are a recognised occupant. It would be silly for her to give up her tenancy and move in with you and it would be difficult to argue that you can't move in with her just because you own property.

Your occupancy would confer no particular rights to rehousing if your relationship were to breakdown and you're not a priority for housing anyway (unless you're somehow vulneralble).

Just let the council know. Do it all above board - no diddling of any benefits - and have a nice life!

BitterAndTwisted

It is against the rules to be a council tenant and own any other property, this clause is included in most Local Authority's tenancy agreements but it is not clear to me how this may be enforced if it is ever enforced at all. I personally know more than one household who rent from the LA and own a different property and none of them have received eviction notices to my knowledge. Until you are either married or formally added to the tenancy this is not likely to be material, so a solution might be to remain unmarried for the time being but to live in the LA property until your own property is sold, this way you are not likely to be taking any risks at all.

Jowo_2

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

It is against the rules to be a council tenant and own any other property, this clause is included in most Local Authority's tenancy agreements but it is not clear to me how this may be enforced if it is ever enforced at all. I personally know more than one household who rent from the LA and own a different property and none of them have received eviction notices to my knowledge. Until you are either married or formally added to the tenancy this is not likely to be material, so a solution might be to remain unmarried for the time being but to live in the LA property until your own property is sold, this way you are not likely to be taking any risks at all.

I agree. There is an obligation for a council tenant to have the social housing property as their primary residence but doubt this applies to people that have permission to live with the tenant.

B&T mentions people he knows that have rent from a council but own a different property who haven't been eviction. I wonder if these are buy to let properties that the social housing tenants have never lived in. When I've looked at application forms for some social housing landlords, they ask the current status of the person applying, sometimes asking if they are an 'owner occupier', therefore I wonder whether the emphasis when it comes to a breach of an assured (i.e. council or Housing association tenancy) is based on occupation rather than ownership.

That said, there are some that would argue that its morally wrong for a social housing tenant to occupy such a scarce resource when they have the means to buy a property.

BitterAndTwisted

Jowo wrote: »

B&T mentions people she knows who have rented from a council but own a different property who haven't been caught and evicted. I wonder if these are buy to let properties that the social housing tenants have never lived in.

You are correct and my own personal feeling is that these people are fraudsters of the highest order and are therefore scum of the lowest. Is there such a thing as low scum? Maybe not but there should be

squack

if the OP's fiancee is in receipt of housing and council tax benefit for the rented property then i believe if he spends less than half the time living with her then that is ok. (that used to be the rule anyhow). another lucrative alternative could be to utilise the empty property as a cannabis factory or similar enterprise