Housing Benefit with a Mortgage

nicola206

Hi
Needing some advice, ive combed the net for help and dont want to go to the housing office and start asking questions without knowing the facts!
I own a house with my now ex partner. I was intending to come off the mortgage and he was going to be the sole owner, or have a friend buy out my half, but that now isnt going to happen and we need to sell. We cant both live there until that happens and other houses in my road have been for sale for months.
I have a 9 month old baby, and need to get us settled into a new place asap, we are currently in our home but my ex is planning on coming back here as he's only staying on friends sofas temporarily. Am i able to claim housing benefit to help me and my daughter whilst we sell the house im on the mortgage for? I wont be paying anything into the mortgage house, my ex will pay it all, with a friend to lodge there for the time being to help cover costs. i work 22 hrs a week so claim ctc and wtc, but dont think i could manage on my own without housing benefits too.
Thanks.

bunny999

You won't be entitled to Hb whilst you own a property.

RazorReddo

Hi,
I know a person who signed over her house to her partner. He sold up, moved out and he bought another house. She moved in and HE became her landlord!!!
Hes not meant to be there but he stays there all the time. The socail pay for the house and they are driving a top of the range BMW!!!
Mad innit!

AnxiousMum

RazorReddo wrote: »

Hi,
I know a person who signed over her house to her partner. He sold up, moved out and he bought another house. She moved in and HE became her landlord!!!
Hes not meant to be there but he stays there all the time. The socail pay for the house and they are driving a top of the range BMW!!!
Mad innit!

The OP didn't ask for advice on how to defraud the system......she is splitting with her ex, not looking for a scam.

If the person you know is definitely doing this - then do your moral duty and make the report of benefit fraud - there's too many legitimate people who are being tarred because of wuckfits like your friend.

Oldernotwiser

RazorReddo wrote: »

Hi,
I know a person who signed over her house to her partner. He sold up, moved out and he bought another house. She moved in and HE became her landlord!!!
Hes not meant to be there but he stays there all the time. The socail pay for the house and they are driving a top of the range BMW!!!
Mad innit!

You cannot get HB on a house you've previously owned.

GingerGee_2

If you and your ex-partner are going to put the property on the market, you will need to provide housing benefits with proof that the property is up for sale and then the capital held in the property can be disregarded from your housing benefit claim for the first 26 weeks (or longer if you are having trouble selling the property) from when it went on sale. Once the property was sold, or should it come off the market, your share of the proceeds / value of the property would then be taken into consideration. I have copied the relevant part from the DWP website below as it would not let me post a link;.

Property you own but do not occupy [HB Sch 6, HB(SPC) Sch 6; CTB Sch 5, CTB(SPC) Sch 4]

The value of this property is counted as capital but you may be able to get HB/CTB even if the value of the property means that your savings are more than £16,000. This is because the value of the property may be ignored when your savings are worked out, in certain circumstances.

- If you are trying to sell the property, its value may not be counted for the first 26 weeks after you start doing this. It may not be counted for longer than this if you are finding it difficult to sell the property.