moving in with someone who is renting from housing association

gingabyte

Hi,

I want to move in with a friend of mine but he is currently renting a flat from his local housing association. We want to move into a 2 bedroom place together but he can't move from his current 1 bedroom flat for a year.

My question is where do I stand on moving in with him until he can move and sleeping on his sofa bed? This would be my first time moving out from home so I'm a beginner to this lol

Thanks for your help

treasuretiger

i would see how he is renting, if your on housing benefit and someone tells them hes got someone else there. they look at it as another source of income and a cause to investigate any housing benefit claim. best thing to do is for your mate to just go down and ask them. then he can ask them to log their response on their systems so he is covered, even request a letter of confirmation ,

Hump

If he can't transfer for a year then ask him if he's got a starter tenancy - if he has he probably isn't allowed a lodger (which is what you'd be) until he becomes an assured tenant (usually 12 months after the tenancy starts). If his tenancy agreement says 'Assured Shorthold Tenancy' then it'll be a starter tenancy.

You don't say where in the country you are, but unless you live somewhere really dire with massive low demand issues then your mate probably has virtually 'nil' chance of ever moving to a 2 bed property.

If he's an assured tenant he should be able to have a lodger - probably best he notifies his landlord though. The first £4250 he takes off you is tax free under the 'rent a room' scheme. If he's on benefits then his benefits - especially housing and council tax benefit - will be affected. If you're in receipt of benefits you could have a go at claiming housing benefits for your 'lodgings'. Expect the 'authorities' i.e. DWP if you or he is claiming JSA etc and the Council if either of you is claiming HB/ Council Tax benefit - to be suspicious, they tend to rate 'lodgings' as high risk on their verification frameworks and you can expect them to visit to verify your situation.

If you're both working and not claiming benefits then you don't need to worry.