Income support & owned property

Jennyno1

I wonder if anyone can help - I have three children (9,6 & 4) and live in privately rented property and receive LHA allowance - I also get Income support and Child tax credits & child benefit. I am not working. I own a property with a mortgage with an ex partner that is on the market to sell for the last 8 months and not had much interest. This up to now has been disregarded against my income support but i have received a letter asking me to prove my efforts so sell this property. My questions apart from getting my agents to try sell my property what more could I do? I dont declare to have much of a share in this property as i have not paid towards it throughout the relationship so most of the profit will go to my ex partner but dont how that will look? How far can they push him or me to sell our property (ex currently lives there)? What period will they allow to disregard against my Income support? Thanking you in anticipation

HappyMJ

12 months... You could come to an agreement with the ex. that if not sold after 12 months you and your family move in and your ex. moves out into a 1 bed flat paid for by LHA (assuming he's entitled to it). His exemption would last forever as his ex. and his kids would be living in the property.

Jennyno1

Thank you - he is working self employed but is just about managing the mortgage but doesn't know how long he will be able to manage it...if the property still doesn't sell after 12 months can they then stop my income support and therefore can my LHA be affected as well? Many thanks

real1314

Jennyno1 wrote: »

I wonder if anyone can help - I have three children (9,6 & 4) and live in privately rented property and receive LHA allowance - I also get Income support and Child tax credits & child benefit. I am not working. I own a property with a mortgage with an ex partner that is on the market to sell for the last 8 months and not had much interest. This up to now has been disregarded against my income support but i have received a letter asking me to prove my efforts so sell this property. My questions apart from getting my agents to try sell my property what more could I do? I dont declare to have much of a share in this property as i have not paid towards it throughout the relationship so most of the profit will go to my ex partner but dont how that will look? How far can they push him or me to sell our property (ex currently lives there)? What period will they allow to disregard against my Income support? Thanking you in anticipation

How much is the property worth?
How big is the mortgage / any other secured loans?
How much would your "share" be worth (roughly)?

If your share, added to any other savings is likely to be less than £6k then it shouldn't be a problem.

TOBRUK

Out of interest, firstly, who has the children - do they live with you or your ex? If your name is on the mortgage, regardless of whether you were paying the mortgage when you were living with your ex, the profit on sale of the house should at least be shared evenly 50/50!!

If you were a partner or married, you shared your lives, you were a homemaker, cleaned the house, did what needed doing etc etc??

I wonder why he is living at the house - surely the children should be living there as it is their home isn't it? Why did you have to leave if the children are living with you.

Sorry, it's none of my business ... but I don't understand.

Hope it works out for you.

Oldernotwiser

I'm sure they'll want to see that the property is competitively priced and that you've dropped the price in response to the lack of interest.

Anything sells at the right price!

Jennyno1

Real1314 - the property is worth about £240k mortgage about £130k my share prob not more than 10% as sort of agreed...

TOBRUK - the children live with me and I have a good relationship with my ex (wasnt married) - it is a delicate matter but it was best for all that i moved out with the children. If i do take a 50% share the amount i would get would not be enough for me to buy a property without getting a mortgage (which could be a possibility in the future) and the 50% would be too much to get help (which I understand) and i would have to spend that money on living rather than securing a home for my children...until i am able to get a mortgage. I want to do right by all.

thank you

Oldernotwiser

Jennyno1 wrote: »

Real1314 - the property is worth about £240k mortgage about £130k my share prob not more than 10% as sort of agreed...

TOBRUK - the children live with me and I have a good relationship with my ex (wasnt married) - it is a delicate matter but it was best for all that i moved out with the children. If i do take a 50% share the amount i would get would not be enough for me to buy a property without getting a mortgage (which could be a possibility in the future) and the 50% would be too much to get help (which I understand) and i would have to spend that money on living rather than securing a home for my children...until i am able to get a mortgage. I want to do right by all.

thank you

A property is worth what someone's prepared to pay for it. You won't be allowed to just hang onto it so that you don't have to use the equity to support yourself - that rather defeats the point!

NASA_2

As has been stated, whether you feel you are only entitled to 10% is pretty irrelevant, your entitled to 50% and you will have deprived yourself of this if you dont take it. This means that you will be treated as having it even though you actually dont.

As for proving what you have done to sell it - a letter from the estate agent would do. If the price is unrealistic then maybe dropping the price a bit would be wise.

HappyMJ

Jennyno1 wrote: »

Real1314 - the property is worth about £240k mortgage about £130k my share prob not more than 10% as sort of agreed...

TOBRUK - the children live with me and I have a good relationship with my ex (wasnt married) - it is a delicate matter but it was best for all that i moved out with the children. If i do take a 50% share the amount i would get would not be enough for me to buy a property without getting a mortgage (which could be a possibility in the future) and the 50% would be too much to get help (which I understand) and i would have to spend that money on living rather than securing a home for my children...until i am able to get a mortgage. I want to do right by all.

thank you

As has been said your share would be 50%.... You can deduct 10% of the value for sale fees. So £240k less 10% less £130k then divide by 2 means your share is worth £43k. This would mean you would have to spend this equity to rent elsewhere.

If you return to the property then you can get help with the mortgage interest on the £130k as you are on income support. It would be cheaper for you to move back in to it.

TOBRUK

Jennyno1 wrote: »

Real1314 - the property is worth about £240k mortgage about £130k my share prob not more than 10% as sort of agreed...

.... If i do take a 50% share the amount i would get would not be enough for me to buy a property without getting a mortgage (which could be a possibility in the future) and the 50% would be too much to get help (which I understand) and i would have to spend that money on living rather than securing a home for my children...until i am able to get a mortgage. I want to do right by all.

Is the '10% as sort of agreed....' something you have agreed with your ex partner? He's not taking the welfare of the children into account is he?

As NASA says, whatever you feel you are entitled to I imagine isn't how the DWP will see it!

And what do you mean ...

and the 50% would be too much to get help (which I understand)

... I take it you mean as far as benefits are concerned?! Anything over £6000 £1 of every £250 will be decreased. After the sale of the house I'm sure the DWP will take more than 10% of your share into account! What is wrong in living off the money from the sale?!

NASA wrote: »

As has been stated, whether you feel you are only entitled to 10% is pretty irrelevant, your entitled to 50% and you will have deprived yourself of this if you dont take it. This means that you will be treated as having it even though you actually dont.

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