very kind uncle

gotintodebt

Hi I am 41 and my wife is 33 we have 3 great kids and one on the way. I’ve work from when I left school to about 3 years ago when I was diagnosed with an incurable disease (but not life threatening) when we were both working we were on a good wage. And we had a few bank loans and credit cards adding up to about £75,000. Now that I am out of work we can not keep up repayments so they are slowly putting the debt onto our house which we have a large mortgage on it of £155,000. So in total £230,000 debt. Iam on ESA and DLA so not much money coming in. Now to the question.
My uncle has said that he will buy are house of us this allowing us to just about pay all our debts back. Then he would rent it to us but would I get help with this and all so would I still be able to get ESA like I do now. Please advice

Anubis_2

It would be seen as a contrived tenancy, so you would unlikely get housing benefit. Additionally being in receipt of the money from the house would stop any income based benefits you have.

maginot

It would probably be easier for you to just sell your house normally, pay off your debts, and if you have limited or no excess funds you should be entitled to housing benefit to pay your rent elsewhere.

Even if it could be done without the potential of a contrived tenancy, it's never a good idea to be renting from family members. As a landlord he will have many obligations and could get messy in the long term.

gotintodebt

Anubis wrote: »

It would be seen as a contrived tenancy, so you would unlikely get housing benefit. Additionally being in receipt of the money from the house would stop any income based benefits you have.

I would not have the money my uncle would pay them directly

gotintodebt

I cant go through the whole moving bit i need to stay in this house I cant see that we will be doing anything wrong.

McKneff

Contrived tenancy maybe but you could rent the house from your uncle if he was a legal landlord,
he must charge the going rent and comply with every thing in law, Gas safe certificates etc.

The big question is if you didnt pay your rent wouldhe evict you, he must treat you as a normal 'tenant' and only
then would yu be able to get benefits.

Have a word with him and see what he says.

Good luck

Annie

wombles_forever

AFAIK you cannot be paid housing benefit for a house that you have previously owned, so I think that you would not be eligible for this at all.

Also if you sell your house to anyone you would not be able to just pay off everything that you owe as that could be seen as deprivation of capital in order to receive benefits. This would also apply if the money was to be paid directly to creditors, you would still be classed as having received the capital and could lose your benefits because of this.

Sorry but you may have to rethink your plans on this one.

merlin68

I think in your case I would save up and go bankrupt.

McKneff

wombles_forever wrote: »

AFAIK you cannot be paid housing benefit for a house that you have previously owned, so I think that you would not be eligible for this at all.

Also if you sell your house to anyone you would not be able to just pay off everything that you owe as that could be seen as deprivation of capital in order to receive benefits. This would also apply if the money was to be paid directly to creditors, you would still be classed as having received the capital and could lose your benefits because of this.

Sorry but you may have to rethink your plans on this one.

Youre right of course:o I hadnt thouht it through properly especially about owning the house beforehand and the deprivation of capital angle.

Sorry Op if I gave you false hope.

gotintodebt

merlin68 wrote: »

I think in your case I would save up and go bankrupt.

Hi I cant they would force me to sell and as said before i cant move I need to stay here.

CIS

AFAIK you cannot be paid housing benefit for a house that you have previously owned, so I think that you would not be eligible for this at all.

Pretty much , the OP would have to show that the action was essential to retain the house. I doubt that selling to the uncle so that they can clear their debts would be an essential action.