Entitlement to Housing Benefit

gillyg32

HELP I need some advice....

We currently live in a house owned by my daughter, we pay her rent, which pays off the mortgage......

I have recently found out that we may not be entitled to Housing Benefit if my husband is unable to work as the house is owned by a family member....

Is this right? Is there anyway around this.... if we can't pay the rent my daughter won't be able to pay the mortgage.....

Gill

pmlindyloo

You need to google 'contrived tenancy' to find out the difficulties involved in this.

There are lots of previous threads on this so if you do a search you will find lots of information.

BrettMorganxD

pmlindyloo wrote: »

You need to google 'contrived tenancy' to find out the difficulties involved in this.

There are lots of previous threads on this so if you do a search you will find lots of information.

Can you not claim HB for the property if the other member of the family is not living in it?

pmlindyloo

BrettMorganxD wrote: »

Can you not claim HB for the property if the other member of the family is not living in it?

You might be able to but you have to prove that it is not a contrived tenancy.(basically set up to defraud the benefit system)

Usually this means that there must be a proper tenancy agreement,(and the LL is fulfilling all the requirements of a LL), the rent is set at market rate and the tenants (in this case the OP and family) would be evicted if they broke the tenancy agreement.

That is just a general picture of what would happen if OP applied for HB.

Also if the tenancy was deemed to be not contrived the OP would need to take into account the amount of Housing Allowance that they would be eligible for (found on their local council website). This may be set at a figure less than their current rent and they would have to find the shortfall themselves.

paddedjohn

as long as you have been renting the property for a while with a proper lease/rent book, her mortgage is a buy to let and all the proper certificates are in place then you should be ok.

gillyg32

Thank you so much.... I will have to look into this a bit further as I can see there is lots of Red Tape, as is usual with benefits....

Gill

Oldernotwiser

gillyg32 wrote: »

Thank you so much.... I will have to look into this a bit further as I can see there is lots of Red Tape, as is usual with benefits....

Gill

One would certainly hope that there are plenty of safeguards in place when handing out public money!

gillyg32

I certainly agree that all precautions should be taken when handing out public money, and that lots of it goes to where it shouldn't due to the failure of the system and departments not talking to each other... but there are also lots of people out there who are entitled to benefits who are not getting them, just because they do not know about them and are not told about them by the relevant agencies.

Going4TheDream

My OH and I rent a house to his father who claims HB, there was no issue in the claim. There is no mortgage on the house and it was all done above board re all tax paid, all obligatory landlord checks carried out, insurances etc and a proper lease was in place. There was no red tape, it was declared they were related, a copy of the lease and rent book provided to the council, all monies were paid directly in to OH bank account 4 weeks in arrears.

In any event you should have a lease for your own protection. As a landlord she has a legal obligation to ensure that safety checks are in place and current and if the house is mortgaged she needs to ensure that the correct insurance is in place. She may well find her buildings insurance will be invalid if she has just rented you the house on the back of her personal mortgage and not upgraded it to show she is renting the house. In the eyes of the law it is not looked upon less favourably that these things are not carried out just because the tenant is family.

karenx

How long have you lived there? And have you always paid about the average rental price for the same sort of house in the area? If so you will stand a good chance of getting something as it shows this isnt set up just to take advantage of the housing benefit.

Oldernotwiser

Don't forget that, unless you have children living with you, you're only eligible;e for the 1 bed LHA rate.