Help with letting scenario and any other advice pleasse

ugghwhattodo

Hi all

Not really sure how to start so just gonna waffle on and hope it makes sense.

Our situation is as follows...

We have a big mortgage with a lot of years left, currently its interest only and not really gonna help long term. We also have 2 secured loans.

We have lots of debt mainly from things that happened ages ago and cost us a lot, but can only look forwards.

We being myself and partner are the mortgage holders, my partners mother lives with us and she is disabled and receives pension, pension credit and attendance allowance.

We also have a daughter who lives here part time due to her work and a son who is here tho unemployed.

The property is big and has 4/5 bedrooms.

We do receive some tax credits and council tax benefits due to having a total income thats under the threshold.

What i sort of want to find out, maybe someone has done this, or has good advice.

In order to pay for everything and try to have some sort of life, right now things are so fraught, i cant see us surviving as a couple, we need to find a solution.

If we sold the house, it would possibly be negative equity due to the loans and low house prices. If we let the house out how would we go about this.

Letting the house would mean we could get it to pay for itself, as we would need to fill 4 rooms and shared kitchen/bathrooms, or we could make it 3 sections that each have bedroom/kitchen/bathroom. We could then rent a smaller property.

The questions???

Could we let 2 of the rooms to our kids?
Can we let in the first place? If not can we get a court to allow us?
What does it require financially etc to let the house and be landlords
What tax would we pay? All income would go on mortgage.
What is possible to do with partners mother? Would she get some payment help to stay there?
Can we let the house while having debts and can we get an iva etc while we dont live there?

prolly not making much sense, but am so drained, its hard to know what day it even is

Butti

Right UWTD,

Firstly put the kettle on, a tea bag in and make yourself a cuppa. I can feel the stress coming off the screen.

One of the stickies (the posts at the top of the list on this board) will have a title along the lines of SOA. This is a statement of affairs. You need to try and fill one of these in, seeing what sort of difficulties you are in and how you can start digging. You need to be honest and identify everything going out and in. This will be the basis of a new budget.

You have five bedrooms and one couple plus three adults occupying. That leaves you with at least one room free.

Is your daughter or son paying rent? I know he is unemployed but if he was living out in the private sector he would be paying rent and as an unemployed homeowner I have to give up £32 of my £67.50 per week for the mortgage provider. You need to be getting rent from both of these.

I suggest you look at letting out one of your better bedrooms to a lodger. I currently let a double room in the North East for £250 per month plus a share of the gas and electric. (Look on Spareroom.com to get an idea of local rates) Make sure you have a gas safety certificate done. That and letting to your daughter / son should make a difference. You can let a room and get up to £4500 (I think - there is a section somewhere on here about it) tax free. I'm not sure whether charging relatives counts towards that total, Citizen's Advice would be able to advise.

So say you can let a room. (Assuming you were doing that where I live) That income would be about;
£300 from the lodger
£120 from your son
c. £120 from your daughter

Make sure you also drive down your costs. I would do his one day financial appraisal of your life. Check your shopping against Martin's drop a brand principle, have a look on the old style board and try to drive down the cost of living. Good luck,

B x

p.s. Once you have done the above I would also go and see Citizen's Advice. See if you can get Carer's Allowance and get them to run a test to make sure you are claiming all you can.

mrsb83_2

I think you're asking if you can formally let bedrooms to your children so that they will receive housing benefit which can then be used to pay the mortgage and fund a smaller house for you.

This seems an extreme and unworkable solution. Is it likely that you'd be able to let out 2 rooms when the other 3 are occupied by members of the same family, including one who is disabled? I am doubtful that your children would even receive housing benefit in that situation but ask on the benefits board / with the housing benefit section of your council.

How do you intend to pay back your debt? Have you considered a DMP. IVA or bankruptcy? I think you need to address the underlying debt problem rather than looking for a sweeping solution such as this.

yasmin2

Can I say letting a property out is not as easy as people make it out to be.. From my own experience..

Make sure that your mortgage company allow you to do this, I had to convert my mortgage to a BTL one
Finding decent tenants who are going to pay on time and not live rent-free in your house.
Money required to do your place up to make it tenant friendly.
Furnishing it so it meets regs etc - ie furniture needs to be fire-retardent, gas safety certificate and electrical safety
Your first month's rent will be gone on the letting agent's finder's fee. Mine take a fee every year as a renewal fee.
Replacing furniture etc - there were four months last year where something needed replacing/repairing. I ended up subsidising the mortgage myself.
Register for self-assessment with the tax man.

I hope I am not sounding too negative as I am sure this can be a solution for some people. However, it's not the easy cash source it was made to be. There is a great forum called Landlord Zone which I used loads before I rented my house out and don't forget insurance.

yas

ugghwhattodo

mrsb83 wrote: »

I think you're asking if you can formally let bedrooms to your children so that they will receive housing benefit which can then be used to pay the mortgage and fund a smaller house for you.

This seems an extreme and unworkable solution. Is it likely that you'd be able to let out 2 rooms when the other 3 are occupied by members of the same family, including one who is disabled? I am doubtful that your children would even receive housing benefit in that situation but ask on the benefits board / with the housing benefit section of your council.

How do you intend to pay back your debt? Have you considered a DMP. IVA or bankruptcy? I think you need to address the underlying debt problem rather than looking for a sweeping solution such as this.

Hi there

no not after benefits, they will have to be working, just seeing if theres any issues with renting it to them

[Deleted User]

If you are allowed to rent, you can rent to anyone that you want to...

I don't think your plan is very good to be honest, but I think with some changes you can meet your aim.

Will post again shortly, sorry didn't want to read and run

tescobabe69

assj wrote: »

If you are allowed to rent, you can rent to anyone that you want to...

I don't think your plan is very good to be honest, but I think with some changes you can meet your aim.

Will post again shortly, sorry didn't want to read and run

What did you mean by "shortly " ?