Mortgage Interest Support, Two Owners

jgh

The Mortgage Interest Support rules say: if you are not the sole mortgagee, then MIS is only payable if all mortgagees are in receipt of qualifying benefits.

I am the co-owner of the property I live in, with one other person. However, the property is a building split into two seperate flats. There are no common areas (other than the outside bin store). I'm unemployed and live in one flat. The other co-owner works and lives in the other flat. Is there any way I can qualify for MIS to stop my finances rocketing backwards, or is my interpretation of the rules correct?

And don't go on about selling up and going somewhere cheaper, this *IS* the "somewhere cheaper", and I spent last year temporarily living in Aberdeenshire - with the lowest unemployment rate in the entire country - and 400 job applications still failed to result in a job.

HappyMJ

jgh wrote: »

The Mortgage Interest Support rules say: if you are not the sole mortgagee, then MIS is only payable if all mortgagees are in receipt of qualifying benefits.

I am the co-owner of the property I live in, with one other person. However, the property is a building split into two seperate flats. There are no common areas (other than the outside bin store). I'm unemployed and live in one flat. The other co-owner works and lives in the other flat. Is there any way I can qualify for MIS to stop my finances rocketing backwards, or is my interpretation of the rules correct?

And don't go on about selling up and going somewhere cheaper, this *IS* the "somewhere cheaper", and I spent last year temporarily living in Aberdeenshire - with the lowest unemployment rate in the entire country - and 400 job applications still failed to result in a job.

I doubt you have a joint mortgage though. You would have a mortgage on your bit and the other co-owner of the freehold would have a mortgage on their bit. Possibly you would have a seperate leasehold each and own a share of the freehold. You get help on your sole mortgage if it is a joint mortgage then you will not get help.

I really don't know what to add to your last sentence. 400 job apps ina region with low unemployment means there is something wrong with your strategy. I only ever applied for 2 maybe 3 jobs a week....in depth...I emailed my CV to many more but that part was just a shotgun approach which I never expected a reponse. The job apps that I spent many hours researching and creating custom CV's and covering letters ALWAYS had a response.

jgh

HappyMJ wrote: »

I doubt you have a joint mortgage though.

We do have a joint mortgage. It says so on the account (singular) statements and agreement: "Mr H & Ms W blah blah liable both jointly and individually ... blah blah ... joint ... etc."
Plus, it's not freehold, there's £1.25 gound rent paid annually.

I really don't know what to add to your last sentence. 400 job apps ina region with low unemployment means there is something wrong with your strategy.

My strategy is to apply for absolutely everything I believe I am possibly capable of doing. Being alive costs money.

paddedjohn

Is you property officially registered as 2 seperate flats or is it still classed as a shared house? What i mean is did you and the other person buy a house between you and just split it in 2?
If you cant afford to pay your share of the mortgage they will go after the other person for it.

HappyMJ

jgh wrote: »

We do have a joint mortgage. It says so on the account (singular) statements and agreement: "Mr H & Ms W blah blah liable both jointly and individually ... blah blah ... joint ... etc."
Plus, it's not freehold, there's £1.25 gound rent paid annually.

My strategy is to apply for absolutely everything I believe I am possibly capable of doing. Being alive costs money.

As above reply...If you don't pay then the other person is responsible for the debt. Not that it will make a difference but...Do you have seperate supplies for gas, electricity, water and council tax? What sort of building insurance policy is there?

It is not a good strategy to apply for everything...You should select only 1 job per day, research the company, provide a custom CV tailored to the job and provide a cover letter that shows you have actually researched the company and enthusiastic about starting in that vacancy. You should then ring the company and speak to the person who will get the CV's in and ask about the job. Mention your name and their name in the phone call so when they see your CV they pick it out remembering your name from the phone call. Then follow it up ringing that same person to hopefully get an interview and if not why not. At interview always mention their names. If no interview get the feedback about why your CV does not meet the standard and improve it. Sorry but 400 jobs is a huge amount of jobs and it sounds like you are just applying for everything and moving on to the next job in the hope an employer will choose you. They won't choose you they are very picky.

Being alive does cost money but not that much more than the level of JSA. If you are getting JSA then you can spend the time you have applying for specific jobs that you actually want to do rather than just everything. Your chance success will be increased dramatically.

jgh

HappyMJ wrote: »

Not that it will make a difference but...Do you have seperate supplies for gas, electricity, water and council tax? What sort of building insurance policy is there?

The gas, water and electricity are a single supply for the whole building, as is the buildings insurance as it's a single building. This is a very common situation - just think of a flat above a shop but this is a flat above another flat. The council tax sees two seperate residences, just as with the flat-above-a-shop example. We've even tried to get the council tax to register it as one property bu they say: rip out one of the bathrooms and one of the kitchens so that one of you has to go next door and use the other's, then we'll talk.

It is not a good strategy to apply for everything...You should select only 1 job per day

I *do* on average apply for one job a day. I've applied for 853 jobs in the last 25 months - that's 1.1 jobs per day.

Sorry but 400 jobs is a huge amount of jobs and it sounds like you are just applying for everything and moving on to the next job in the hope an employer will choose you.

Well, of *course* I'm applying for every job that I think I can do. BEING ALIVE COSTS MONEY!!!! I am currently going BACKWARDS at the rate of £200 a month. I can't AFFORD to say "up yours, I'm not going to apply for this", and that would be a sure-fire way of losing my Job SEEKER'S allowance.

If you are getting JSA then you can spend the time you have applying for specific jobs that you actually want to do rather than just everything.

I *DO* apply for the jobs that I actually want to do, but financial considerations force me to also apply for being-alive-costs-money jobs as well. I've applied for 25 jobs "that I want to do" in the last fortnight, and 3 ok-I'll-do-it-because-food-costs-money jobs.

Pollycat

jgh wrote: »

The Mortgage Interest Support rules say: if you are not the sole mortgagee, then MIS is only payable if all mortgagees are in receipt of qualifying benefits.

I am the co-owner of the property I live in, with one other person. However, the property is a building split into two seperate flats. There are no common areas (other than the outside bin store). I'm unemployed and live in one flat. The other co-owner works and lives in the other flat. Is there any way I can qualify for MIS to stop my finances rocketing backwards, or is my interpretation of the rules correct?

Have you actually asked DWP this question rather than reading the rules?

I'm assuming you are receiving JSA.

A friend of mine was told when he applied for JSA (and asked about SMI during his interview) that it would be done automatically at the end of the waiting period - so if you're past the waiting period (13 weeks) and not getting SMI it sounds like they think you're not eligible.

Your mortgage arrangements sound strange to me, I can't imagine having a mortgage with another person who doesn't share any of my accommodation.
Did you go to the building society together to arrange the mortgage?

If you are on the same mortgage, is the other person worried that if you don't pay your portion of the morgage, it will default and the property may be repossessed?

It seems very unfair if you can't get SMI just because some unconnected stranger is living in the flat above you.

Maybe this is something that needs explaining to the DWP as it sounds (at least to me) very strange indeed.

pmlindyloo

OP's circumstances do sound very strange.

They cannot be complete strangers can they? Hope the OP comes back to clarify.

This also made me wonder about two friends having a joint mortage together - more common these days I would have thought.

If one of them went onto JSA would he/she be entitled to SMI?

I realise that they are both severally and jointly liable for the mortgage but I think I read, that in these circumstances, they would receive SMI for the proportion of the mortgage that they paid (some test case or other)

Have searched for a link but cannot find one.

Can anyone help?

This might apply then in the OP's case.

Dunroamin

jgh wrote: »

The gas, water and electricity are a single supply for the whole building, as is the buildings insurance as it's a single building. This is a very common situation - just think of a flat above a shop but this is a flat above another flat.

It really isn't.

poppy10_2

I lived in a flat above a shop. The gas, water and electricity were all seperate supplies.

chrissie57

We live in a flat above a shop. We own the whole building so the buildings insurance is indeed for the whole building. Everything else is completely seperate