Advice needed for an 80 year old paying back a huge housing benefit debt please?

Chris_P_Bacon_2

My old boy was left a run-down old 2 Bed house by my Uncle 2 years ago and it took quite a while and a lot of stress to have it all settled with the Solicitors. He is 80 years old and can be a bit forgetful.

He phoned his local housing office (on my advice) a few monthsafter he was left the house to advise them of this - as he was at the time inreceipt of housing benefit and council tax rebates (he is on the basic pension only). They never got back to him and he assumed that was all he needed to do with the matter and whenever I questioned him he said it was “all sorted”. I think he was burying his head in the sand conveniently waiting, as the house needed alot of work done to it before it could become habitable. He (we) have been scrimping and scrounging to get it done up for him and it is nearly complete – we reckon by the end of the year it will be. But in doing so he has ran up a bit of debtwith a local Joinery firm.

He admitted to me last night that he had remembered that he had in actual fact not “sorted” his benefits with the housing office and he had phoned them up again 2 months ago to ask why they had not got back to him. One thing lead to another – he was visited by two apparently very helpful and pleasant housing officers around 6 weeks ago and he told them everything in relation to the house and showed them the lawyers letters confirming dates etc.

I was horrified last night when he showed me how much he owes. He has 3 weeks to pay back over £6,000 in rent and council tax benefits - he has no income or savings and he has been borrowing from me for a while.

I am not sure about the best way to deal with this but we agreed that both he and I would visit the Housing Office tomorrow to see what his options are. It would be heart-breaking if he had to sell the house.

I know that being bequeathed a house would be viewed by most as a good situation (the death of his brother aside) however it has now become increasingly more like an unaffordable burden and we just don’t know what to do.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks.

PS: This is such a wonderful forum – wish I had joined it years ago.

dseventy

Assuming the house is worth more than £6k, then he can sell the house, and still live on the profits. Or perhaps buy a place of his own.

While it would be "heart-breaking" to have the sell the house, consider this:

1)Your dad cant pay the rent on his house and relys on others to do it for him (ie the government)

2)He has been left a house (an asset) that he forgot to tell the council about (yet can get the house done up and get joinery firms in to spec up and complete, deal with solicitors, but not the council apparantly).

What kind of advice do you want?

D70

Dunroamin

If your father has no other savings or income, why has he only been getting the basic pension and not claiming pension credit?

Chris_P_Bacon_2

Dunroamin wrote: »

If your father has no other savings or income, why has he only been getting the basic pension and not claiming pension credit?

Because he is very stubborn and it was hard enough years ago to get him to claim benefits for his housing - it was a good decade before he agreed to that. Can he still apply for that do you think? Every little helps.

dseventy - the advice I suppose I am hoping for is how he can come to some arrangement to pay it back - without having to sell the house.

princessdon

Chris_P_Bacon wrote: »

Because he is very stubborn and it was hard enough years ago to get him to claim benefits for his housing - it was a good decade before he agreed to that. Can he still apply for that do you think? Every little helps.

dseventy - the advice I suppose I am hoping for is how he can come to some arrangement to pay it back - without having to sell the house.

That's not really an option though is it?

He will never be entitled to HB etc whilst has this house - so he will have to fund and live off the nothing that it makes.

Even with PC the capital will still be there.

ladyrider260

May I ask what you plan on doing with the house once it's habitable?

sleepless_saver

Sorry, but there is no way he is going to be able to repay the housing benefit and council tax benefit overpayment on a basic state pension.

Plus while he keeps the house, he will not get any housing benefit or council tax benefit for his own home so will have to pay rent and council tax. In addition he will be responsible for council tax, insurance etc on the other house. If he does not pay the rent, he is at risk of eviction.

Can he go and live in the house he owns and give up the tenancy? If not, he will have to sell. NB If he puts it on the market, it will be disregarded for benefit calculations for (usually) up to 6 months.

EmmaHerts

Dunroamin wrote: »

As he's been so reluctant to claim benefits I'm sure he'll be mortified to find that he's been claiming them illegally and will be only too happy to sell the house, live off the proceeds and come off benefits altogether.

I am surprised that they don't take into account that it is inhabitable though. If he can't safely live there, then how has he been illegally claiming benefits?

sleepless_saver

As he can't afford any of this, the worst scenario is that the local authority take bankruptcy proceedings to get the debt paid off by the forced sale of the house.

In answer to your earlier question, he can't get pension credit if his income (state pension and add £1 for every £500 of the house's value) is over £137.35.

He probably needs face to face advice from CAB or local welfare rights.

sleepless_saver

EmmaHerts wrote: »

I am surprised that they don't take into account that it is inhabitable though. If he can't safely live there, then how has he been illegally claiming benefits?

It still has a market value even if it's not habitable. It's that value that's taken into account for benefits, not what condition it's in. He has a home already, so they will treat the house he inherited like any other form of capital e.g. savings.

Dunroamin

EmmaHerts wrote: »

I am surprised that they don't take into account that it is inhabitable though. If he can't safely live there, then how has he been illegally claiming benefits?

Even if it's uninhabitable (which it isn't now) it will be worth well over the threshold for claiming benefits. It's not a question of his living there but of him owning a valuable asset.