Charging my mum rent?

bestpud

Is your mum receiving carers allowance and/or child benefit and tax credits?

She is going to have to contribute towards the mortgage from whatever benefits she receives.


Can you earn more money?

Dunroamin

sniper786 wrote: »

Mum is unwell herself and cannot work, plus she is a carer to my disabled younger brother

Then she should contribute to the household out of any benefits she receives for these things.

iwilldoitthistime

could your mum not claim bereavement allowance, and did your dad not have any type of pension scheme at work which would pay out widows pension?

xylophone

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/Bereaved/DG_10018684

sniper786

Dunroamin wrote: »

Then she should contribute to the household out of any benefits she receives for these things.

I was planning on using the benefits she receives to run the household - food, bills etc and use my salary for the mortgage but with mine alone it will be very difficult.

I know this sounds drastic but what if i were to move out, i am prepared to rent out a cheap as possible place and then i would no longer be living with my mum?

Dunroamin

sniper786 wrote: »

I was planning on using the benefits she receives to run the household - food, bills etc and use my salary for the mortgage but with mine alone it will be very difficult.

I know this sounds drastic but what if i were to move out, i am prepared to rent out a cheap as possible place and then i would no longer be living with my mum?

Then who would pay the mortgage?

paddedjohn

Dunroamin wrote: »

Then who would pay the mortgage?[/QUOTE


By the sound of it the OP wants us lot to.

skintmacflint

Might be worth posting on the Mortgage forum for some advice from posters experienced with mortgage problems.

In todays climate there's thousands of families struggling to meet mortgage payments and they may have some workable alternative solutions for you over there..

BigAunty

sniper786 wrote: »

I was planning on using the benefits she receives to run the household - food, bills etc and use my salary for the mortgage but with mine alone it will be very difficult.

Are you saying your mortgage swallows up virtually all of your net wage??!!

People who can't afford their mortgage tend to sell up and either downsize to a cheaper property or move into rental accommodation.

Means tested benefits are based on income, not expenses - if your household expenditure is high because you're servicing a mortgage higher than your means, this is irrelevant to benefit calculations so what you will have is a budgeting, not benefits issue.

The Shelter website has excellent info on the options available to home owners who are struggling to pay their mortgage, how to deal with arrears and how to avoid repossession.

Download the MSE budget planner and work through the site to identify where you can slash costs - cheapest insurance, energy, telecoms tariffs, groceries, frugal recipes and so on.

No-one here on this forum knows how much you earn or what benefits your household is receiving so our assistance is always going to be limited if you aren't candid. Do you have debts?

sniper786 wrote: »

...

I know this sounds drastic but what if i were to move out, i am prepared to rent out a cheap as possible place and then i would no longer be living with my mum?

How will you pay the rent on a new place and how much capital (equity) is in the property? Only a few types of situations qualify a homeowner to receive housing benefit when they don't occupy their own property (in case you thought you'd qualify for HB at the new place).

If you think you can leave your mum in your property and get your mortgage paid via a housing benefit claim, think again as perhaps this may not succeed.

Google 'contrived tenancy' - if a local council believe the tenancy has been set up by relatives (landlord/tenant) to exploit the housing benefit system, they wont' grant HB. For example, if the claimant isn't charged rent when they are working but are when are on benefits. Also it has to be a proper commercial tenancy so a tenancy agreement will be expected. I don't know how the council will feel about your proposal whereby your mother - ask them now if it will be an issue.

Then you have to consider how tenancy issues can affect the family relationship, the problems that come with mixing family and business. On the housing forum, there is a thread by a son who had to evict his father through the courts from his property - are you happy to evict your mother?

Do you know how much Local Housing Allowance she would qualify for? If not, identify this on the local council website to see if it will even come close to paying your mortgage. You will be liable for all repair costs, will have full landlord responsibilities and you could be liable for Capital Gains tax. In the move to the Universal Credit system being bought in in the next few years, landlords with capital (i.e equity) over 16k will not be able to qualify for UC, I believe - will this affect you?

BigAunty

Your household should be receiving child benefit for the two youngest children depending on their age, etc If your household income is low, you could also qualify for child tax credits (you haven't specified if they are adults that are working and what they earn or children at school so we can't help you).

If your youngest brother is disabled and is receiving a certain type of DLA, then your mother (if she's the primary carer) would qualify for Carers Allowance, perhaps extra child tax credits. See the info for this on the Direct Gov website. She might even qualify for higher child tax credits, too. You haven't identified what they are receiving or what the disability is, so we can't really help you much more.

If you have a low income and if you are single and working at least 30 hours a week, you could qualify for working tax credits which is available to the self-employed, too. You may even qualify for reduced council tax. We don't know what you earn so can't help you much more on this.

You can identify your benefit entitlements, including the ones that your mother should qualify for if she has dependent children, on the Turn2us online benefit checker.

You could also book an appointment with your local Citizens Advice Bureau who could help you with benefits advice, including widows/bereavement type allowances, funeral expenses, debt management and so forth.

Your greatest expense - the mortgage - is something where there is very little state help for homeowners unless they are on a few specific benefits (the support for mortgage interest scheme). Not being able to pay your mortgage is seen as a personal financial matter between owner and mortgage company, not a benefits matter.

However, the Shelter website has a phone line for home owners with mortgage worries and their site does have info on various schemes (including one where a social housing landlord buys the property and lets the previous occupants stay in it and pay rent).

On the question of the mortgage, you will have to do some serious number crunching to see if you should sell up and move into rented accommodation. Use the budget planner on the MSE website to determine if the mortgage is affordable to you on your current income.

You could look into applying for social housing (housing association) - while you are currently housed and an owner-occupier, you will be a low priority but I do expect that a social housing landlord would take into account financial difficulties in having to sell up a family property and take into account your brother's disability.

Speak to the Glasgow Housing Association about your options if it looks like you can't afford to keep your property now the main breadwinner has sadly passed on.