helping a grandson with my mortgage discount?

Ash_Wright

Hello,

I have been a council tenant for about 55 years, and am now retired. I am quite sure I qualify for the discount (Right To Buy?) to buy my council house offered by the government but do not have the money to do this on my own. It is quite annoying really after renting all this time I could have bought this house three times over if I'd been a bit more forward thinking at the time!

My daughter had the idea that my grandson is looking to buy a property as a long term investment right now and if only he had the discount I have he would happily buy my house and let me live here rent free until I pass away so that in a sense we would both gain. I trust him fully to live up to his end of the bargain so that is not an issue.

Does anyone know of a way this could work? At first we thought of him giving me the money, me purchasing the property and gifting it to him in my will, but I am not sure if we will be taxed heavily for doing this. I am quite sure inheritance tax would not be a problem as the house and the rest of my belongings do not reach that amount.

The issue I can see with this idea even if my son can give me the money without issue would be if I were to go into a care home at some point. I assume the house would have to be sold then to pay for my care?

If so, what about if I gift the house back to him immediately?

Is there a way he would be entitled to my discount and buy the property directly? What if for example he were to live with me for a year?

Thanks in advance for any help on the matter.

Annisele

Putting aside the moral issues here...

Does your grandson have enough money to buy the property outright, or would he need a mortgage? If he'd need a mortgage, then I think you're going to come unstuck. The discount is yours alone - so you would need to buy the place - and no lender would let your grandson borrow money against a house he doesn't own.

If he does have enough money to buy the place outright, I still think you're being overly trusting. You may trust him absolutely - but can you be certain he's not going to die / get divorced / go bankrupt / suffer some other calamity that means somebody else will end up owning part of your house?

Fire_Fox

There have been many threads on this, it's worth running an advanced search. Your discount is there so that council tenants can purchase and live in their own home, your grandson is not a council tenant and this is not his home. You could purchase it if you can raise the finance, then gift the property but you cause all sorts of nightmares if you need care - 'deprivation of assets' - he goes bankrupt or needs to claim benefits. The taxman and other authorities would see two gifts as a loan or purchase arrangement, a gift comes with no strings at all. Also if he owns the house he is your landlord so needs to repair the property and may need to comply with a raft of legislation, alternatively you need to fund repairs with your pension, houses are not cheap to maintain.

ILW

Grandson wants the place as an investment!!!

Ash_Wright

Thanks for the advice. I have no problem in trusting my grandson with my property or anything I own and the feeling is mutual for all of our family so issues with trust, repair costs etc. do not apply to me. I would do anything to help him or the rest of my family and, as I say, I do not have the finances to do this now.. Raising five children has that effect!

I did find some other posts on the forums about similar things, but no one in my situation (since I do not own the house so I am not really trying to avoid inheritance tax or something similar). Apologies if I created a duplicate thread.

In all the time that I've rented my property I have had very little from the council. If my grandson owned it he would likely improve the property as any improvement he makes will be a further investment for him so we would again both benefit if he owned the house.

I was hoping that for example we could buy the property together so that both our names are on the deeds and when I pass away it automatically goes to him without financial complications (as it would have gone to my wife for example if she were alive still), but I suppose if it were this simple someone would have already suggested it so thank you for your time

outofmoney

Or you could just continue to live in it and when the time comes it goes to a needy family who it was designed for!

Some people!!!! :mad:

I know this is your choice but when we have been waiting over 12 years for a house because of people doing things like this it makes the blood boil a bit.