mortgage help on jsa (how much)

robti

Hi looking for some advice on the above, i am on jsa for the past year and get something towards my mortgage repayment but here is the thing around 15 years ago bought my ex council flat for approx £18,000, then around 3 years later took a top up loan and re mortgaged to get a new kitchen,bathroom and front door, which were all needed.
So i now have a £37,000 mortgage that i have been paying for 12 years.

Now benefit office will only help me with the original £18,000 mortgage, so just wanting to know if this is correct as i have to find the extra from my jsa which means i have only have less than £40 left for anything else a week

Thanks

Robert

Caz3121

do you have receipts for what the additional £19k was spent on or did it all go on the items listed. From what I have read the decision maker will decide what of the spend was essential and what was 'nice to have' upgrading. eg if there was not a kitchen there and you put one in and it cost £7k and you have the receipt then that should be fine. If there was a kitchen there but you didn't like it and wanted a different one then it would not be

lld01

Interest can only be awarded for the original house purchase amount and certain essential home improvements. With regards to home improvements, the test under the regulations is that the measure had to be "necessary to maintain the fitness of the home for human habitation" - even then only certain improvements would ever be allowablle and generally only the bare minimum.

If the decision maker has decided that the home improvements were not "necessary" for the purpose of the regulations then it is correct that interest would only be awarded for the original house purchase amount.

BigAunty

Shelter give examples of this.
Claiming for help with interest on other loans

You may also be able to get payments towards the interest on loans taken out for:

• essential repairs or improvements to your home (for example for insulation, repairing dangerous faults or adapting your home if someone in your household is ill or disabled)
• buying your ex-partner's share in your home if you have separated.

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/help_with_housing_costs/support_for_mortgage_interest

shedboy94

robti wrote: »

Hi looking for some advice on the above, i am on jsa for the past year and get something towards my mortgage repayment but here is the thing around 15 years ago bought my ex council flat for approx £18,000, then around 3 years later took a top up loan and re mortgaged to get a new kitchen,bathroom and front door, which were all needed.
So i now have a £37,000 mortgage that i have been paying for 12 years.

Now benefit office will only help me with the original £18,000 mortgage, so just wanting to know if this is correct as i have to find the extra from my jsa which means i have only have less than £40 left for anything else a week

Thanks

Robert

£19k for a kitchen, bathroom and front door in a flat????

DannyboyMidlands

The kitchen and bathroom cost the same as the flat?!

mel48rose

robti wrote: »

Hi looking for some advice on the above, i am on jsa for the past year and get something towards my mortgage repayment but here is the thing around 15 years ago bought my ex council flat for approx £18,000, then around 3 years later took a top up loan and re mortgaged to get a new kitchen,bathroom and front door, which were all needed.
So i now have a £37,000 mortgage that i have been paying for 12 years.

Now benefit office will only help me with the original £18,000 mortgage, so just wanting to know if this is correct as i have to find the extra from my jsa which means i have only have less than £40 left for anything else a week

Thanks

Robert

Why should me as a taxpayer pay your mortgage??
Must have been a top quality kitchen, bathroom eh? The rest of us have to budget. I'd love a new kitchen and bathroom.

miduck

mel48rose wrote: »

Why should me as a taxpayer pay your mortgage??

SMI pays towards the mortgage interest, not the capital element. Much the same as your partner claiming full HB and CTB, yes?

Horseunderwater

SMI - is based on the following criterior. 3.63% of interest due on Original purchase price capital (£18k) and they may and I say may contribute to basic home improvements if for example you had no bathroom or kitchen sink or needed a new boiler central heating and rads installed as none there when you moved in. So they may allow a little extra on top of the £18k - but it will not be much and if you have receipts of the costs involved they will need to see those.
I recently completed the MI10 form that you have to fill out for these updates and repairs and although I told them the costs of what the essentials were, some £10.9K they allowed me about £5k in total on top of my purchase price. However it only made £2.50 a week difference to what they pay the lender per week. But at the moment I can live with this.