selling house & going into private rental

jaykins

Hi all

I'm looking for some advice on my situation with regards to selling our 2 bed house & moving into a 3 bed private rent property.

We are now out growing our home & are unable to move up the property ladder to buy a 3 bed as this would be an increase of around 40k on top of our mortgage, which would be unsustainable for us, let alone being able to borrow it in the first place. I have had a valuation which would clear the mortgage in full & leave enough to cover rent, I currently work full time & have been employed for 21 years.

My question is would I be able to claim LHA if I was to sell up and go private ? I have put all figures into the entitledto website and was surprised with the amount they are willing to pay towards help with the rent (approx 40%) being as I work full time too. would I also be deemed to have sold to deliberatly claim LHA and be declined even though I'm trying to improve my housing situation.

thanks for anyone who replies

silvercar

If you are eligible you can claim. So low income, little savings would make you eligible. Remember there is no guarantee what the levels of LHA will be in the future.

Also the amount of LHA will be in part determined by the amount of bedrooms you are deemed to need, so a couple with 3 children or 2 children if they are of the opposite sex and one over the age of 10 is what makes you eligible for the 3 bedroom rate.

jaykins

we have 3 kids, 2 boys, 3 & 6 and a girl a year old so would indeed be entitled to the 3 bed rate of LHA.

Do you know if I could confirm the actual amount I could receive towards rent based on actual income other than using the online calculators or putting a claim in before having a tenancy agreement?

pmlindyloo

jaykins wrote: »

Hi all

I'm looking for some advice on my situation with regards to selling our 2 bed house & moving into a 3 bed private rent property.

We are now out growing our home & are unable to move up the property ladder to buy a 3 bed as this would be an increase of around 40k on top of our mortgage, which would be unsustainable for us, let alone being able to borrow it in the first place. I have had a valuation which would clear the mortgage in full & leave enough to cover rent, I currently work full time & have been employed for 21 years.

My question is would I be able to claim LHA if I was to sell up and go private ? I have put all figures into the entitledto website and was surprised with the amount they are willing to pay towards help with the rent (approx 40%) being as I work full time too. would I also be deemed to have sold to deliberatly claim LHA and be declined even though I'm trying to improve my housing situation.

thanks for anyone who replies

How much are we talking about here?

You can claim Housing Benefit (or Local housing Allowance ) if you have savings below £16000.

Did you put your savings into the benefits calculator?

jaykins

pmlindyloo

After all fees are paid for house sale we would have approx £4k to 6k in bank with no other savings to delare, I was looking at clearing my credit card in full also but this would maybe be seen as deprevation of capital as I have not actually been asked to pay it all back.

jaykins

sorry, forgot to add that I did put £6000 in as a figure for capital/savings.