Anyone helped a relative buy their council house?

Naps

Better_Days wrote: »

So do take into account the cost of ongoing maintence, new boiler etc.

The most important thing is what does your Mum want to do?

Thank you Betterdays - she'd love to be an owner for once in her life, instead of an tenant - she's very house proud. The house itself is only 20 years old and has been well maintained, of course there will be maintenance charges over the coming years, but we would make sure she always had a handyman/plumber on call if she needed one.

Naps

Oops I just realised that it sounds like a contradiction - we lived on the plot for a lot longer, but it was an originally an old 'Airey (sp?)' house. The council put tenants into temporary accommodation whilst they knocked down the old houses and built new ones. Some tenants opted to just move out, we went with the temporary accommodation a few doors away and watched our new home being built, moving back into the same address/plot as soon as it was finished - so it's our old home but the actual building is only 20ish years old.

Mojisola

Naps wrote: »

Or is it possible to find out if being the owner of her property would affect her pension/pension credit.

If being on low income, yet a home owner would affect her council tax.

And finally, if it's possible to simply give her the money to buy the house, or if giving her £55k would cause problems.

Owning her own house won't affect her pension, pension credit or, if she ever needs it, Attendance Allowance.

Council tax rules are changing - it's best to check with her council.

In theory, the minute your money hits her account, it will affect her pension credit so keep the time it's there to the minimum.

At the moment, you are obviously in a position to fund the house purchase and maintain it for her. Life doesn't always stay the same - consider what will happen if you lose your job or if you die before your Mum or a range of other possibilities and see if you can still look after the property for her.

Naps

Werdnal wrote: »

Why is your mother currently living alone in a 3 bed family home? I think she should move and make way for a family who actually need that property. Keeping the additional bedrooms just because you might want to stay is not a valid excuse.

In the long term, and exchange to a 1/2 bed council bungalow would be much better for her future, easier for her to look after and make it more likely she will be able to stay in her own home longer, than saddling her with an oversized home which she needs to heat and clean.

Thanks for your advice, she lived her for over 40 years of her married life and nursed my father through illness over the last 8 months, to the point where she was widowed - can you imagine why she would want to stay there?

I guess she's being sentimental.

If this was simply a question of wanting to purchase a 3 bedroomed home for my mother and had nothing to do with the discount which she'll benefit from you'd never have suggested it was inappropriate?

ILW

Surely the most secure position for mother is to continue to be a secure tenant.

Naps

Mojisola wrote: »

Owning her own house won't affect her pension, pension credit or, if she ever needs it, Attendance Allowance.

Council tax rules are changing - it's best to check with her council.

In theory, the minute your money hits her account, it will affect her pension credit so keep the time it's there to the minimum.

At the moment, you are obviously in a position to fund the house purchase and maintain it for her. Life doesn't always stay the same - consider what will happen if you lose your job or if you die before your Mum or a range of other possibilities and see if you can still look after the property for her.

Thank you Mojisola for the comprehensive reply and for adding on the possibility of my situation changing, I guess you never think you're going to go first, but that's something which I'd never considered and element I need to look at. As a cash purchaser, I guess I just have to ensure that maintenance costs of her property would be covered for the rest of her life, along with any additional costs which she may incur from being a homeowner.

---

In response to whether this is the right property for her - for now, yes it is, if at some point she wishes to move to a smaller home, bungalow, sheltered housing, we'd do everything in our power to assist her.

Finally - not sure why I come across as male, but I am a bereaved, perhaps oversensitive (at the moment) daughter.

---

Thanks again Mojisola, you gave me the answers I was looking for.

Mojisola

Naps wrote: »

In response to whether this is the right property for her - for now, yes it is, if at some point she wishes to move to a smaller home, bungalow, sheltered housing, we'd do everything in our power to assist her.

My parents were in their own house (so not council) but they stayed there even though they had more rooms than they needed. It meant that family were able to stay for much longer on visits than if they'd been paying for hotels. All the grandchildren have grown up spending weeks at a time with their grandparents which created lovely relationships for them all.

It also made it much easier when they started needing extra help because I was able to sleep over in comfort.

There is a moral aspect to someone keeping a three-bed council property for themselves when there are families living in over-crowded housing but the law does allow for the house to be bought or for your mother to stay there as a tenant.

Having the value of the property available for paying care home fees if it becomes necessary would make a big difference to the homes she could chose.

Just keep in mind that she's still quite young by today's standards and could easily be around in 10, 15 or even 20 years' time. Whatever plans you make need to be longterm.

Naps

Thanks again, I'd like to think that she'll be around for another 30+ years, and that we'll continue to have the finances to support her - but like everything, you can't say no 'just in case'. Sometimes you've just got to take the risk.

topbargainhunter

I was in the same situation back in 1994 when my Dad passed away suddenly. I wanted my mum to buy her council house so that she wouldn't have to worry about rent for the rest of her life. She'd lived in the house since 1960 and all her 4 children were born in that house. We still all call it home now.

She couldn't get a mortgage being in her late 50's so I got a bank loan to buy the house (we used a solicitor) and the house had to be in my Mum's name as she had been the tenant.

Sadly only 2 or 3 years later she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and after some years had to go into care. She never got the full benefit of having no rent to pay and has to pay for her care in full.

I still wouldn't change what I did though. There were no Local Authority bungalows/flats in her village so she would have had to move elsewhere in retirement rather than stay where she had lived since the day she got married.

Naps

topbargainhunter wrote: »

I was in the same situation back in 1994 when my Dad passed away suddenly. I wanted my mum to buy her council house so that she wouldn't have to worry about rent for the rest of her life. She'd lived in the house since 1960 and all her 4 children were born in that house. We still all call it home now.

She couldn't get a mortgage being in her late 50's so I got a bank loan to buy the house (we used a solicitor) and the house had to be in my Mum's name as she had been the tenant.

Sadly only 2 or 3 years later she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and after some years had to go into care. She never got the full benefit of having no rent to pay and has to pay for her care in full.

I still wouldn't change what I did though. There were no Local Authority bungalows/flats in her village so she would have had to move elsewhere in retirement rather than stay where she had lived since the day she got married.

Thanks for sharing - it's good to know I'm not acting insanely. Sorry too to hear about your Mum's health declining, hopefully she got/is getting the best care available.