marriage breakup/mortgage/housing benefit NI

jacques_chirac

lld01 wrote: »

This is copied straight from the Decision Makers Guide

Liability for housing costs

78215 A person is liable to meet housing costs where the

1. liability falls on them or their partner, except where the liability is to another member of the same household1 or
2. person liable for those costs is not meeting them and

2.1 the claimant has to meet the costs to keep on living in the home and
2.2 it is reasonable in all the circumstances to treat the claimant as liable for the costs




See section 2, even if the person is not named in the mortgage they are still "liable" for the purpose of housing costs regulations if no-one else is meeting the payments and they must pay to stay in the property.

Obviously they would need to be in receipt of the relevant income based benefit before any of this is considered

Thanks lld01, I was beginning to wonder how to tell all those already in receipt of it that they were going to lose their home

lld01

princessdon wrote: »

Also even if they could get SMI, then shed lose her 16 hour entitlement to WTC and childcare, they could also only pay half (his share being met), which could work out less than the interest only part of the SMI. There is a lot to consider.

However if his share was not being met then she would recieve 100% of the eligible interest amount. But this still might work out less than the monthly interest charged.

I agree there is a lot to consider.

snapplejacks

i think i'm a bit confused, dont know if what you are saying does work out better or worse or what ! but i will re-read this and also mention (or print this off) the above when i seek some face to face legal advice on it and i just hope something can work for both of us.

thanks everyone

lld01

The first step is to ascertain what income-based benefits she may be entitled to as the mortgage interest help is liked to these

Here is a link about support for mortgage interest in Northern Ireland
http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/getting-help-to-make-your-mortgage-interest-payments

Best of luck

princessdon

snapplejacks wrote: »

i think i'm a bit confused, dont know if what you are saying does work out better or worse or what ! but i will re-read this and also mention (or print this off) the above when i seek some face to face legal advice on it and i just hope something can work for both of us.

thanks everyone

You need to really find out what your legal requirements are as it was a pre marital purchase, the implications of in effect giving up a lot of equity (ie if your wife is to now take on sole responsibility, you in effect abandoning the mortgage, where does it leave you now and in the future), a lot also depends on original purchase price - if you borrowed more, what for as additional borrowing isn't included unless for essentials.

Good luck, but honestly I'd advise speaking to a solicitor before making any decisions.

snapplejacks

lots of great information and thanks very much, its a first step in helping me help my family in a way to avoid as much pain as possible.

i'm glad i came here and i very much appreciate the time you took responding.

zzzLazyDaisy

OP, re SMI (again with the disclaimer that I am talking about England so you need to check)

You say you have two children but don't give the ages.

SMI is only payable in connection with means tested benefits such as income support or income related JSA. In England a single parent can only get Income support until the child reaches 5yrs and then they must change to JSA and be actively seeking work. If that is the case, she may find herself considerably disadvantaged by the system if she drops her hours to just under 16 hrs and the push will be to get her into work of 16 hrs a week or more to get her back off benefits and back into work.