Right to Buy - Power of Attorney?

MobileSaver

sarbaloosa wrote: »

But my father would like to leave this property to me when he passes, which God willing will be a long way away from now. He recognizes he may qualify for almost a £70K discount against the council house and would like to leave that to me in the end rather than giving up on the house entirely.

This would be problematic for all the reasons Kingstreet and others have given even without the POA.

However the POA makes it even more difficult. Due to the obvious conflict of interest, at the very least you would need to take professional legal and financial advice to prove that this was in your father's best interests and you may even need to ask the Court of Protection for approval beforehand.

Mokka

As a house owner your father will lose some benefits.
If you buy his house for him in effect you will be taking over paying for his housing, instead of the taxpayer. Let's say his rent is now £5K a year. In 15 years the government would have recovered the discount.
If you don't live therem the house would be in his name. So it can be used to pay for his care costs.
If you throw in some unexpected repairs, I think you stand a good chance of making a loss out of this generous discount.

BlondBoy

Really Sarbaloosa - don't do it.

Bear in mind that anyone can report you to the Office of the Public Guardian if they suspect you're not acting in your Dad's best interests. And I think you'd have to work very hard to prove that you are acting in your father's best interests here.

And, as many have said, you're also likely to find yourself losing out significantly if your dad needs residential care.

I was an attorney for my Dad for 5 years. A lot can change in that time and you can't predict it. Forget a notional gain - it's money you'll never have. Put your Dad's security ahead of everything else and leave the property ownership where it is.

Lioness_Twinkletoes

Buzby wrote: »

As the right to buy is being ended, you may already be too late.

Isn't this only in Scotland in 2017?

Edit: Already clarified.

OP is the worst kind of person that haunts these boards. Greedy, grasping and out for what they can get.

Senior_Paper_Monitor

I am afraid there is a lot of misinformation being provided here.


We process comparatively large numbers of RTB mortgages and have conducted serious research into the options (and continue to do so), and I'll try to precise the issues here:


The 'showstopper' here is the mortgage - across the board the rule is simple - to be on the RTB mortgage you must be on the 125 offer letter. To be on the RTB offer letter you must be a tenant or have been resident at the address (primary residence - see note) for the previous 12 months. The affordability will be calculated on the income of those on the 125 offer/mortgage offer only. There are a limited number of lenders who will consider a non resident borrower on the mortgage but not on the title register (deeds) but this is not accepted on RTB by an lender.


Note: We have on interesting case where two children were carers (shared time @ residence - both having their own family homes on standard mortgages) for disabled mother. Council (in full knowledge of the arrangements) agreed to add them both to the 125 offer - I am undecided as to whether this fell within their authority under the Housing Act (the court will decide) but I have my doubts. We negotiated a mortgage lender willing to accept the case and a mortgage offer was made (and the lender remains happy to honour it). At the last minute the Council 'Compliance Department' stepped in and made some totally unjustifiable accusations (now withdrawn) but the RTB offer on this basis was withdrawn. This is now heading for the high court - and we expect either the RTB offer to be reinstated or the clients to receive compensation for the costs incurred in attempting to process the offer.


I share other's concerns as to whether you would be acting within the guidelines of your power of attorney in executing a RTB purchase (even if it can be done - as detailed above) on behalf of your father. You would have to take professional specialist advice on this.


This case is not 'a runner' on many fronts, based on the initial information from the OP.

justjohn

You will have to check this out because I am unsure if you can still do this.


For a while someone in your situation would get put on the rental agreement. if this was done then the RTB discount would remain with the joint tenants. however I am unsure if this still happens or what the relationship between the tenants has to be.

leveller2911

The OP is all heart as one of their previous threads they were asking about "my aunt & uncle" RTB and being helped by a family member............

Some people are just all giving ................

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4839062

Mokka

Senior_Paper_Monitor wrote: »

This is now heading for the high court - and we expect either the RTB offer to be reinstated or the clients to receive compensation for the costs incurred in attempting to process the offer.
.

I hope this is heading to county court- if it goes to high court there will be no chance for your clients to get their costs back. (unless it's an appeal of a county court decision)

The children would have had the right to be on s.125 offer if they were still joint tenants.

Otherwise they would have to prove the property was their principal home- which by what you are saying they won't be able to.

The council had absolutely no right to withdraw the offer. They could have taken off the family members though.