House Guest Benefit Claim?

sheramber

if she has no money and no income where will she go?

How will she pay her way?

t0rt0ise

Surely if the landlord lives at the same property they must have a lodger. A tenant is someone who rents the whole accommodation and not shares it with the landlord.

nannytone_2

yjri CANNOT be a tenant if the landlord lives in the property.
they are a lodger.
but the OP had already stated that they don't expect rent.
if they are entitled ( as an EU national) they can claim income support, child tax credit and child benefit

BigAunty

Penguin_Biscuit wrote: »

I was thinking of making her a lodger, rather than a tenant.
But I wasn't sure if a single parent could be a lodger. Someone told me that single parents could only be tenants.

That's not the case - having dependents makes absolutely no difference to the tenure.

The Shelter website is aimed at providing housing advice to tenants/lodgers rather than landlords.

Nonetheless, if you browse it from her point of view (they have a tenancy status checker), you will see that anyone who lives in the same property as their landlord and shares the amenities there (such as kitchen/bathroom) is classed as an excluded occupier (otherwise known as a lodger).

A tenant has exclusive use of the property while the landlord lives elsewhere - this is why she can never be classed as a tenant.

A landlord and occupant living together in the same property sharing the space is legally always going to be landlord/lodger status.

Exceptions are things like annexes (granny flats, etc) where the occupant has sole access to their front door and doesn't share common amenities/or where it is classed as a separate building for council tax purposes, AFAIK.

seasideme

Penguin_Biscuit wrote: »

Bit of a complex issue, so I will try and keep things brief:

I am 37 and I have recently inherited my house. I now own it outright - no mortgage.
It's a nice house in a rural area, but needs some work doing to it.
I sold my flat and moved here, so I don't really know anyone.
I gave up my job and am planning to use the money from the flat to live on and renovate my house. Then find another job nearby (wasn't enjoying my old job anyway).

My cousine recently came to visit me and brought a friend with her. This friend is a 19 year old girl with a young baby. She has recently split up from her boyfriend and has been staying with my cousine, in her flat.

They both stayed in my house for a few days. We got on ok. When my cousins left, asked if her friend could stay with me for a while, as there wasn't much room in her flat. I agreed, so my new house guest has been in my house for a few weeks now.

Everything is going fine. The baby doesn't disturb me. My new house guest has hardly any belongings with her. My cousine calls in and helps with the baby and cooking, cleaning etc. I haven't asked for any rent money.

So it's all good from a domestic point of view.

But regards paperwork; should I be formalising things?

I'm guessing this girl would now be classed as a lodger?
So should I go ahead and inform insurance company and council tax etc?
Do I need to have a lodger contract?
I don't want to ask her for rent. So could she be classed as a House Guest long term?

Could my house guest claim benefits, without a formal lodger contract?

A friend told me he doesn't think that single parents are allowed to claim housing benefit as lodgers. He thinks they need a formal tenancy contract for their property. He also said that as this girl has a child, I would not be able to evict her, so I would need landlord insurance.

I've had a look online; there are a few articles about single parents moving in with other single parents, but I am a man without children - so could this girl be my lodger, even though she has a baby with her?

You're not charging her rent so why does she need HB. If you were to ask for rent only if she could get HB then if I was a HB officer I would deny the claim as I would see it as you not needing it in the first place so why now.