Support for Mortgage Interest

Cheeky_Monkey

OP - it doesn't matter how bad the area is, if the price is right it will sell so it's obviously still over-priced.

zaksmum

Cheeky_Monkey wrote: »

OP - it doesn't matter how bad the area is, if the price is right it will sell so it's obviously still over-priced.

Well she can't reduce it much further! It's down to under 100K now

lld01

zaksmum wrote: »

Does anyone know, please, if SMI is payable when a property has been remortgaged?

Friend had to give up work due to severe ill health. Her house has been remortgaged, originally to improve the property with a new kitchen and bathroom extension and a fourth bedroom. Then for further improvements such as double glazing, new roof and central heating.

When she divorced a few years later, she remortgaged again to buy her ex husband out of the property where she now lives alone.

Each remortgage was not for the full value of the house but from an original purchase price of £18K in the 1982 she now owes about £35K.

She has applied, after 13 weeks on ESA, for SMI and the forms have just arrived. They ask what the remortgages were for and of course she will be totally honest with them. However she has not kept receipts from the 80s/90s when the work was done on the house.

Does she have any chance that SMI will be granted?

They will help with the remaining balance of the original borrowing. If the original mortgage was interest-only and the capital balance never dropped below £18k then that amount would be allowable.

They will allow towards the amount for buying out her ex husband as long as this didn't happen whilst in receipt of income based benefits.

It would depend on the reasons for the home improvements whether or not they would help with the cost of those.

Try to be as detailed as possible with the list the DWP ask for, and give the costs for each individual improvement/item. Unlikely they will ask for receipts.

BigAunty

zaksmum wrote: »

Well she can't reduce it much further! It's down to under 100K now

But you say she owes £35k and so she would be able to reduce it much, much further and walk away with a goodly sum of equity after expenses. Have I misunderstood She might be able to pay outright for a 1 bed with 50-60k in that general area?

If its not selling, it is overpriced, end of. The market decides, not on the fictional belief of what is deserved or what it valued at.

It looks like the original mortgage was taken out anywhere between 25 and 35 years ago and is still twice as high!

Transformers

zaksmum wrote: »

Cheeky Monkey, she's had her house on the market for three years. It's in a bad area so little chance of selling it despite it being reduced several times.

It will sell if the price is right for the market - she needs to get realistic about her options.

Why should she be subsidised to stay in a house way too big for her? Particularly when others in rented accommodation have been penalised by the new cap on occupancy rates.