Deprivation of capital

TELLIT01

blackmoorowner, sorry if I came across as being critical of you or the family for the situation they are in, it wasn't intended that way. When I said about the rules, it was simply to indicate that what many people might feel is 'fair', and what the rules and regulations state, often differ greatly.
Solid legal advice really is required on this, and I would be surprised if many Citizens Advice staff would have the depth of knowledge for this one.

Ames

TELLIT01 wrote: »

blackmoorowner, sorry if I came across as being critical of you or the family for the situation they are in, it wasn't intended that way. When I said about the rules, it was simply to indicate that what many people might feel is 'fair', and what the rules and regulations state, often differ greatly.
Solid legal advice really is required on this, and I would be surprised if many Citizens Advice staff would have the depth of knowledge for this one.

But then, will most probate solicitors understand the complex welfare rights issues? And dealing with the DWP/social services will probably be out of their remit anyway. Maybe it would be worth seeing both a lawyer and CAB?

konark

If the estate has not been dealt with and distributed and the house is still in the name of the grandfather it could be argued that the house is still the property of the estate and not of the children. Only when LoA are applied for and the name at LR changed does the house become the beneficiaries' property (unless the house was specifically bequethed in a will, which it obviously wasn't).

If the council do deem the house to have been the property of the mother all along she can offset her HB overpayment by charging the uncle back rent which will be deducted from his share once the house is sold. This may then cause an extra Income Tax bill not to mention a CGT bill on half the gain if the property has risen in value, although in many parts of the country this may be very little and absorbed by the CGT yearly allowance.

It's a bit of a mess and you may be best to get professional advice

xylophone

As an aside, as the uncle does not seem very au fait with financial matters, I wonder has he been overpaying council tax all this time (would have had a right to a discount as sole occupant)?

It does seem that somebody will have to look into the ramifications of all of this....

I hope the family will be able to sort it all out OP and that you'll be able to buy the property and give it some TLC.

Let us know how it goes?

Detroit

The property seems to be owned by you mother and uncle.
Ownership of the property should not have affected mothers benefits as long as the uncle living in the property was either on disability benefits or over 60 for the duration of her ownership. If this was so, there should be no overpayment.
However she should have informed the agencies. As a rule when on benefits you should inform them of everything that changes in you circumstances.
Now the uncle no longer lives there, half the property is her capital for benefits purposes after a short disregard period. Anything over £16k in value for her half will remove her entitlement, and she must declare this.
Uncles half will go to pay care fees.
I'm not sure about how strict they would be in expecting sale at full market value tbh. 70% would yield a significant sum, taking both mother and uncle over threshold, so may not be considered DOC. If the property would be hard to sell on open market, it may be considered reasonable to release the funds. However, I stress this is speculation on my part, and your mother should seek advice before selling the property to you under value.

parkrunner

blackmoorowner wrote: »

Housing benefit, and disability are the only ones that i know about.

Housing benefit seems unlikely as he wasn't paying rent and the property wasn't mortgaged as the grandfather owned it outright. At least that's my understanding from the original post.

cheesetoast

Would the property not still be Bona Vacantia until such point that the beneficiaries actually claim the property? So therefore, technically, they may not have owned it for the last 7 years?

After all, it's rare, but anyone can technically refuse a gift or legacy.

Ames

As far as the DWP is concerned, if someone refused their inheritance they'd be treated as still having the money.