Renting back house I've sold...urgent advice please

dek1972

I sold my house 4 years ago and have recently found myself in a situation where I needed to apply for housing benefit. I am not entitled because of the former owner rule...can't apply for five years. I had to sell due to marriage split, and decided to sell to an investor happy to allow me to stay. The reason for staying and not moving away was my son is autistic and I wanted at a difficult time to keep some continuity in his life.

Now my question is, should my solicitor at the time of sale have advised me about not being able to make any housing benefit claims within 5 years, or at least to get independent advice on the matter. I was never made aware of the former owner rule, until I was called into an interview at the council after the application. I had 3 working days to get together any paperwork they requested, not an ideal amount of time either.

glasgowdan

I doubt they're legally obliged to tell everyone that sells a house that they may have issues claiming benefits one day. Is that all you're asking? Are you looking to blame someone because you're not getting the benefits you want?

tacpot12

Did your solicitor at the time know that you were going to be renting back your former property? E.g. Did they review your new tenancy agreement, or were they just acting for you for the sale? Did you ask for their advice about renting back your former home?

Any complaint against the solicitor is going to take months to resolves, possibly more as this is a tenuous claim at best. You probably need to focus on what you can do cover the shortfall in the rent you can pay, until you can claim HB.

davidmcn

Did you ask them for advice about housing benefit? Would it actually have made a difference to your decision at the time? Nobody can really advise on what housing benefit rules might be four years in the future anyway.

theartfullodger

How much were the proceeds of sale that you have got through since?? There may be a deprivation of capital issue here also...

dek1972

they were acting on the sale, and yes they knew I was to be renting back the property. I'm sure if they were acting in my best interest as my solicitors they should have made me aware of any pitfalls or at least advised me to get independent advice.

dek1972

and NO glasgowdan, I'm not looking to blame anyone just because I'm not getting the benefit. I've never asked for this type of help before from the council, if I had known about the rule I would simply have not applied and soldiered on regardless HOW RUDE TO EVEN IMPLY THAT. :mad::mad::mad:

Alice_Walker

dek1972 wrote: »

they were acting on the sale, and yes they knew I was to be renting back the property. I'm sure if they were acting in my best interest as my solicitors they should have made me aware of any pitfalls or at least advised me to get independent advice.

You paid your solicitor to perform conveyancing, and that is what they did. I doubt they would even have knowledge of welfare benefits legislation, that would be far outside their remit.

marleyboy

They wouldn't have known your intention to claim housing benefits. Even if they did, they are not benefit advisers, who might have mentioned equity and rules.

Rules like these exist, so as to not have a seller sell their property to a friend\family or partner and then simply rent it back via HB.

G_M

As Alice says, conveyancing and welfare rights are pretty separerate specialties. A conveyancing solicitor is unlikely to know much about claimant's rights, especially as benefits law changes so frequently.

You paid for conveyancing services and that's what you received. Had you specifically asked about implications on future benefits claims, the solicitor would/should have either looked it up,or referred you to a specialist.

tacpot12

If you paid the solicitor for advice on the whether to sell your house, you may have a claim, but if you only paid them to convey the house, then you probably don't.

I think a good solicitor should have asked you, when you explained that you were selling the house to rent it back, whether you had considered the implications of this arrangement, and if the answer was no, to advise you to seek advice. I agree with the other posters that benefit rules are outside of what an average solicitor might be expected to be able to advise on, so referring you on would have been the best outcome. But I don't know whether if you ask a solicitor to perform a specific legal service, e.g. convey a house, whether they have to check that you understand the implications of them doing what you ask them to do.