What would happen if i moved in to my partners council house?

Happydays,_gone_away?

Thanks that was how i read it too.

Can anyone explain the tax credit system though? I ran the uk.gov calculator and it said i could claim £600 in credtits but turn2us said £0

Mr.Generous

I don't think you can move in with her and not have your name on the lease. That would give subsidised council housing to you while you rented out your house, it would be against the rules somewhere. If you move in you have to declare it otherwise her benefit claims are fraudulent. You can't live there but not be included in the household properly somehow, although many try.

Diary

Happydays,_gone_away? wrote: »

Hi and thanks for the reply

I may have got the message mixed up.

Her lease states she cannot have another house that she could reasonably live in. So i meant would the fact that i owned a property be classed that way. For info she is in zone 1 of london and i am in zone 6.

The cost of paying debts equals an extra 150 pm per month that we could have if i paid them all off but would be over half of my savings. I know benefits are affected by savings. I dont know how tax credits are. The different calculators give differeent results.
I realise its difficult to give exact answers but any help is gratefully received

It isn't hard to give exact answers when given the full information up front.

You still don't want to say what benefits you are talking about that are affected by your savings. Your girlfriend will not be entitled to any benefits in your words.

It seems to me you are sacrificing an awful lot and the least she could do is move in with you instead of hedging her bets incase your relationship doesn't work out. Using her son as an excuse not to move in with you is quite frankly bizarre.
Children adapt very quickly as long as they're loved and don't feel used in some way. Certainly in my own case my young children moved several times including to California and even then adapted just fine.

If your girlfriend insists on this route you will need to ask her housing provider in writing for a definitive answer stating the full facts . Personally although morally wrong, I doubt very much her housing provider would be able to do much about you moving in and owning a perfectly habitable house.

zagfles

Happydays,_gone_away? wrote: »

Thanks that was how i read it too.

Can anyone explain the tax credit system though? I ran the uk.gov calculator and it said i could claim £600 in credtits but turn2us said £0

Tax credits aren't affected by the capital value of savings or other houses at all, only by income. So income from interest and rent would count, along with employment income. With one child, assuming no childcare costs or disabilities you won't get tax credits if joint taxable income is over £30k.

comeandgo

If I was your girlfriend I would never give up a council property, I would have lots of excuses lined up too as to why I can't move in with you.

Happydays,_gone_away?

Thanks Zagflies for the comments.

That clears up the tax credit question.

maisie_cat

The other thing to remember is that the rent a room scheme only applies if you live there too, if you no longer live at the house the lodger is no longer a lodger but a tenant with very different rights. You would need to register as a landlord and comply with all that entails.
I believe that councils do allow non tenant occupiers, not sure if all but my MIL has had one living with her for 20 years.
I do see her point, if something happens in the future, she has a secure home for her and her son, and let's face it he will always mean more to her than you.
It's a complex one, but if you do love each other and want to make a future you will make the best choice regardless of any benefits you might be able to claim.
If it was me I'd move into hers, rent out the house for a year or two and use the rent to compensate for loss of benefits Then move back in as a family in the future. best of luck

Money_maker

If you're moving in with her then you'd need to change your mortgage as your lodger would become a tenant.

Happydays,_gone_away?

maisie_cat wrote: »

The other thing to remember is that the rent a room scheme only applies if you live there too, if you no longer live at the house the lodger is no longer a lodger but a tenant with very different rights. You would need to register as a landlord and comply with all that entails.
I believe that councils do allow non tenant occupiers, not sure if all but my MIL has had one living with her for 20 years.
I do see her point, if something happens in the future, she has a secure home for her and her son, and let's face it he will always mean more to her than you.
It's a complex one, but if you do love each other and want to make a future you will make the best choice regardless of any benefits you might be able to claim.
If it was me I'd move into hers, rent out the house for a year or two and use the rent to compensate for loss of benefits Then move back in as a family in the future. best of luck

That is my hope for the future and exactly what I am looking to do. As i stated i couldn't afford not to rent my flat out if we did move in together.

theronstar

Moving in together is something that will be arranged between OP and girlfriend. It's highly unlikely that the benefits agency or the social landlord will interfere with that.

The only way in which the OP could face an obstacle is if his girlfriend's tenancy agreement expressly states that only she and her son can live at the house. I have not seen such a restrictive agreement before.

The OP would be unlikely to get put on the lease by the social landlord. They are reluctant to do that for anyone!

For example, my friend has 4 children with his wife. She is the only named person on the tenancy agreement. He has asked the council repeatedly to add him/the kids to it and they refuse.

Where social landlords tend to interfere with an additional person living with their tenant is when the tenant sublets the property or the place becomes the tenant's secondary residence

Neither example applies here.

As alluded to by the poster 'Come and Go', social tenants will never give up their properties.
It's their safety net.

With regards to the benefits situation, the OP's girlfriend would have to tell the benefits agency of the change in circumstances and undoubtedly her current claims would cease.

You would need to reapply for the benefits as a couple. Based on your earnings, savings etc. they will calculate any entitlement to benefits.

What I don't think has been touched upon yet is that in the event the the couple reapply for benefits, they may now have to do so under Universal Credit.

Thus, the current housing benefit, income support and child tax credit claims, could become a brand new claim. Check online if the full Universal Credit has reached her postcode?

I know less about the implications the move has for the OP in terms of the relationship between him and his lodger but I can see how the lodger would become his tenant, in the event they lived in the house alone.

I return again to what the OP's girlfriend's suspected fears are about losing her council housing. On this basis, I would say it's better that you move in with her because I am sure she, privately, feels very vulnerable about the idea of surrendering a property she likely went through hell and high water to get.

Not to dampen the mood but I'll also share an experience of mine.

I knew a guy had a council property and surrendered it, in order to live with his girlfriend and her son. Things never worked out and because he had made himself 'intentionally homeless', the council no longer had to help him.

He had got the property because he grew up in foster care, though reapplying for a new one a young, healthy, Englishman was hopeless. I doubt he ever got another one.

Other people on this thread are regrettably failing to take into consideration the 'support network' argument of the OP's girlfriend.

I live in London and have known several mothers be offered housing by the council as far away as Birmingham. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the properties, other than the fact the mothers would lose their support network. Many mothers went onto decline the properties, rendering themselves intentionally homeless.

I don't profess to know the ins and outs of the OP's situation but my gut feeling is that relocating would be much harder for his girlfriend than for himself.

All the best.