Desperate plea for help with a complicated housing situation

G_M

Do you own as Joint Tenants, or Tenants in Common? If not sure, check the property Title here.

You have to sell. Either with his consent or without.

We don't know the area, or the state of the house, but for half the value of a 3 bed house he must be able to afford a 1 bed flat.

Start flat-hunting with him. Now.

He may be family, but inviting him to live with you is a mad idea given what you've said.

xylophone

My concern is, when I sell the house, he will become homeless, and having just spoken to the council housing team, he will be eligible for no help as he has a beneficial interest in the property, and they see no reason why he cannot afford to run the place

Whether or not he can afford to run the place is irrelevant if you want to sell?

Have you tried social services to see whether any assistance is available?

Red-Squirrel_2

DJBenson wrote: »

Correct. We have been trying to help him for about 10 years. Several times we have taken him to see the crisis team at the hospital, all full of woe on the way and nothing to say when he gets there. He certainly knows how to play the victim.

He was under social services car until 21 and even they failed to provide the support because they could do nothing unless he asked for it. Seemingly someone who has tried to take his own life several times, caused physical harm to his grandparents and tried to burn his own bedroom down does not have mental health issues.

Remember this lack of resources and support when you come to vote at the GE.

I would force the sale, he can live on the money for as long as he can manage, be that a week or a year. I agree that it would be kind as well as useful for the sale to help him out and into a private rental sooner rather than later (a very cheap one, no point paying for 'niceness' when he'll ruin it anyway and it will just use his funds faster).

You can be around to help your brother when or if he asks you to. Until then you might have to look after yourself first sadly.

FBaby

His issue is his drug and alcohol problem. Until this is sorted, all aspects of his life is going to be destroyed slowly. There is nothing you can do, nor others, unless he is prepared to make a signifcant change to his life.

You have two choices. You forget about your £25K so he at least got a roof to stay under, or you sell, take your £25k and accept that the consequences likely to be that he becomes homeless sooner rather than later. Of course, it wouldn't be your fault, but still chosen £25k over him having a place to stay.

Very difficult decision, especially when we are not in your shoes and don't know the full history.

Mojisola

FBaby wrote: »

You have two choices. You forget about your £25K so he at least got a roof to stay under, or you sell, take your £25k and accept that the consequences likely to be that he becomes homeless sooner rather than later.

Of course, it wouldn't be your fault, but still chosen £25k over him having a place to stay.

That sounds very much like a bit of emotional blackmail.

Should the OP really enable his brother to kill himself faster by supplying £25k of funds to pay for drugs and alcohol?

moneyistooshorttomention

Absolutely Mojisola..

OP has done a good bit more for this brother than he deserves by the sound of it.

Brother is clearly set on self-destruct and has even been physically violent to the grandparents (who, astonishingly, left him 50% of their house despite it).

Personally - I'd have him out of that house and sell it quick sharp (before he devalues it any further) and it's entirely up to brother (and brother alone) what happens to him after that. No point in having someone like that allowed to drag down other peoples lives with them any longer imo.

Red-Squirrel_2

Mojisola wrote: »

That sounds very much like a bit of emotional blackmail.

Should the OP really enable his brother to kill himself faster by supplying £25k of funds to pay for drugs and alcohol?

Also, the OP was clear that part of the reason for wanting to sell was that the brother cannot afford to/cope with running and maintaining the house.

It won't be much use to him when the power is cut off because he hasn't paid the bill, or when the roof starts falling in because he left a small leak without repair until it became irreparable.

teddysmum

The sooner he is out the better, as the property is losing value as it deteriorates and, if he is a wreck, seeing him in the house will put buyers off, possibly fearing that he will squat and refuse to move out.

DJBenson

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Has your brother said anything about where he is going to live after the house is sold

We have just started communicating by text on the matter - I asked him this very question and he said 'on the streets'. He has very few (if any) genuine friends (just acquaintances in the form of dealers, other druggies and general scumbags so nobody will put him up.

And to answer the previous suggestion of him living with us, whether it was a joke or to make a point - it's not funny - the lad is seriously disturbed and there is no way I would have him under the same roof as my wife and young kids. My wife and I have tried several times over the years to help him, and we warned him that when both our grandparents died he would be on his own and guess what has happened...

Rather frustratingly, my grandfather made plans last year to transfer the title back to himself - had that happened then the house would have been part of the estate and he would have had no greater claim to it than anyone else in the will. Sadly he got too ill to carry out that action and I'm left to sort it out (as well as having just administered the will by myself too). I don't mind admitting the last couple of months have been hard and I have not had time to grieve because I have had all this to contend with.

DJBenson

G_M wrote: »

Do you own as Joint Tenants, or Tenants in Common? If not sure, check the property Title here.

You have to sell. Either with his consent or without.

We don't know the area, or the state of the house, but for half the value of a 3 bed house he must be able to afford a 1 bed flat.

Start flat-hunting with him. Now.

He may be family, but inviting him to live with you is a mad idea given what you've said.

The title deeds do not specify this. It simply names us both as "proprietors" in the 'Title good leasehold' section and has a boilerplate restriction which I'm reliably informed means that if one of us dies, the property does not automatically revert to the other person, it becomes part of the deceased's estate.

My solicitor informs me being named as a joint proprietor means that there is a shared (50/50) interest in the property if it came to any legal action.