Housing benefit capital

tomtom256

So are you're current tenants living in substandard accommodation then?

poppasmurf_bewdley

Even if you had no capital at all, owning a house, either in this country or abroad, would preclude you from receiving housing benefit or housing allowance.

paddedjohn

Which bank will give you a £20k loan while unemployed?

Housing_Benefit_Officer

nelsongoat wrote: »

I've just had my new claim for housing benefit turned down. I live in a rented house but own another that I rent out. According to housing benefit calculations I have more than £25000 of equity on the property after the 10% deduction. As I put on the claim form, the house badly needs new windows and a new roof, which I was going to use the capital to pay for using a secured loan for £20000 over the next couple of months. If I now do this, will this reduce my available capital in the eyes of the housing benefit people and allow me to claim housing benefit? Or will they think that I'm deliberately spending the capital? Any advice appreciated, thanks.

Double edged sword here.

The valuation of your property is based on its current condition.

If you spend £20k on your property and put yourself a further £20k in debt - the value of your property might increase by £20k with the fancy new windows and roof.

There is nothing stopping you carrying out these repairs. You are not a benefit claimant.

As for deprivation of capital and reducing the value of your asset we would have to look at the motivation behind this. Did you do this to get Housing Benefit as you had an understanding of Housing Benefit capital rules or was this spent on essential repairs?

Separately to the value of the property we would also look at the income you receive from renting it out - Rent received - minus mortgage - and expenses (i.e. landlord insurance etc) anything left over is treated as income.

If the property was occupied by a disabled pensioner relative then the property value would be disregarded in full.

Housing_Benefit_Officer

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

Even if you had no capital at all, owning a house, either in this country or abroad, would preclude you from receiving housing benefit or housing allowance.

Not necessarily....

Bananas123

timing is a bit dodgy....

you have to show it was not deprivation of capital, you can only do this with evidence,

if the roof is leaking or your tenants have been complaining then i would (as a non-practicing non-law person) would consider that as adequate etc, in court (as in tribunal if they say no, and you were going to).

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but if the roof and windows are keeping the weather out i.e. "working" then it's going to very much seem like you are trying to deprive to obtain benefits.

("can't pimp your house out and then party off benefits"... pretty obvious)