Housing Benefit - Management Fee

BristolMan

Hi,



I'm currently employed, but my employment will be coming to an end in the next few months due to my ill health.



I have been given a sum of money, and I'm going to use this to buy an apartment (with a shared kitchen and bathroom), outright. There will be no mortgage. Once I have bought it, I will live there as my sole residence, and will have no other money/income.



After I have bought it, in order to live in the apartment, I need to pay a 'management fee'. This is about £130pcm, and covers things like the upkeep of the building, cleaning of communcal areas, insurance etc. I am obliged to pay this, as it's determined within the lease. Basically - if I don't pay the management fee, I can't live there.



I understand that if I owned a house, and the land it sat on, no housing benefit would be paid. But this is a different situation.



Could I claim housing benefit for the management fee in this circumstance?



Also, if it makes any difference, it's a leasehold property, with a few hundred years outstanding on the lease.



Cheers.

[Deleted User]

BristolMan wrote: »

Hi,



I'm currently employed, but my employment will be coming to an end in the next few months due to my ill health.



I have been given a sum of money, and I'm going to use this to buy an apartment (with a shared kitchen and bathroom), outright. There will be no mortgage. Once I have bought it, I will live there as my sole residence, and will have no other money/income.



After I have bought it, in order to live in the apartment, I need to pay a 'management fee'. This is about £130pcm, and covers things like the upkeep of the building, cleaning of communcal areas, insurance etc. I am obliged to pay this, as it's determined within the lease. Basically - if I don't pay the management fee, I can't live there.



I understand that if I owned a house, and the land it sat on, no housing benefit would be paid. But this is a different situation.



Could I claim housing benefit for the management fee in this circumstance?



Also, if it makes any difference, it's a leasehold property, with a few hundred years outstanding on the lease.



Cheers.

Curious about this because I thought you could only claim if shared ownership for the rent side.

NeilCr

From this I'd say no.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/help-if-on-a-low-income/housing-benefit/help-with-your-rent-housing-benefit/

"To get Housing Benefit you must pay rent"

Caveat

IIRC you can get it for mooring fees even if you are not renting.

BristolMan

_shel wrote: »

Curious about this because I thought you could only claim if shared ownership for the rent side.

Yeah - it's not shared ownership. I'll own the bedroom outright, I'll just have to share the kitchen/bathroom. The service charge/management fee pays for (amoug other things) those.

BristolMan

NeilCr wrote: »

From this I'd say no.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/help-if-on-a-low-income/housing-benefit/help-with-your-rent-housing-benefit/

"To get Housing Benefit you must pay rent"

Yeah - the thing is, I think that I am sort of paying rent. I'm renting the building that my flat sits in. I don't own the building, and I'm asked to pay a monthly fee towards its upkeep.

Stop_Watch

https://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/Eligible-rent-for-Housing-Benefit-and-service-charges

It is not rent but it will depend on what is included.

EG. Is it communal heating/hot water

My mum gets help with hers, she did not know until on of her neighbors told her. She had been paying monthly from her pension for over 7 years!

NeilCr

Still think not. See who can claim Housing Benefit

http://england.shelter.org.uk/legal/benefits/housing_benefit/eligibility_for_housing_benefit/eligible_claimants

Alice_Holt

I, too, think the answer is likely to be no.

You may be able to get a more definite answer from Shelter.
https://england.shelter.org.uk/get_help

BristolMan

Stop_Watch wrote: »

https://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/Eligible-rent-for-Housing-Benefit-and-service-charges

It is not rent but it will depend on what is included.

EG. Is it communal heating/hot water

My mum gets help with hers, she did not know until on of her neighbors told her. She had been paying monthly from her pension for over 7 years!

The (bigger) problem I have is that the service charge includes all electricity and water rates. That's why I was originally looking into this. But a LA Benefits number told me that I wouldn't get anything as I "own" the property. I suspected that I wouldn't get it all covered, and they'd want to withold a percentage. But I didn't know that they's state I wouldn't get anything.



I suppose it all depends on your defition of rent. I don't have an AST, but I do need to pay a monthly fee to continue being housed.



In fairness to the LA, they said that they've never received a query like this before. Thankfully, when UC comes into that area soon, I can go to UC and ask them. I suspect that they might have a clearer idea, as they've probably dealth with people in a similar situation before.

Ames

Why would you buy a room? It sounds a bit dodgy - I'd suggest posting on the housing forum here to get advice about whether it's a sound investment or not.

I very much doubt that universal credit will have come across this before, the system's struggling to deal with even straightforward situations. Housing benefit departments will have far more experience than UC.

BristolMan

Well - the problem is this:


1) The room is incredibly cheap. Like - it's less than £15K.



2) I'll need to live somewhere. £15K is 2 or 3 years rent.



3) As a disabled person, who will be living on ESA, I'd find it fairly difficult to get a landlord who'd want to let to me.



So bascially - I can either claim housing benefit to pay my rent, and potentially struggle to find somewhere to live, and have all of the horrible aspects of being a tenant (e.g. no security / wasted money), or I can just buy somewhere like that outright, and have security.



A big influencer is my health. I'm genuinely worried that I'm going to be unable to work. I'm not getting any younger. This is my last chance to buy. And buying a sh*thole is, IMO, better than renting one.