On Benefits and Going to Inheritance Share of a House

Mojisola

Enquiryme wrote: »

However, he is also going to inherit 25% of the house belonging to his mother. The house is in a state of disrepair and worth around 100k. One of his brothers still lives in the house and the will states he gets to live there until he dies, rent free.

AIUI, with this clause in the will, your father won't inherit his share of the house until after his brother permanently moves out of the house so the value can't be counted as capital.

calcotti

dippy3103 wrote: »

I think there are exemptions if the property is occupied by an elderly relative.

Good point. The exceptions are a property occupied by a close relative (which the brother is) who has reached pension Credit age (which he has not given that he is younger than OP's father who is in his early sixties) or has limited capability for work or is incapacitated. (Note that this last criteria does not apply for Universal Credit.) So if OP's uncle has limited capability for work or is receiving a disability benefit (or can be argued to be incapacitated in some other way) an exception would apply. (Schedule 9 paras 4 and 5 ESA Regulations 2008 and Schedule 6, paras 4 and 25 Housing Benefit Regulations 2006).

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/689995/dmgch52.pdf see paras 52432 through to 52435.

pmlindyloo was alluding to this in the last sentence of his post at #4.

Enquiryme

Thanks again. I recently looked at my fathers paperwork and it said employment support allowance dated this year and he's never made significant contributions of any kind so I was under the impression that as soon as he hits 16k this will end completely. I'll have to see if he used to be on IB, I'm not sure.
It's unlikely that the brothers will buy him out completely, theyre putting in money to do it up but i font think they're willing to spend too much. My father's hope is that he dies before his brother living in the house and then it's my problem as he'll leave the share to me. Cheers dad.

From the comments above it looks like I can make a strong argument to say that it holds no value at this time due to occupancy and co-ownership. I just dont want him to be financially punished for something out of his control.