Housing benefit for over 70s

Nick4444

Myself and my husband are being made homeless in 56 days, We are both over 70 and my husband is in poor health. We are losing our home due to mortgage arrears. Would be able to claim housing benefit to secure a private rental or council accomodation. Would be classed as intentionally homeless due to the financial situation. i.e. the arrears.

pmlindyloo

Nick4444 wrote: »

Myself and my husband are being made homeless in 56 days, We are both over 70 and my husband is in poor health. We are losing our home due to mortgage arrears. Would be able to claim housing benefit to secure a private rental or council accomodation. Would be classed as intentionally homeless due to the financial situation. i.e. the arrears.

Looking at your other post today it seems that you have considerable equity in your property and it is on the market.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/mortgage-problems/eviction-for-mortgage-arrears/

According to this link

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/mortgage-problems/eviction-for-mortgage-arrears/

It may be possible to go back to court (I don't know whether you have already done this?) to suspend the possession order whilst you sell the property.

I feel that you need some help with this so a good start would be Citizen's Advice or Ageuk. If they are unable to help then they should sign post you to someone who could.

If everything has been done to suspend the possession order then you may be able to receive housing benefit for a privately rented house but it would depend on what you both are currently receiving as regards income.

If you are selling the house then the capital in the property may be disregarded for 6 months (or longer, if reasonable) but they may query the fact that you have mortgage arrears thus making yourself intentionally homeless. Difficult to say without knowing your personal circumstances.

So, best advice is to get some advice from the professionals.

Nick4444

Thanks. Court proceddings were yesterday. They said they would only suspend posession if contracts have been exchanged on a sale. There is no way of confirming a sale price, so was looking at worst case scenario of having nothing.

tboo

From another thread

Nick4444 wrote: »

Hi, My house is being repossesed in 56 days. I have an outstanding mortage of £360k and the house is valued at around £650k.
Should I not be able to settle the debt in the agreed timeframe, I take it the mortgage company can sell the house to recover their funds.
My question is. would they sell for the minimum amount to cover the debt, or would they go for a higher figure.
If a higher figure, would I receive the difference between the debt and the sale price?


Hope someone can help.


Thanks

You will have to fill in a form for council accommodation so best ring up asap
Speak to the housing team about your situation ie how the arrears happened, equity in the property etc
You may have to speak to the housing benefit team as well
If you are offered a council property any monies owed from any sale has to be declared

JamoLew

Have you looked at equity release ?

If not, why not ?

You have almost enough equity to clear the mortgage completely

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

JamoLew wrote: »

Have you looked at equity release ?

If not, why not ?

You have almost enough equity to clear the mortgage completely

Equity release would not be an option, as it would only loan against 25% of the property value.

ToxicWomble

That would have still possibly been enough to clear any arrears.

I do wonder how you managed to get a 300k + mortgage at 70+

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

ToxicWomble wrote: »

That would have still possibly been enough to clear any arrears.

I do wonder how you managed to get a 300k + mortgage at 70+

Not an option, they do not have the equity in the house to release this. The max life time mortgage is 25%. They owe above this already.