HELP - Elderly neighbour about to lose his home!

KatrinaWaves

csgohan4 said:

So sad, what a piece of work that woman is. But sadly is her right as she owns it. As above shelter is your first port of call for matters all housing. 

This is unnecessarily harsh. Why is the deceased partner not a ‘piece of work’ for promising him he could live there forever without putting in the minimal
amount of effort to make that legally binding. Why is he not a piece of work for thinking he could live in a house that isn’t his for ever without paying rent? 

(For the record, I don’t think anyone is a ‘piece of work’ in this situation.)

Skiddaw1

I agree with @KatrinaWaves. It's unfortunate but it doesn't sound like anyone is the villain of the piece in this scenario. I knew a chap who was in a similar situation actually, and I remember that the deceased's family did feel rather rotten about turfing him out but they really had no choice. It ended well because he was allocated a very nice HA flat where he spent the remainder of his life. OP, I hope things work out for your friend. I'm glad he has you to look out for him. It sounds like he's very popular in the village- don't suppose anyone locally is looking for a good tenant?

onwards&upwards

csgohan4 said:

So sad, what a piece of work that woman is. But sadly is her right as she owns it. As above shelter is your first port of call for matters all housing. 

Don’t jump to judgement please.

If if she has fallen on hard times or ill health and maybe needs to claim benefits, or if she has had a relationship breakdown and is getting divorced, she won’t have any choice in this. 

Sea_Shell

onwards&upwards said:

csgohan4 said:

So sad, what a piece of work that woman is. But sadly is her right as she owns it. As above shelter is your first port of call for matters all housing. 

Don’t jump to judgement please.

If if she has fallen on hard times or ill health and maybe needs to claim benefits, or if she has had a relationship breakdown and is getting divorced, she won’t have any choice in this. 

Even if none of those reasons apply, she still shouldn't be judged in that way (from what's been written).

bucksbloke

How long were they co-habiting for? He could make a claim for provision under the Inheritance Act particularly if he can demonstrate strong financial ties to his late partner. 

dimbo61

So really all the keyboard warriors on here Myself included do not have the answer.
You need to help find the WILL the  ex partner made and also speak to Shelter.
Can HE afford to pay rent ?
The daughter is looking at taking out some of the equity in the property and with rates at such low % on both Residential and BTL mortgages she might get the money she wants while still keeping the rent low.
If the gentleman is on a low income he maybe able to claim housing benefit or Universal credit to cover the rent !!

https://www.gov.uk/housing-benefit/what-youll-get

[Deleted User]

It is a huge change for him when he is elderly but he has had five years of not paying rent. He didn't lose out.  If his partner had dementia, questions could have been raised about her ability to bequeath a life interest in the property.  I hope he is able to find a nice property to live in but I think the emphasis needs to be made that he has had five years of rent free living.  Not quite what he hoped for, but its not as negative as it seems.  He may even be better off in a smaller property in the long run.  I hope he will contact the council for rehousing.

bouicca21

Looking through the will is an obvious one but legal advice is needed as he may have a beneficial interest in the property.  Did he for example contribute to paying the mortgage or in other ways during his partner’s lifetime?  

Tooskint

If he is being made unintentionally homeless then would council be able to rehome him.  

4416399018

Woah... hang on! Let's not go pointing fingers at each other! You've all given me some useful lines to look into.

Apparently I wasn't entirely correct. Despite the now deceased partner expressing her wishes that he be allowed to remain in the property, the agreement was reneged on a few years back and the daughter insisted on him paying rent to be there (he's only just told me this now!). So I guess he's actually a tenant really? Former partner did make this clear to him and the daughter and it was before she became unwell. He's been in the property since the 1980's so any move is going to be a massive upheaval for him, especially as he's now well into his 80's. It's only recently (the last few months) that he's been coming round saying he's finally starting to find his feet after he lost his partner and was just starting to feel like the place was his home. He's said several times today that he wanted to die here. Her ashes scattered here and he wants to be with her. I've already told him that can be arranged, I own the patch of land so it's really no problem.

I'm going to take him to see the nice people in the local town where there is a community centre with support for such things, and a Men's Shed. He sounds pretty keen to get involved with the group if nothing else. One way or another we'll look after him as best we can, it just seems desperately unfair that someone so kind and genuine is effectively being turfed out.