Benefits and inheritance

viewer1971

I'm in a complicated situation which I will try to explain as simply as possible. My dad passed away last October after a long stay in hospital. While he was in hospital my sisters marriage ended and she asked if she could live at my dad's house with her son and daughter. My dad agreed. In my dad's will I have inherited the house. The trouble is I am on Housing Benefit. When the council become aware that I own a house I will lose my claim to benefit. I cannot afford the rent without it and will have to move out. My sister is also dependent on state benefits due to illness. She says she cannot move out as she has no money and nowhere else to go. I am married with four children and I face homelessness due to no fault of my own. I don't know what to do. Any ideas?

calcotti

viewer1971 said:

When the council become aware that I own a house I will lose my claim to benefit. 

It is your responsibility to inform the council (and DWP if you get any other means tested benefits).
You can either move into the house yourself or will have to sell it. If you put it on the market it can be disregarded for six months. Your sister will have to claim benefit to help her pay rent somewhere else.
The only exemption I can think of is that you mention your sister is ill. Does she get any disability benefit? If so the house could be disregarded anyway while she lives in it.

[Deleted User]

Has the will been through probate yet? until it has you cannot put the house on the market, you cant anyway atm during lockdown as no one could view it, the simple answer is that you will have to evict your sister giving her time to find somewhere else to rent.
That said didn't your dad leave her anything in his will?

xylophone

You become your sister's landlord  on a commercial tenancy basis   (check on landlord responsibilities) and she pays you rent? This would cover your loss of benefit?

If she herself will require housing benefit see
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/benefits/housing_benefit_renting_from_family

McNinian

Difficult to convince authorities that a sister renting from a brother isn't a contrived tenancy to bag public money via rent payments. OP can flog father's former home to use proceeds to help purchase any other property to live in, or sell it to use the proceeds to pay the rent for where s/he resides in minus any government assistance, or move into father's former property to live there either with or without the sister and her children in situ. I fail to see the prospect of the OP facing homelessness under any of the scenarios outlined.

poppy12345

xylophone said:

You become your sister's landlord  on a commercial tenancy basis   (check on landlord responsibilities) and she pays you rent? This would cover your loss of benefit?

If she herself will require housing benefit see
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/benefits/housing_benefit_renting_from_family

Unless the sister is claiming a severe disability premium then they won't be able to claim housing benefit, it will have to be Universal Credit.

TELLIT01

McNinian said:

Difficult to convince authorities that a sister renting from a brother isn't a contrived tenancy to bag public money via rent payments. OP can flog father's former home to use proceeds to help purchase any other property to live in, or sell it to use the proceeds to pay the rent for where s/he resides in minus any government assistance, or move into father's former property to live there either with or without the sister and her children in situ. I fail to see the prospect of the OP facing homelessness under any of the scenarios outlined.

The OP hasn't given any indication of the size of the property, so to suggest that he can move his family with 4 children into a house already occupied by another family with 2 children is fanciful, to say the least.  Given the current circumstances I don't think it would be too difficult to convince the authority that it is a genuine tenancy, although discussion would be required.  The best solution for the OP would be for the sister to approach the LA to explain that she has to move out and requires accommodation.  I would assume her position would put her high(ish) on any waiting list.

KatrinaWaves

TELLIT01 said:

McNinian said:

Difficult to convince authorities that a sister renting from a brother isn't a contrived tenancy to bag public money via rent payments. OP can flog father's former home to use proceeds to help purchase any other property to live in, or sell it to use the proceeds to pay the rent for where s/he resides in minus any government assistance, or move into father's former property to live there either with or without the sister and her children in situ. I fail to see the prospect of the OP facing homelessness under any of the scenarios outlined.

The OP hasn't given any indication of the size of the property, so to suggest that he can move his family with 4 children into a house already occupied by another family with 2 children is fanciful, to say the least.  Given the current circumstances I don't think it would be too difficult to convince the authority that it is a genuine tenancy, although discussion would be required.  The best solution for the OP would be for the sister to approach the LA to explain that she has to move out and requires accommodation.  I would assume her position would put her high(ish) on any waiting list.

So you think that the govt will continue to pay the OP house benefit even though he owns a house, and continue to pay his sister housing benefit to live in his house? So two lots of taxpayer funded rent, one to a homeowner, because someone was told they could live there by someone dying in hospital whose will gave the house to someone else?

yeah sounds likely! If the sister won’t move (I mean surely OP has already asked for this before posting on here that he’s going to be homeless? It’s over 6 months since he died, clearly no one has told the council and he is currently committing benefit fraud and will have a housing benefit overpayment! I think giving false hope this will all be fine and he just needs to ask her to leave is cloud cuckoo land. You can’t blame the current Circumstances when this fraud has been going on since October! 

calcotti

KatrinaWaves said:--- It’s over 6 months since he died, clearly no one has told the council and he is currently committing benefit fraud and will have a housing benefit overpayment! ..You can’t blame the current Circumstances when this fraud has been going on since October! 

To be fair OP doesn't own the house until the legal processes following death are completed and they can take longer than 6 months.
OP, as per my first reply - does your sister get any disability benefit (DLA or PIP)?

TELLIT01

KatrinaWaves said:

So you think that the govt will continue to pay the OP house benefit even though he owns a house, and continue to pay his sister housing benefit to live in his house? So two lots of taxpayer funded rent, one to a homeowner, because someone was told they could live there by someone dying in hospital whose will gave the house to someone else?

yeah sounds likely! If the sister won’t move (I mean surely OP has already asked for this before posting on here that he’s going to be homeless? It’s over 6 months since he died, clearly no one has told the council and he is currently committing benefit fraud and will have a housing benefit overpayment! I think giving false hope this will all be fine and he just needs to ask her to leave is cloud cuckoo land. You can’t blame the current Circumstances when this fraud has been going on since October! 

The father died in October, and in my experience it takes several months for probate to be arranged and the will to be finalised.  The OP absolutely has not been committing fraud since October.  Nowhere have I said the OP will be entitled to continue to claim HB when he owns his own property.

If you are going to criticise people, please at least make some attempt to get your information correct.

KatrinaWaves

OP hasn’t mentioned a mortgage, just that he has been left ‘the house’ which could easily have been sorted before 6 months. It may not have been, but don’t act like it’s impossible with a straight forward estate. 

If the OP had a home he could live in, and owned, and has not told the council, which he clearly does, he is committing fraud. 6 months is more than long enough to inform the council.  You are the one who stated it would be easy to convince the LA that there was a genuine tenancy for housing benefit purposes. I do not see that as being the case at all.