mum buying me flat

zenajuno

hi, im not sure if im posting this question in the right place, it does concern universal credit and LCWRA component.

my mum has surprised me with the news that she has been putting money aside for me that she is planing to leave to me in her will. last week she offered to buy me my flat with it! 

i live in a housing association property, ive been a tenant for well over 20 years and was occupying under the council before they sold to the HA, so i would be entitled to the full discount. 

the only issue i see is that although i do work, its part time due to health issues preventing me working more hours, so i am in receipt of universal credit with the LCWRA bit too. 

I know nothing about buying property and next to nothing about benefits (i only discovered i was entitled to UC and the LCWRA when i was furloughed at the beginning of lockdown.)

although my mum will be paying, the property would be in my name, but is that allowed? can she buy it for me? with the discount? how would that affect my UC etc (i get council tax benefit at the moment too) 

i know that i would want to get household insurance and that there would be service charges to pay. 

she has said that she would only be willing to buy my flat for me with the money while she is alive, otherwise im to wait till its handed to me in her will. (obviously id rather have her alive and well so i wont think about what i would do with it in that scenario) 

this could be quite life changing for me, i have been studying to try and take on more work as self employed so i can adjust my hours as needed with my health, if i owned my flat it would take a huge worry about paying the rent off my shoulders.

thank you, interested to hear what you think

Spoonie_Turtle

The only effect it would have on your UC is you would no longer be entitled to the housing element for rent.  I don't know whether you'd be entitled to any help with service charges or not (others here will know).

I can't see why anything else benefits-wise would change, including Council Tax being unaffected.

That said, I don't know whether there might be any legal issues with your Mum buying you a property (again, others here will know).

However, if it turns out the money to buy the property has to come from your account for whatever reason, as long as it goes into your account and back out for the property within the same Assessment Period, you would be fine as far as UC is concerned.  If that happened you might have to let them know immediately afterwards, just so that if the money going into and out of your account shows up on their system they'll already know about it and don't have to investigate.

Rubyroobs

How old is your mum ? Has she considered the implications of what might happen if she became unwell and needed to pay for care ? Giving away large sums of money could be seen as deprivation of capital I think. I'm sure others will know ore but has she considered this ? Surely no inheritance is guaranteed.

marcia_

zenajuno said:

hi, im not sure if im posting this question in the right place, it does concern universal credit and LCWRA component.

my mum has surprised me with the news that she has been putting money aside for me that she is planing to leave to me in her will. last week she offered to buy me my flat with it! 

i live in a housing association property, ive been a tenant for well over 20 years and was occupying under the council before they sold to the HA, so i would be entitled to the full discount. 

the only issue i see is that although i do work, its part time due to health issues preventing me working more hours, so i am in receipt of universal credit with the LCWRA bit too. 

I know nothing about buying property and next to nothing about benefits (i only discovered i was entitled to UC and the LCWRA when i was furloughed at the beginning of lockdown.)

although my mum will be paying, the property would be in my name, but is that allowed? can she buy it for me? with the discount? how would that affect my UC etc (i get council tax benefit at the moment too) 

i know that i would want to get household insurance and that there would be service charges to pay. 

she has said that she would only be willing to buy my flat for me with the money while she is alive, otherwise im to wait till its handed to me in her will. (obviously id rather have her alive and well so i wont think about what i would do with it in that scenario) 

this could be quite life changing for me, i have been studying to try and take on more work as self employed so i can adjust my hours as needed with my health, if i owned my flat it would take a huge worry about paying the rent off my shoulders.

thank you, interested to hear what you think

 Pretty sure your mum can't buy your current HA home with discount as she is not the tenant. She can give you the money to buy and you can get the discount. However that will probably affected your benefits for the period you hold the money. 

calcotti

marcia_ said: Pretty sure your mum can't buy your current HA home with discount as she is not the tenant. She can give you the money to buy and you can get the discount. However that will probably affected your benefits for the period you hold the money. 

Mum is not buying the flat, she is offering to provide the money to enable the Ozp to buy the flat.
As already advised, if the money is received and then immediately paid out, it will not affect benefit entitlement.

OP, you need to consider whether you will have the means to pay for property insurance, repairs etc. 

If you inherit the money when your mum dies, assuming the money is more than £16,000, your benefits will stop until such time as your capital falls below £16,000 again.

marcia_

calcotti said:

marcia_ said: Pretty sure your mum can't buy your current HA home with discount as she is not the tenant. She can give you the money to buy and you can get the discount. However that will probably affected your benefits for the period you hold the money. 

Mum is not buying the flat, she is offering to provide the money to enable the Ozp to buy the flat.
As already advised, if the money is received and then immediately paid out, it will not affect benefit entitlement.

OP, you need to consider whether you will have the means to pay for property insurance, repairs etc. 

If you inherit the money when your mum dies, assuming the money is more than £16,000, your benefits will stop until such time as your capital falls below £16,000 again.

 He said 'can mum buy it for me' 

calcotti

marcia_ said:

 He said 'can mum buy it for me' 

And also

zenajuno said:

although my mum will be paying, the property would be in my name, 

Keep_pedalling

marcia_ said:I

calcotti said:

marcia_ said: Pretty sure your mum can't buy your current HA home with discount as she is not the tenant. She can give you the money to buy and you can get the discount. However that will probably affected your benefits for the period you hold the money. 

Mum is not buying the flat, she is offering to provide the money to enable the Ozp to buy the flat.
As already advised, if the money is received and then immediately paid out, it will not affect benefit entitlement.

OP, you need to consider whether you will have the means to pay for property insurance, repairs etc. 

If you inherit the money when your mum dies, assuming the money is more than £16,000, your benefits will stop until such time as your capital falls below £16,000 again.

 He said 'can mum buy it for me' 

He also said the flat would be in his name, so in reality mum would be financing the purchase with a gift.

if your mum has her own house or substantial other savings then I don’t see deprivation of assets being an issue.

You do really need to consider what would happen if the flats needed major repair work. At the moment this would be totally on the HA to finance but if you become the leaseholder then you would be responsible for paying a share of the repair costs which could be substantial if it was something like a new roof. 

Norman_Castle

zenajuno said:

i know that i would want to get household insurance and that there would be service charges to pay. 

Presumably a leasehold flat. The freeholder will insure the building and add the cost to the service charge.

Alice_Holt

".....health issues preventing me working more hours, so i am in receipt of universal credit with the LCWRA bit too...I know next to nothing about benefits..."

 You may wish to look if you have eligibility to claim Personal Independent Payment (PIP:
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/sick-or-disabled-people-and-carers/pip/

Your local advice charity may be able to help.



"... if i owned my flat it would take a huge worry about paying the rent off my shoulders."

But I presume you are getting the housing element of UC ?
What UC elements appear on your UC payment details?

powerspowers

Wow this is a really nice gesture of your mum but I’m not sure it’s the best thing to do. 

If your UC covers the rent then there is no immediate benefit ie your rent will stop but your UC will go down. Worth doing a benefit check based on being a homeowner as you are working and will have a work allowance due to the LCWRA- it has different limits depending on housing costs. 

You will also become liable for repairs - what if the boiler goes kaput, do you have savings available to replace it? Plus other costs the building could require you to pay a share of. 

Your current tenancy is about as safe as it gets and likely affordable- if you were private renting it might be a different story. 

You mentioned studying and looking at self employment- maybe there is something your mum could help with that could help you out in that respect? Self employment is a bit of a benefit minefield though. Could your mum invest in a pension for you? 

Don’t rush anything, work out the implications of each option and how you feel about it. All the best