Council house after divorce

divorcingmama7

Long story short left husband due to domestic abuse, declared homeless me and the kids moved into council property, signed up for UC working part time.

Put In for no fault divorce husbands house is worth 300k along with pensions and saving added.

Can you stay in a council property after receiving whatever payout or do they boot you out? Just worried as it’s taken some time to settle kids and get sorted etc, any advice would be appreciated

tacpot12

You should be able to stay in the council property even if you receive a substantial settlement, unless there is something unusual about your tenancy agreement. 

However, any settlement that result in you having more than £16,000 might result in your UC claim ending, unless you are intend to buy another property to live in. Providing you tell the DWP about the settlement and that you intend to by another property, the DWP should ignore the settlement amount for upto six months. This is not a long time when it comes to buying a house so use the time between now and when the settlement arrives to decide whether you can buy another property. 

TELLIT01

If actively seeking to purchase a new house, and can provide evidence of that, DWP are able to extend the period that the money is disregarded.  It is not automatic and is decided on a case by case basis.

divorcingmama7

The thing is I wouldn’t be able to afford a mortgage, but what I’m asking is can you keep the same council house after a pay out from divorce

poppy12345

divorcingmama7 said:

The thing is I wouldn’t be able to afford a mortgage, but what I’m asking is can you keep the same council house after a pay out from divorce

Yes you can because you already have a tenancy agreement in place.