Renting house to family on universal credit - asking for 2 contracts?

deannagone

My son and his gf receive UC.  He lives with his gf's family.  They all rent together (they gf's family are on UC as their own family unit).  They only have one rental contract, with my son and his gf as named inhabitants.  UC then divides the rent up between them and awards each family unit a portion of the total charge.(UC may still not pay the total charge, the tenants may be expected to contribute also).

I would agree that what the tenants are asking for is making for unnecessary complications, could go wrong, and is rather dodgy as its just not necessary.

Personally I would look at social media (its available for anyone to at least look for).  But to be honest its probably best to avoid.

theartfullodger

Thank them kindly for their offer, but let them know no, it will be just one joint tenancy.

Which country (eg Wales, NI?) -the law and tenancies differ.

DullGreyGuy

Granddadofyear said:

Wonder if someone can share some advice.

The family seem nice / should look after the place. But have asked for 2 contracts - eldest son to claim for one room and the rest of the rooms the family will claim.

I can’t get my head around if this is normal or something dodgy. I know housing benefit is reduced for every non dependent living with you but here the oldest child seems to have his own universal credit allowance.

Also not sure if this has any implication on landlord liability insurance and mortgage (we have a standard buy to let).

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

It doesn't pass the sniff test that they may be trying to do something dodgy with benefits but that isnt necessarily your problem.

There bigger reason not to do it is that making them jointly and severally liable is much weaker if split across multiple contracts which would mean if rent isnt paid on time you are having to chase the son for one debt and the rest of the family for the other debt, similarly it'd be two sets of evictions if you want them out etc. Much better to have a single contract so you can chance any and all of them for the full amount and only a single contract to terminate. 

Flugelhorn

what happens if only one party want to leave?

FlorayG

Flugelhorn said:

what happens if only one party want to leave?

Well technically I suppose they leave and then the LL rents that part of the house to anyone he wants - a total stranger to the rest of the inhabitants. Another reason not to do it

PRAISETHESUN

Flugelhorn said:

what happens if only one party want to leave?

Same thing that happen with any joint tenancy when only one party wants to leave. The TA doesn't end unless all parties vacate the property, and the LL doesn't necessarily need to agree to remove the person who has left from the agreement. From the LL's position, having 3 people to chase in the event of non-payment of rent is better than having 2 people to chase. They could go down the HMO route and rent out the spare room, but it might not be possible if the original TA guarantees exclusive rights to occupy the property. It also generates the same problems as having 2 tenancy agreements for the family in the first place as has been discussed. Everyone could agree to substitute the leaving tenant with the new one, generating a new joint tenancy agreement, but I can't imagine the family would be too keen on that.

FlorayG

PRAISETHESUN said:

Flugelhorn said:

what happens if only one party want to leave?

Same thing that happen with any joint tenancy when only one party wants to leave. The TA doesn't end unless all parties vacate the property, 

The potential renters don't want a joint tenancy they want two separate ones, so if the son leaves then 'all parties' HAVE vacated his tenancy
I'm pretty sure it's not even legal to do what they are asking, let alone even asking 'is it a good idea?' Here's hoping the OP just gives them a flat 'NO' to the idea

PRAISETHESUN

FlorayG said:

PRAISETHESUN said:

Flugelhorn said:

what happens if only one party want to leave?

Same thing that happen with any joint tenancy when only one party wants to leave. The TA doesn't end unless all parties vacate the property, 

The potential renters don't want a joint tenancy they want two separate ones, so if the son leaves then 'all parties' HAVE vacated his tenancy
I'm pretty sure it's not even legal to do what they are asking, let alone even asking 'is it a good idea?' Here's hoping the OP just gives them a flat 'NO' to the idea

Apologies - I misinterpreted the question, assuming it related to a joint tenancy as people had been suggesting rather than the initial scenario with 2 agreements. I agree that separate agreements is a bad idea and shouldn't be entertained.

Flugelhorn

PRAISETHESUN said:

FlorayG said:

PRAISETHESUN said:

Flugelhorn said:

what happens if only one party want to leave?

Same thing that happen with any joint tenancy when only one party wants to leave. The TA doesn't end unless all parties vacate the property, 

The potential renters don't want a joint tenancy they want two separate ones, so if the son leaves then 'all parties' HAVE vacated his tenancy
I'm pretty sure it's not even legal to do what they are asking, let alone even asking 'is it a good idea?' Here's hoping the OP just gives them a flat 'NO' to the idea

Apologies - I misinterpreted the question, assuming it related to a joint tenancy as people had been suggesting rather than the initial scenario with 2 agreements. I agree that separate agreements is a bad idea and shouldn't be entertained.

I was definitely referring to the situation described in the first ie 2 separate agreements  for the same property - joint tenancy is straightforward, this potentially has huge problems.

Granddadofyear

Yeah so I imagine they are wanting 2 contracts to maximise the benefits they receive from the government. Which is prob illegal but really exposes to me how much of this goes on - infuriating!