Retirement Flats for rent

michael1234

Hello All

Is there is market for this? If not, is the reason because it is typically banned in a retirement flat's lease?

Also, do any of these leases ever allow a (disabled) dependent who is under the age threshold to live there with their parent who is over it? e.g. 65 year old mother with 40 year old disabled son? I'm assuming none would allow that ?

I would be grateful that if you don't know the answer to either of these questions or not directly been involved in a retirement purchase to please not answer. To everyone else, I'm grateful for your thoughts.

silvercar

Retirement flats generally have a high service charge to cover the warden provisions etc this would make them prohibitively expensive for the rental market.

As for the age limit, I do know that with a couple, the rule is often that one person needs to be over the age limit, rather than both. The problem for a mother and child is what happens if the mother passes away when the child is still below the retirement flat age limit?

elsien

There are retirement flats to rent although I suspect that may depend on the different providers - there isn’t a blanket one size fits all. 

However the ones that I have visited are one bedroom. I don’t know how many two bedroom ones there are out there. 

If you are able to find a two bedroom one, what would the plan be for when the parent passes? 

Aside from the age issue, unless there is an inheritance, local authority housing allowance will not touch the sides for a two bedroom place for someone on benefits, particularly for private rather than local authority provision. 

These places also tend not to be set up for a high level of need, so if parent needs become higher than the service offers she would have to move, which again leaves the child in a difficult situation.
What is their disability and what support would they need to live independently? 

eddddy

I came across one retirement flat provider who said they would consider requests to rent out, if a flat had genuinely been empty and on the market for sale for some time, but remained unsold.

But I didn't see their lease, so I don't know of that was stated in their lease, or whether it was a 'goodwill gesture' which they were free to grant or refuse as they choose.

lincroft1710

Some retirement apartment developers do offer new apartments for rent, probably because they can't sell them due to high purchase price

michael1234

elsien said:

There are retirement flats to rent although I suspect that may depend on the different providers - there isn’t a blanket one size fits all. 

However the ones that I have visited are one bedroom. I don’t know how many two bedroom ones there are out there. 

If you are able to find a two bedroom one, what would the plan be for when the parent passes? 

Aside from the age issue, unless there is an inheritance, local authority housing allowance will not touch the sides for a two bedroom place for someone on benefits, particularly for private rather than local authority provision. 

These places also tend not to be set up for a high level of need, so if parent needs become higher than the service offers she would have to move, which again leaves the child in a difficult situation.
What is their disability and what support would they need to live independently? 

These are 2 people who have been sharing a single room in my house rent free for nearly 3 years. They are MIL and BIL. The latter has schizophrenia but it is treated and he's docile 100% of the time. The doc suggested he apply for pip some time ago but hasn't done so. He does get UC (and she pension credit albeit applied for a year after she was entitled...)

To be honest I just want to find a way out of the situation and I thought me buying a retirement flat _might_ be an option. Renting seems to be impossible even if we act as guarantor (we have what most people would consider a good income and assets). I have thought of buying but that would be 250k and a very, very last resort !

RHemmings

michael1234 said:

elsien said:

There are retirement flats to rent although I suspect that may depend on the different providers - there isn’t a blanket one size fits all. 

However the ones that I have visited are one bedroom. I don’t know how many two bedroom ones there are out there. 

If you are able to find a two bedroom one, what would the plan be for when the parent passes? 

Aside from the age issue, unless there is an inheritance, local authority housing allowance will not touch the sides for a two bedroom place for someone on benefits, particularly for private rather than local authority provision. 

These places also tend not to be set up for a high level of need, so if parent needs become higher than the service offers she would have to move, which again leaves the child in a difficult situation.
What is their disability and what support would they need to live independently? 

These are 2 people who have been sharing a single room in my house rent free for nearly 3 years. They are MIL and BIL. The latter has schizophrenia but it is treated and he's docile 100% of the time. The doc suggested he apply for pip some time ago but hasn't done so. He does get UC (and she pension credit albeit applied for a year after she was entitled...)

To be honest I just want to find a way out of the situation and I thought me buying a retirement flat _might_ be an option. Renting seems to be impossible even if we act as guarantor (we have what most people would consider a good income and assets). I have thought of buying but that would be 250k and a very, very last resort !

This looks to me to be a very delicate situation, and getting out of it involves more than just buying a property. From context, I can see that it would be the MIL and BIL who would be in the retirement flat. 

If you bought a non-retirement flat for them to live in, could they then get housing benefit and pay you as a landlord? I don't know where in the UK you are, and the following is for England:

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/benefits/claiming_benefits_if_you_rent_from_family

TL;DR, the DWP will be looking to see if the tenancy was set up just to get housing benefit, and you (OP) would need to take on all the responsibilities of a landlord.

The above completely wouldn't work if you are in a place like London, where only the retirement flats with the very high service charges might be affordable. Or, could MIL and BIL move to a cheaper location. 

(I have no idea what MIL and BIL would say about any of those situations.)