help with council property please!

bettersoon

ok, what i've tried posting this in the homebuy thread but no reply!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! My situation is me and my partner is currently living in a one bed flat with our 3 year old daughter and new baby on the way in 2 months! the flat is council and under my mums name and me and my daughter is registered here. We are renting our house out and has put it on the market as we cant afford to live there. so until we sell it we cant do much! We waiting for a transfer for a bigger place but we're not high priority so i have no hopes in taking that way out!

My plan is to sell the house and pay off all our debt and to buy through homebuy but my partner is not a key worker and as we've bought before we wont be considered as first time buyers right? also his name is not on the housing register and i am not employed to be able to buy. :0( I want to add his name to this flat but will they let us as that will make it very overcrowded! Anyway we cant plan anything or get anything on the way until we can get rid of the house. I also feel like a criminal cause my partner is living with us when he shouldnt be there!

squinty

I'm a bit confused by this - you have a house which you rent out - but you are chosing to live in your mothers one bed council flat - but are expecting the council to help you out because you are overcrowded - or to be able to access a scheme that you recognise that you are not entitled to.

I suspect you will not get a very sympathetic response to your sitution.

However, looking at the tenancy. Assuming the tenancy is a secure tenancy, and is in England is is not possible to add a name onto a tenancy. A secure tenancy cannot be assigned except in certain circumstances which are set out in law - none seem to apply in your case.

Its not clear in the original post, but if mum no longer lives a the poperty it is very likley that she has broken the condition of her tenancy agreement which will probably state she needs to occupy the tenancy as her sole of principal home.

If mother is still lives there and yor partner moves in it is likley that mum wil alo be breaking a condition of tenancy be allowing the property to become overcrowded.

Are you sure that you are following a sensible course of action here? I strongly recommend that you seek specialst advice from a housing aid centre, or shelter (or the CAB if there are no specialists).

Good luck

PasturesNew

It's also allegedly harder to sell a house if there is a tenant in it, so having a tenant in your house might mean you miss out on potential buyers.

While you do own a house (whether you can afford to live there or not) and while you do have a tenant in it, I'd say this would most likely count against you in the housing list priorities. I would suspect that the Council would think that you should return to live in your own home until such time as you are repossessed... but I could be wrong.

silvercar

PasturesNew wrote: »

While you do own a house (whether you can afford to live there or not) and while you do have a tenant in it, I'd say this would most likely count against you in the housing list priorities. I would suspect that the Council would think that you should return to live in your own home until such time as you are repossessed... but I could be wrong.

..at which point they will consider you to be intentionally homeless as you didn't keep up with the mortgage payments.

If you do sell the house and this leaves you with a pot of money, you will be expected to use it to find a private rental or buy a new home. In fact as a low priority the council would generally expect you to find a private rental.

bettersoon

thanks for replying!

As i said we cannot afford the mortgage payments thats why we've rented the whole house out and the mortgage contract ends in december. The tenants contract runs out in august and yes i know it will be harder to sell with thme in there but we have no other option. My mum is staying at my sisters for now until me and my partner finds a new place where we can afford to live. And at the way things are going the pot from the sale of the house wont be much...if things continue like this we most prob will get repossessed.

As its almost impossible to get a bigger place through the council, I thought the homebuy thing might be an option. I dont want to be breaking laws and have been unsettled since we moved in here but what other choice do we have? we're not renting privately because we wont have enough once the tenants are gone.

bettersoon

I recognize that we may be eligible for the scheme if he is a council tenant hence why i wanted to add his name on the flat

oldMcDonald

bettersoon wrote: »

I also feel like a criminal cause my partner is living with us when he shouldnt be there!

If you are not employed, are you claiming Council Tax / HB? If so, then you MUST tell the council that he is living there. Is your mum claiming these benefits to live there and then living somewhere else?

Sorry, I am a little confused about the set up. Has your mum bought this flat, or is she the named tennant and you are sub-letting the council flat from her? I can't imagine any council allowing that to happen! Are you named on the lease from the council as an adult living in the flat or is it a joint tenancy with your name and your Mums name on it?

Not trying to start any benefit/council house etc. etc. arguements, but you really must be sure that you and your mum are doing things correctly, otherwise it could get serious for both of you if you are not and the council find out.

bettersoon

The council knows i'm here and i am paying a little bit of rent on top as i am not claiming any benefits. And my mum doesnt pay anything as she is old.

oldMcDonald

bettersoon wrote: »

The council knows i'm here and i am paying a little bit of rent on top as i am not claiming any benefits. And my mum doesnt pay anything as she is old.

Are you a joint tennant with your mum? Are you looking at getting your partner put on the tennancy or just down as living there? Our local HA gives priority on part buys to tennants only, rather than people named on a lease as an adult living there. If this is the case with yours then you would be best to see if he can be put on the tennancy, however the council may be reluctant to do this due, as you say, to overcrowding issues. Do the council know mum is no longer living there? If so, then there will not be an issue with overcrowding with just two adults and one young child / baby on the way.

bettersoon

I don't want my mum to give up her flat if my partner can't be a council tennant because he owns a property but until we sell theres not much we can do. She said she'll move back in permanently with my Dad (even though they hate each other) if needs be.

argghhhh I really don't want to be cheating the system as this is what it seems like! what will be best? should i go see an housing officer and see if they can help us?

bettersoon

sorry, i ignored your questions completely! I don't think i am a tenant. All i know is they know i am living here and charging me rent?