Does owning a share in a house only affect your benefits if your refusing to sell it?

pcb123 · 9 July 2018 at 1:17PM

If you receive part ownership of a house and immediately the joined owners put the house up for sale on the market will that affect mean tested benefits of any of the joined owners while the house is up for sale or only after it's sold and money is received?

Or does it only affect means tested benefits if you have part ownership of a house which you're refusing to sell?

Ames · 9 July 2018 at 2:52PM

How did you 'receive' part ownership? Was it an inheritance? Do you actually own the house or does the estate of the deceased?

Have you ever lived in the property?

What benefits are you on?

Sorry for the questions, but there isn't enough info in your post to be able to give you a full answer.

lisyloo · 9 July 2018 at 3:06PM

I think you need to give more details.

Recently my MIL who's in a nursing home inherited half a house via survivorship when her husband (joint owner) died.
She is not living in the house.
It did NOT affect her pensions credit whilst we were intending to sell the home although they did send regular forms.
In our case we aren't in a position to sell the home (MIL has lost capacity and did not appoint an attorney), but we reported that we were INTENDING to sell.

So clearly they (DWP) recognise it's not a liquid asset, but they do want to know your intentions which would imply the intentions do matter,

pcb123 · 9 July 2018 at 4:38PM

I'm on ESA income based and PIP, I've been living here for 15 years with a relative who has recently passed away and left the house between me and 3 others to have joined ownership, I'm still living here but will have to move out soon unfortunately once the solicitor has transferred it over to us at which point it's going to be put on the market, I know it won't affect my ESA while I'm still living in the house its only if I were to be living somewhere else, but I've applied for a housing executive house and I'm wondering if I move into it while this house is still up for sale if that would then affect my benefits? Because I would have ownership of a house that I'm not living in

pcb123 · 9 July 2018 at 4:44PM

Ah ok, well it is going to be put up for sale I'll hopefully keep living here until there's a buyer but if I get offered a housing executive house before that and move in I'm wondering if I'd get cut off my ESA even though the house is up for sale, is it only if you're refusing to sell that it affects means tested benefits because it's capital that you don't need and could otherwise sell?

pmlindyloo · 9 July 2018 at 4:53PM

Why will you have to move out while the house is up for sale?

How much money will you get once the house is sold? Over £16K? If so then any means tested benefits will stop.

I believe that you are in NI?

In England you would probably have 26 weeks (or more if there are reasonable efforts to sell the property) when the value of your share would not be counted. I cannot access the Decision maker's Guide for NI on my computer. Perhaps someone will have more luck and check the DMG for you (or you can try yourself by goggling)

pcb123 · 9 July 2018 at 5:13PM

It's not that I'll have to move out before its sold but if I get offered a housing executive house and refuse it because I want to stay here for as long as possible and then the next week the house gets sold I'll have no choice but to privately rent unless I get offered another housing executive house within a week of refusing one, so if I do get offered a house I'll probably have to take it incase I don't get offered another in time

I'm not sure how much its worth or what my share would be but I think it could be a little over 16k

The last time I spoke to citizens advice I think they said that there would be 26 weeks before it would be counted against my benefits so that rule must apply over here too, does that mean if the house is put up for sale and takes more than 26 weeks to sell that it would then usually be counted and affect benefits?

TELLIT01 · 9 July 2018 at 5:43PM

As long as the house can be shown to be on the market at a reasonable price it can be discounted for more than 26 weeks. That would generally only happen if the house has been reduced in price at some time during the 26 weeks to encourage a sale. Each case is judged on its own merits.

Does owning a share in a house only affect your benefits if your refusing to sell it?

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free