To be worried about receiving inheritance

[OpheliaBoots]

I'll start off by saying that I know I am fortunate and that this is very much a first world problem...

I'm a single parent. I work full time but receive some UC which helps a lot. Minimal child maintenance from DC's father.

A family member died last year and I am due to inherit a part of the estate, although maybe not for a while as the house isn't on the market yet. I will possibly be looking in the region of about £30k, could be less depending on how much the house sells for.

I currently rent. Obviously my priority will be to try to buy somewhere of my own, but area is pretty expensive. Online calculators say I may get a mortgage of around £100k based on my income, which would give me a pot of around £125k to buy once I factor in fees etc. I could get a small 2 bed flat for this, maybe, but nothing great and in one of the rougher parts of the city. But it would be a start.

My worry is about the UC. Obviously (and rightly) this will stop as soon as I get the money. But if I can't afford to buy my own place straight away, it will leave me in the position of having to dip into the inheritance money to live, making buying my own place harder and harder.

I really want to use this opportunity to improve my life.

What would you do?

[Rara94]

When you have received the inheritance it will stop your uc claim however once you buy somewhere you should be able to claim again and will have a higher work allowance as you would have no housing element. Universal credit essentials on Facebook are brilliant for advice if you can check them out.

[saleorbouy]

You can arrange an agreement in principle with your mortgage provider which will allow you to make an offer on a property with the written confirmation of the agreed loan amount. Its likely that the solicitor/executor dealing with the estate will be able to deposit your share of the inheritance in their client holding account. They might charge you a fee and you will not accumulate interest but it might assist in your transition on UC.
Good luck with the house hunting.

[CherrySpritz]

@cstaff

Would it be possible to use the same solicitor as the probate solicitor to do the conveyancing on your house. If so you could get the solicitor to transfer your inheritance from the probate account to your property account and they could hold it and use it on your house purchase. If you can't use the same solicitor you could ask the probate solicitor to transfer the money to your own solicitor and they could hold it until your purchase goes through. That way it never sees your bank account.

It doesn’t make any difference! She’s still had the money.

[cabbageking]

You are supposed to settle the estate as soon as possible and once all debts have been cleared.

[Skyechasemarshalontheway]

Unfortunately if you get over 16k uc will stop.

If you buy a house and it lowers under that they still may not restart UC as they would have expected you to live on the money you had.

[raspberryk]

@Skyechasemarshalontheway ,not if you can prove that buying a house is needed to provide adequate shelter for the op child. Private rent is expensive, unstable and unsustainable on a lot of low incomes.

[Babyroobs]

Op needs to look at the deprivation of capital rules to see what money can reasonably be spent on. It is considered reasonable to pay off debts, replace furntiture etc. I think it may be considered reasonable to use money to use for a house deposit, but I think the best course of action is to ask the DWP before you do anything, that way you are covered if there is any comeback.

[carly2803]

I think as other have said, if you get the money and its straight ontoa house, its not an issue but speak to a solicitor

if its any help, a 90k mortgage was £350

HTH