Social housing and inheriting a share of a house

[howdoesitworkthen]

I'm living in a housing association home and have an elderly mother.
She will leave the house about 500k to me and my sister.
My sister already owns a house and suggested we rent out our parents house as a retirement income.
I'm not sure if we could buy a home each if we sold and split.
How does this work if you have a housing association assured tenancy and inherit part of a property.

Could you not move in and buy your sister out? You would need to mortgage the property to do it but it's doable if you have the income

It very much sounds like your sister is trying to 'blind you with science' and get you to agree before your mother's death so she can run with 'your plans' as soon after your mother's death as possible.

If neither of you can agree, the house should be sold and profits shared as the will intends.

I have no idea what would happen to your eligibility for social housing if you inherit.

I would cut your sister off every time she raises the house (that neither of you own yet) and find out the impact on you and your housing/future plans.

I couldn't get a 250k mortgage at my time in life. I would be thinking of something small to buy with my share.

I am pretty shocked that people inherit a house or the means to buy a house can keep their social housing. Very wrong with the waiting lists being as they are.

Co owning property is a pain.
Maybe your Mum could write it into the will that the house is to be sold and proceeds divided?
Do not agree to renting it out.

I live in a council house, and as it stands I am likely to inherit a house. It will make no difference to my tenancy. I intend to either sell it or rent it out.

Do not become a landlord unless you have access to relatively large amounts of money easily. ( Which you may do from an inheritance)
One off repairs/making sure the house meets the required standards quickly mount up.

Do not let your sister end up with the house solely in her name. You could end up with nothing! If something happened to your sister, and she passed away, the house could then become the property of her next of kin... her husband(?) her children, and as much as you may trust her, if something happened, you would then be relying on the good will of a wider family to ensure you don't lose out, but legally, you could be set to lose everything. They could say they had no idea of your sisters wishes and intentions with regards to your share in the house, and legally you wouldn't have a leg to stand on. Plus if your mum's will states the house is to be shared between the two of you, I'm not sure it would even be an option for it to go solely into your name, unless your sister was buying you out. Solicitors have to make sure the assets are divided as per the will, so would unlikely approve this arrangement.

My friend had a similar situation. She needed somewhere to live and couldn’t buy out her sibling so she lives in the property now but pays rent for her share to her sibling so that her sibling doesn’t lose out on the inheritance they are due. I believe it was sorted via solicitors and I don’t know the full in and outs or how much gets paid.

@howdoesitworkthen just check your tenancy agreement and if you have access to a housing officer have a chat with them. I applied for and got a HA property whilst owning my own home. The HA knew about it from the beginning and it was actually them who suggested applying. There is discretion due to various circumstances.

Don't even contemplate 'sharing' your mum's house with your sister. It willl end in conflict. Don't sign it over because even if she doesn't cause you issues (she's already trying to control you with her suggestion) you can be stitched up in time if she dies and the house passes to her family.

She has her home already and is planning on supplementing her life at your costs. Being a LL isn't a license to print money unless you get some mug to share the pain/take the hit instead.

And yes I know, many, many families get on very well together

But talking from experience. My parents bought their council house with RTB. My dad died and later when the mortgage came to be finished she didn't have the money (they had stupidly gone for interest only). House was valued at £150,000. The mortgage shortfall was £13k. Before I even had a chance to discuss options with her, my brothers first thoughts were how to line his pockets. He offered to buy the house from my mum but for only 75% of the value because he reckoned he'd get 25% as inheritance!

House was too big for her, so I sold the house for her and she moved into a McCarthy and Storm flat fully paid off and £80k in her bank.

Money rules the lives of so many entitled people, who put themselves and their interests way before anyone else. People who you wouldn't think would rip you off can, and do, rip people off for a lot less than the value of your mum's home.

All my siblings actions when she died in 2018 showed where their thoughts really were.

The op hasn't actually inherited anything yet or has the means to buy anything ....

Social housing is only for people who have an income under a certain amount and you are meant to declare it if you earn over a certain amount or have assets or savings over £16k.

Owning your own home does come with additional costs for repairs, house insurance etc so I’d put a money of money away for things like this but the pros of owning a home vs renting outweigh the cons massively.

If your mum didn’t own her home then you would have nothing and I think having something to give your children after you die is such an amazing gift.

You are getting £250k each and half a house each.
So I personally think the best solution would be for the house to be valued and your sister pay you from her £250k.

There is something called inheritance tax which you need to look into but I don’t know enough about it to advise.

How nice is your current home and how old are your children?

You cannot transfer a tenancy as such but if your children are over a certain age then they can be named on the tenancy and so if you move out, they can still live in the home (double check this in your tenancy agreement) and so it’s worth looking into this so your adult children have a home of their own. They would obviously have to pay rent etc.

If there is a couple years to go then it might be worth waiting until they’re older and renting it for now or possibly one of you buying a house and renting the rooms out.

@RaininSummer why are you shocked? A council tenancy is for life.

It only has an effect if the tenant claims housing benefit or UC with the housing element.

Sorry I was meant to add that I wouldn’t tell the housing association about the money or anything yet.

You’re not meant to keep it.

Social housing is only for people who earn under a certain amount, don’t own another property and don’t have savings or assets over a certain amount.

You are meant to declare it if your circumstances change.

But unless there was a way for the council to find out then it’s possible to own a home and keep the council house.

If people can sit on assets or cash worth a quarter of a million and still live in subsidised housing paid for by other people's taxes then the system is truly broken - especially if there are others with a greater need spending years on waiting lists to even get a chance to living somewhere affordable.

You will need to think about tax implications, rental income will need to be shown on a tax return, both you and your sister will need to pay tax on the rental income, at same rate as your income, if the rent puts you into a higher racket then you pay higher tax at the higher bracket.

My advice would be to sell, your sister could use her half towards a Ed gal property. Tenants are hard work, as are estate agents.

whether you have a house in your name or not is neither here nor there! you are a tenant not on benefits in social housing and they cannot evict you due to your inheritance. You can have millions in the bank and still be a social housing tenant!

What absolute rubbish!! social housing is for anyone who manages to be allocated one!! If a person is not on benefits then they do not even have to declare her inheritance!! It does not matter how much money they have in the bank!

You would still own a house so have a problem if HA say you are not allowed.

You are very lucky your brother is a good person and not greedy.

2jacqi
You can have millions in the bank and still be a social housing tenant.

Do you really think that's how it should be though, especially given the state of the economy?
Housing wealthy people who don't want to spend their capital is not what social housing system was set up for, it seems more like people exploiting the rules.

That is just simply not true.

There is an MP who lives in social housing.

I’ve worked for social housing in 2 different authorities and live in a council house myself.

When you apply you need to give details of your income and won’t be accepted to be on the list if you earn over a certain amount or own your own property/have assets.
There is sometimes an exception if you’re physically disabled, but this is taken case by case.

When you sign the tenancy agreement it will usually say that you must declare any future earnings or assets over a certain amount or it will say it when signing up to be on the waiting list.

You also can’t rent your home out without permission but people still do.