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.

If not using any benefits - You’re still getting lower rent from a property that was originally bought by public funds (the council). Many private renters (myself included) who’ve been on low incomes would’ve bitten at the chance to have lower rent than private. It’s not a right and social housing stock is rare so holding onto one when not needed is selfish.

Secondly house ownership should be the aim if you have £250k, a very easy aim all things considered. That’s a golden ticket. Its a whole different kettle of fish that people are seemingly forgetting. A quarter of a million pounds. Even if not received yet, if it is - most people would say that “£250k given as a gift will never be in peoples reach”.

And if you are so concerned about that why doesnt Heygate or Balfron Tower bother you. You SH tenant haters make that hate more obvious with every word you post

Honestly Jennifer, I’ve already said that I was a recipient of social housing and I’m immensely grateful. My issue is a quarter of a million in the bank alongside the house which you’ve all conveniently forgotten and not commented on instead it’s a ‘them and us’ classic response.

Give your head a wobble.

Most people on this thread weren't criticising social housing tenants, but the idea of being able to hold onto a tenancy in spite of receiving a windfall of several hundred thousand pounds.

Thank you! I don’t know how people are missing this.

You cant talk about the shortage of social housing without acknowledging that some of it is down to developers.

@Sunshinenrain i live in a ha property and my tenancy says no such thing.
your not meant to own another home but left as inheritance between 2 not wuite the same
personally if I inherit enough to byt a house ever or go a long way towards a house i would buy though and guve my house back so someone else can benefit as that seems the moral thing to do

Ok that’s fair enough. But I know 3 LA authorities where it is written in the tenancy agreement and PPs have said it’s in their tenancy agreement too.

It does seem crazy that there are people who are homeless or living in awful conditions and being on the council list for years, whilst there are people who are rich and owning multiple homes and still keeping their council house.

If every SH tenant knows that as soon as they do a bit better they have to move into market housing (shit and wildly insecure) we incentivise people having no social mobility. Basically encouraging people not to improve their lives.

@MrsTerryPratchett I'm appreciating & learning a lot from your posts. But I don't think I'm suggesting that the OP should contemplate moving into the private rental market. An inheritance of £250 k is a substantial amount to purchase a home, thus offering @howdoesitworkthen far more security in her housing than any kind of renting.

And yes, social housing tenants pay rent, but it is not a current market rent generally.

I agree that current market rents can be pretty usurous (I have a rental property myself and reduced the rent by 20% while my tenant was furloughed in 2020, and haven't increased it since. They're good tenants & happy in the house).

BUT - it's the perception of an unfair disparity in rental opportunities. Those secure in social housing still pay rent (and taxes) but - I would assume from what you say - they are not paying current market rates. This is a good thing, but must be very very hard to see for those people unable to secure social housing, although they are eligible for it, who are forced to pay market rents, and suffer all the precarity of housing involved.

There needs to be a solution which balances individual need and social need. Allowing a social housing tenant to remain in scarce social housing when they have the capital means of housing themselves securely, is not that fair or transparent balance.

I do hope OP's mother isn't on MN.

I also hope she lives happily in her lovely £500k house until she's 120, having revised her will to leave everything to the donkey sanctuary.

I agree with pp who have said that any tenant renting a £500k house will have high expectations.
Not to mention if the value goes up and you sell later you'll be clobbered for tax.

Sell the house. And then you have the freedom to buy your own home / invest / support your kids etc.

And absolutely do not transfer to your sisters name. The issues in doing that are huge.