Mum’s house

[Magistera]

My Mum (77) currently lives in a disabled-adapted bungalow owned by a housing association. It’s incredibly damp and it stinks. Her possessions keep going green mouldy. It’s cold and draughty and never gets warm. There’s a wet patch permanently in the middle of the hall carpet. She’s complained multiple times and they’ve sent surveyors, painted the walls with anti-mould stuff, but don’t appear to be willing to do the major overhaul required to solve the problem. It’s gone on for years, currently Mum needs yet another new carpet and sideboard because hers are mouldy.

Question 1: Am I at liberty to move her into a privately rented property that’s clean and dry, and will she get housing benefit? (she currently pays no rent)

Question 2: There are no suitable bungalows available to rent privately in the local area. Am I mad to think about buying a bungalow myself and renting it to her? The rent would cover the mortgage and if she passed away I’d sell it. I just want her out of that mouldy place, it’s gone on for years and it’s getting worse, the housing association is never going to fix it.

How old is she, and what benefits does she currently receive? What’s the arrangement with the housing association?

Citizens Advice might be your best bet for advice.

76. She’s on Pension Credit and Disability Living Allowance. I presume the HA must get housing benefit to cover her rent.

Nothing to say you can't do 1 but what happens if the owner wants to sell. Moving is hard at the best of times far less an disabled 77 year old. You could do 2 but in Scotland you can't get a btl mortgage to rent to family and even owned outright she won't get HB as its family owned.

england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/benefits/claiming_benefits_if_you_rent_from_family

My understanding is that you can claim housing benefit if you rent from family as long as it’s a proper commercial let with a legally binding tenancy agreement. I don’t want to make a profit, I would just intend to cover the mortgage so she had a decent place to live.

Any idea how you actually contact Shelter for advice? The phone line is only for emergencies and the online chat just says “no advisers available” and you can’t join a queue. There doesn’t appear to be a non emergency number?

I think Shelter are just super busy unfortunately. The legal section on MN can be very good for specific questions like these.

Another option might be a retirement village. They are usually warm, my DM's flat is exceptionally well insulated, and you can get HB.

Does your DM have a SW? If she does, I'd contact them and see if they can help to get her moved to somewhere more suitable.

Contact your local MP, they should be able to make the HA sit up and listen. Send photos and list the failed interventions with a timeline.

Environmental health for help with the situation in the bungalow

If she needs benefits to pay rent you need to be very aware of the rules when renting from a relative. Can you push council to rehouse her?

Contact your local MP, they should be able to make the HA sit up and listen. Send photos and list the failed interventions with a timeline

I don't work in housing but if we ever get a letter from an MP the file is always looked at straightaway.

Definitely worth doing this.

Does her local authority have any sheltered housing schemes? Poor lady cannot stay there, I second contacting the MP.

You may get help from the local authority if the bungalow doesn’t meet the decent homes standard. Or has been suggested, contact Citizen’s Advice. www.citizensadvice.org.uk/housing/repairs-in-rented-housing/repairs-what-are-your-options-if-you-are-a-social-housing-tenant/

ive no help on the financial situation but, re the mold, if its black mold like my son had in his privately rented room for uni, we quoted some Environmental legalese at the landlord, and they moved pretty dam quick to fix it, they were just blaming him for drying washing in his room.
call your local department to get the proper wording as i cant remember it now - was 8 years ago

The council says they can’t rehouse her because they have no more disabled bungalows available. I’ve looked to rent privately but there are no bungalows available locally at a cheap enough rent to be covered by HB. That’s why I was considering buying a bungalow myself and charging her a low rent that HB would cover. It might leave me a little out of pocket but I could cover the difference and maybe make it back when I sell the bungalow.

They are sending out yet another surveyor in a couple of weeks time. I’ll give them one last opportunity to fix it (although tbh I think it isn’t fixable without major renovation). Also they’re reluctant to do anything because several of those bungalows have the same problem and if they fix one it sets a precedent so tenants could insist they fix them all.

If it isn’t fully fixed this time I’ll be writing to my MP and environmental health, and requesting compensation for her furniture and carpets. Just so fed up with this.

I'd get environmental health involved at this point to be honest. The HA will be used to working with them anyway.

Does it have to be a bungalow? Lots of social sheltered housing is being underused and she may be able to have ground floor with access to outside.

Hi I was in a similar situation when my brother sustained life changing injuries and couldn't find anywhere suitable locally for him. I have bought a bungalow for my brother and he pays from his housing benefit. He has a proper tenancy agreement. I do all the landlord checks and we are careful to ensure everything is the same as if someone unrelated was a tenant. It's not difficult but you do need to do some research. He had a grant to make further adaptations to the property from the local council. We did all this 2 years ago. So quite recently. You can check how much housing benefit she is entitled to on gov.com. You will need to ensure that you are charging her the market rate for the property. - If you buy a bungalow that would normally rent out for £1.5k a month and you charge her benefit rate of £750 that would be when questions would be asked and it would be obvious that this was a family arrangement rather than a business tenancy. You will need to fill an annual tax return and pay tax on the income. But it is all pretty straight forward and legal.

Does it have to be a bungalow? Lots of social sheltered housing is being underused and she may be able to have ground floor with access to outside

That's exactly what my DM has abs it's fab. Very warm, there are pull cords if she ever needs the assistance, a restaurant and cafe, garden, launderette and regular events.

I would really look at the options locally for the over 55s.