Shared Ownership - housing benefit woulld i qualify

[escapeplan]

hello

Anyone out there have experience of shared ownership housing?

What are the pitfalls?

What happens to the rent part - how often and by how much can the housing association increase the rent?

Would i get housing benefit for the rent part, even if I owned part of the house?

i don't work am on my own and have one child under 3.

please help.

ta.

Are you not claiming IS?

Housing ass can increase rent once a year if they want to. But im not sure how much by. I think it may be diferent for each area.

Hi

I have a shared ownership property.I'm sure my housing association didn't accept applicants on housing benefit but may be wrong.

The financial assessment that you have to go through is pretty thorough. How would you pay the mortgage or would you try and buy part of the property outright?

In London the website that is most useful is called Housing Options and this goes into detail about the criteria for shared ownership which you might find helpful.

Good luck

Sorry forgot to mention that the Housing Ass can (and does) increase rent annually but this has to be within certain limits. Don't forget you also have to pay a service charge. Mine is £95 per month for a tiny 2 bed flat.

Service charges can be high on some new developments, best to look for re sales lists.

Most rents increase each year and they are linked to RPI plus a certain % which would be determined in your lease before you buy.

You can get HB on the rent side but would need to have savings for the legal fees to buy in the first place and I would be surprised if you could get a mortgage for the other bit without having a job.

You can buy without being employed etc in some circumstances mostly for people with special needs etc who are likely to be elegible due to being assessed as able to get HB long term.

Thanks for these replies.

not on Income support yet.

I can buy my share outright (a very small share!) - would not get a mortgage as not working.

i am holding back some money to pay the rent part and bills etc until i get a job, but i am worried to take on the commitment if i would not be eligible for housing benefit if it all went wrong - ie i couldn't find enough work to warrant the child care costs..

thanks for the service charge advice - they have not mentioned this, just rent and percentage of insurances.

curlysmum - can you let me know how you know that hb is payable on the rent side? I've been trawling websites and can;t find anything specific.

The housing association have said i am eligible to buy as i wont be taking out a mortgage but they are concerned that i am not employed.

staggerlee thanks will check out that website.

You would be elegible for the rent to be paid by HA even if you were only working part time too, theyd pay the rest.

How are you planning to buy the other half? they may consider this as youve had 'money' since being unemployed and so are able to just pay for a rented accom instead iyswim?

I know quite a bit as I work in shared ownership .

HB does pay rent on shared ownership , you would fill in the forms then the council does write to the Housing Association to confirm the rent payable and Service Charges.

This is where a lot of people fall into difficulty as most councils will not pay the Service Charge element and then the people on benefits fall into difficulty with arrears. It depends very much how the Service Charge is billed and what it includes ,whether a Managing agent bills it or if it is included in with the rent and policies also can differ from borough to borough .

If you fall into difficulty due to Service Charge arrears then the HA can ask your mortgage lender to pay and add it to your mortgage but if you have no mortgage lender then it does leave you in a difficult situation . I have seen many people get into Service Charge arrears due to rising costs. Hope this help a bit will check back if you have any ther questions

www.entitledto.co.uk/

this site will answer this kind of question

I don't think the entitledto calculator will answer this as it is too specific.
As far as I know you can't claim housing benefit if you have any assets or equity over 6k, which presumably you will have?
Why not book a benefits advisor appt at your local council?

The increases is RPI + 1%. They can only charge up to 2.75% of the value of the part they own.

So if the house is worth 200,000 and you pay for 50% of it it leaves 100,000 on which you will pay rent = 2750 pa. plus service charges.

Yes you can get HB to pay so rent.

We are wondering about this too. We have enough money to put a deposit down so that we own 25% of the property and would have no mortgage to pay, just rent and site fees.

We wondered if the rent would be covered by benefit ( £300 pm).

Surely people should be using their deposit/ savings to pay rent not claiming housing benefit?
I don't think it's possible to use a lump sum of savings to pay a deposit or buy a share of a house then try to claim housing benefit to pay the rest of the rent. Isn't this classed as deprivation of capital ?
As pp says you cannot have savings over £6k and claim Housing benefit.

Jatisdall- Am I understanding correctly you want to buy 25% of a house outright with savings then get the government to pay housing benefit for the rest of the rent? Or have I misunderstood ??

Yes. That is correct. Or should I say you are correct in our aim. It is this that we are asking about.

We are not on benefits right now. Fully paid NI contribution for many years.

Are you expecting to lose your job or be on benefits in the future? Why do you think you might need to claim Housing benefit?

I have a shared ownership apartment and I claim housing benefit for the rented part, we own 30% outright. The council see the rented part as any other rental so there's no reason why you shouldn't claim HB for that part provided you meet the other conditions like maximum savings.

I was working when we bought it and there was a minimum salary requirement for our scheme. . So you'd need to check whether you'd be eligible for the SO scheme since you're not working. I think the trickier bit will be buying the property in the first place as the eligibility criteria is quite specific and it also differs from scheme to scheme. Once you have managed to get a property, there aren't really any obstacles to claiming housing benefit (although I don't know about universal credit, it's worth checking if there are any differences if you were on UC as you will be transferred to it eventually). I lost my job a few years after buying and haven't returned to work since, and get HB for rent and it also covers part of the service charges. I am lucky that I get PIP which helps to cover the cost of the mortgage, and it is quite small as I didn't stretch myself.

Babyroobs
Exactly. My other half might be losing his job. Not sure yet.

Actually he has a small fixed income for life that would almost cover the rent. No mortgage required. But if he loses his job then he might need to claim jobseekers etc.

Thanks Eggtart for that post.

We have been approved at first level for scheme entry. But that application includes my current income.