Can I rent my property to my ex wife and to my daughters ?

[ozder59]

I was divorced in 1996 and both of us started to live seperate lives. In 2002 I bought a house and because it is near to a university I agreed that they can rent my house and she was to claim a housing benefit.
In the past years her benefit was turned down as my youngest daughter was getting child benefit(her mom was getting it) and it was said that there was a blood relations between me and the child. But because I love my daughters I had to agree that they can stay in the property and once my daughtrer is out of child benefit, they can reclaim housing benefit. My ex put a claim very recently for Housing benefit but again was turned down as this time they are saying to my ex that "because she had previously owened the property with me" she is not entiteled. But she had never owened the property with me and the property was bought after we got divorced.
Would you please explain to me since I was divorced in 1996 and I bought the house in 2002 and my daughters are now 19 and 25, can they get housing benefit.?
Thank you.

[ummmm]

Does your ex work?

[ozder59]

Thank you for getting back to me. Yes she works 16 hours and she gets council tax benefit and also as I know some other benefits that she is working part time.

[bednobs]

The Hb can be paid if you can prove that the let to a relative is for a commercial undertaking. the fact that they have not previously paid rent to live there rules that out i think.

[ozder59]

Thank you. Can you pls explain the phrase "commercial undertaking". No they have not paid me any rent before.

[bednobs]

commercial undertaking - ie you are making money out of it. as you are currently not charging them any rent then it is not a commercial undertaking for you for them to live there
"The local authority may also apply this rule if they think the rental arrangement has been set up only to get Housing Benefit (this is called ‘taking advantage of the Housing Benefit scheme’). The local authority may say your arrangement ‘takes advantage’ if you are an adult living in someone else’s home and you start to pay them rent."

Note the "start to pay" - because you are NOT charging at the moment, it has been seen by the local council as you taking advantage by the sound of it which is why they are refusing to pay

[ozder59]

Thank you.
The Council refusal to my ex wife is; "because you are previously owened the house you are not entitled". But as I said, she had never owened the house and I bought the house long after we got divorced.
The council never asked to my ex whether she has been paying rent or not. But I have a tenancy agreement at the moment which has started as from 1st of November, 2009. She has submitted this to the council but as I said, their refusal was besed on as I wrote in the first line above.
Would you pls give me advice what to do next as she is saying that she has to write them back within one month.
Thank you.

[bednobs]

well then, you just need to write to them (within the month, as they suggest) providing the proof she has never owned the house or any part of it. ( i would suggest deeds, mortgage information etc) Send photocopies

[Goodsoulette]

I was renting a house from my dad under similar circumstances.The council will only pay up if yout reat the family tenants as you would any other, you've proved that you wont so they won't pay up. They want to be sure that you would evict them if the rent wasnt being paid. My dad and I had to go in for seperate interviews to make sure we weren't conning them and satisified the requirements.

You could try evicting her and see if they cough up when she has to put in for social housing.

[ummmm]

How sad...considering you're doing the noble thing.

[bednobs]

i suppose so umm,,, but Ozder clearly dosen't need the rent to survive, or he would have chucked them out to get tennants in. I theory, he could have loads of cash, and just move relative s who qualify for HB in so he can get more. i am not suggesting he is, but it could look like benefit fraud from the outside of course

[ozder59]

Even if I needed the money badly, I would not chuck them out. By law she has no right to the property and my daughters are over the age of 18.
I will fight back to the Local authority.
I would like to thank all of you.

[bednobs]

no need to fight them, just provide them the info they require

[ozder59]

Thank you bednobs.

[ummmm]

I presume it's the noble thing as my Ex paid my mortgage for 2 years after we split

[ozder59]

yes ummmm. I guess it is the guilt one way or the other people carry with deep inside.

[themas]

If the only reason given for the decision was that your wife was a previous owner then the decision was clearly incorrect, as you say you bought the house after divorce. (In any case, if my memory serves me correctly, the ban on getting HB for a house you previously owned only lasts 5 years after you disposed of your interest in the house.)

Your ex needs to appeal the decision giving all the necessary evidence.

However, it is quite likely the Council will review their decsion and make another on the correct basis - i.e. that this is not a commercial transaction. It is possible you may be able to get round this by demonstrating that you now have a proper tenancy agreement with a market rent level, but your own statement that you would not evict them even if no rent was paid means the Council are almost bound to conclude this is not commercial.

So your ex could be going trhrough the appeal process for nothing!