Daughter moving back to area - how to find her a home

WWFC1887

Hi, I’m looking for advice on ways to help my daughter. Any help or pointers would be great. Apologies for length but background may help. She has a physical health diagnosis and past mental health diagnoses. She receives maximum PIP and other benefits as it is considered she cannot work. She is private renting with a friend 200 miles away from me but as her health has deteriorated, she needs more care and her friend (who has been great over the years) wants to move in with her boyfriend. My daughter wants to come back to where I live.

Her benefits and housing benefit mean she can afford a flat privately but where we are the demand far outstrips supply and we have been told by a letting agent that no private landlord will rent to anyone on benefits/disabled as they always have so many prospective to choose from so just rent to good salary/permanent contract people. I can see why. Citing discrimination won’t help as it’s not a refusal to rent a property that would otherwise remain vacant, it’s just picking one of many applicants.

Daughter has applied to join council house list here – she has a local connection case and a ‘lets rent’ scheme as she is arguably likely to be homeless because living with me is a problem, both on house layout not having a toilet/bathroom on the same floor as the bedroom and my wife (her step mum) saying it can’t happen. If it was up to me, she could live in the lounge/diner, the only downstairs room except bathroom and kitchen. Living with her biological mum also complex as she (daughter's mum) has very early onset dementia and needs more and more care in the home and soon will have to move to a supported living arrangement. The house would work logistically but the psychological impact on my daughter and her mum would be huge. No other family to take my daughter in. I assume any council backed home will be years away.

I have considered renting a property for my daughter and I to live in. I could afford it but only if our house is sold as it has £130K outstanding mortgage on a £280K value house so I can’t pay mortgage and rent. My daughter can’t get housing benefit if not on a tenancy and so can’t help pay the rent. If we joint applied, I’m told it would look ‘weird’ to a lettings agency or landlord so we’d never get a look in.

A nuclear option is my wife and I sell our house and we both rent or buy, and I live with my daughter. Renting is doable, more for me than my wife and whilst my wife and I recognise our marriage is toxic at times and we’d be happier living separately, my wife does not want a divorce and a drop in living standards. I can see that.

I appreciate my daughter’s best option might be to ask the council where she is for help and short term that might work. I can go up and see her, but I worry about her mental health as her friendships have dwindled and her level of disability is such that she is effectively housebound and at times cannot leave her bed. On her own that could be catastrophic.

So my questions are:

Is it true that private rentals now in effect exclude the disabled/benefits/zero hours contracts etc?

If I rented a place could my daughter live with me but not on the tenancy or would I be subletting?

My wife and I are mid 50s. If we sold our house are there any schemes such as part ownership that mean my wife could buy part of a place each that would leave enough each month to live as she does now. I think older people’s shared ownership has ended? We’d have maybe £60k capital each (we have no savings) after house sale. I could give her all the capital perhaps IF I could rent with my daugher? My wife has £2200 take home.

Thanks in advance.

 

 

poppy123456

That's a long thread and difficult to follow but i will try my best.

It's not unusual for landlords to refuse those claiming benefits and over the years it's just got worse. Letting agencies are the worst to look at in my opinion. You maybe better off looking else where, such as gumtree (watch out for scammers) or even your local Authority who may have a list of landlords that accept those claiming benefits. There are some landlords out there but if they do accept them then they will likely ask for a guarantor.

If she moves out of her local Authority she will need to claim Universal Credit for help with any rent, unless she's living in either supported or temporary housing. This will then end any Income Related benefits she's claiming after 2 weeks.

You could find somewhere to live with her but she could only claim for help with any rent this way if she's named on the tenancy agreement or has proof of liability to pay rent. The only issue i see with this is again landlords may not accept her as a benefit claimant.

If it's only your name on the tenancy agreement and she lives with you then she will not be able to claim for help with any rent but there's no rules that she can't live with you.

As a single person she may find the wait for social housing to be many years. She could refer herself for a needs assessment but i don't know how this would work as she wants to move 200 miles away.

There are part ownership homes available but you will need to search to see what's available in your local area.

newborn

Has she asked her own area council for help to avoid becoming homeless? They have all the housing obligation for her. Your council may or may not do something under local connection, but I wonder if she is best to stay put and let her existing council take on thejob of findinng the answer. If she is given a council place there, she could then (after a year trial tenancy??) advertise for a mutual exchange council swap to be nearer to you.

Or, can she and her friend find someone to move in with her and take over the other half of the tenancy where she is? I know it does not seem like it, but in many ways your daughter is lucky. She has a caring father and caring friend, and she has, amazingly, her half of an affordable private tenancy. That is a lottery win in itself.   

Millions are homeless and the population goes up by nearly 1.3 million a year given visas to arrive, and all the others who arrive anyway, some under the radar, and some telling authorities they are here, meaning councils must house them at once.  Homes cannot be built faster than unlimited numbers of people arrive to fill them.  

rebel11

There is difficulty in this, just an idea. There is strict criteria, but you never know, they may say yes. Again there might not be a property in your area, but worth investigating, become a 'guardian' of a property - just Google 'Live in Guardians', contact some of the companies.