Renting to family. — Scope | Disability forum
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Renting to family.

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TeddyB22
TeddyB22 Community member Posts: 178 Courageous
edited March 2021 in Universal Credit (UC)
My brother lives in my other brother's house. He had asked him to claim the housing element of UC. He has lived there rent free for over a year. UC tell him it is a 'contrived rent' & don't believe he has been letting my brother stay for nothing. A local MP also said that you can't rent to relatives. I'm sure both are wrong. My Mum rented off my uncle for years before the brother that I'm speaking of became her landlord (though she claims HB on legacy).
If they don't pay the rent my brother is going to sell.
It's putting a real strain on our relationships. I think not charging rent for a year while he looked for work was noble but he is taking advantage now. He's had 3 jobs that hes walked out on & now has applied for PIP.
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  • calcotti
    calcotti Community member Posts: 10,010 Disability Gamechanger
    edited March 2021
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    If the two brothers live in separate houses and he has been living there rent free but now wants to charge rent that will undoubtedly be seen as a contrived tenancy and no housing element is payable.
    https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/969171/admf2.pdf
    F2140 A claimant will be treated as not liable to make any payment or payments where the DM is satisfied that the claimant’s liability to make the payments was contrived1 in order to
    1. secure the HCE in an award of or
    2. increase the amount of the HCE in an award of UC.
    if they live in the same house then housing element is not payable regardless of other circumstances.
    F2105 A claimant will be treated as not liable to make rent payments where the liability is owed to a person who lives in the accommodation and who is...
    3. a close relative of
    3.1 the claimant ...


    Information I post is for England unless otherwise stated. Rules may be different in other parts of UK.
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  • TeddyB22
    TeddyB22 Community member Posts: 178 Courageous
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    Thank you for your reply. I was hoping to move into a house that my brother owns. I was going to claim housing for there. My brother is moving back to Scotland. It's near my Mum who is disabled & it's really hard to get a house there as I'm single & the private rent is quite high.
    Take care.

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  • calcotti
    calcotti Community member Posts: 10,010 Disability Gamechanger
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    It’s not impossible to get help with rent if you rent from a close relative (provided they don’t also live there) but it is hard and certainly can’t be relied on.
    Information I post is for England unless otherwise stated. Rules may be different in other parts of UK.
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  • woodbine
    woodbine Community member Posts: 11,621 Disability Gamechanger
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    The fact that he has lived there rent free for a year will go against him, as above it's hard to prove that renting to/from family isn't a contrived tennancy 
    2024 The year of the general election...the time for change is coming 💡

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