Got the chance of a rented house

[Spent2much]

It's with a private landlord, its a new build and its £520 a month, we would potentially get HB which would bring the rent down to £324 a month.

At the moment we are paying £480 mortgage with no help.

If we wanted to take this house and just let this one go would we be classed as making ourselves homeless, also would they refuse HB as the rent is higher than the mortgage. We are at the moment paying off arrears and have been struggling to pay on time .

If we let the house go or hand back the keys the charge then becomes an unsecured debt again dosn't it ? also any shortfall from the sale will come back on us but will also be unsecured?

Also if we have no assets the creditors can't really do much , our business is next to nothing and is in my husbands sole name (sole trader) not a Ltd company.

thoughts anyone please and thank you

[Spent2much]

Re: Got the chance of a rented house

'Intentionally homeless' is only relevant when you are applying for social housing either from the Council or through a Housing Association, not when renting privately.

Neither selling your home nor paying a rent higher than your former mortgage are criteria for refusing Housing Benefit. If you have a tenancy agreement and meet the income and capital criteria you should be entitled to it. It is the proceeds from the sale of your house that could affect your entitlement, depending on how much you have left.

The maximum amount of HB you can get is determined by your Local Housing Allowance (LHA), I think I posted about this the other day but here it is --> LHADirect - Local Housing Allowance (LHA) : Directgov - Do it online. You need to find your area by town or postcode, in this case 'your area' is where the NEW house you will be renting is located, not where the OLD house you're selling is.

A single person over 34 or a couple only qualify for the rate payable for a one bedroom flat. If there are more people (children or adults) normally living with you this could be the rate for 2 or 3 bedrooms. This is called the bedroom entitlement and you should be able to find how much your maximum entitlement is based on the above. If you have any income or capital (including proceeds from the sale of your house) over a certain amount (normally £6k) you may have deductions from your HB.

If your rent is more than your entitlement you'll still get your HB, only you'll have to be prepared to pay the shortfall from your own savings. I know someone who has a £200/mth shortfall, as long as you are able to pay the rent it should be OK.

But from the above it would appear you estimate your HB entitlement to be just £200/month. How did you arrive to that figure of a £324/month shortfall?

With regards to charges and mortgage shortfalls, if you don't own any property then they can't be secured on anything, however, do bear in mind the Statute of Limitations for mortgage shortfalls is 12 years rather than 6!

£324 i did it on turn2us based on the wages, working tax credits and the hb entitlement and it calculated it for me. It's only me and hubby so we are entitled to one bedroom HB