Anyone live in a council house or know how they work?

A2Z

A2Z

A2Z

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As I have no idea.

A friend is a bit worried as their parents live in a council house, and pay some sort of 'part time rent because they only work part time', so apparently not the 'full' rent. Reason for the worry is about 5/6 years ago my friend got kicked out of the house and apparently 'taken off the house list' whatever that means? Some sort of tenancy agreement? Is that right?

Anyway they went and stayed with a friend for a bit then made up with the parents and split their time 50/50 staying at said friends house and the parents house for the last few years. All bills, driving licence etc address is still the parents house.

Said friend is now looking to get a mortgage to buy a house and is worried if they put their current address down as the parents house they might get into some sort of trouble for living there but not being named anywhere, and be asked to pay backdated rent from years ago? I would have thought a bank would have no interest in this.

Does this all sound right? Tried to get more details/told them to get the council tenancy or whatever it's called but they are unable to.

Can anyone shed some light on the situation as I have 0 experience with council houses.

Thanks!
 
His parents could be liable for the unpaid half rent for the last few years he has been living there, depends on circumstances.
 
Where is this friend on the electoral register? If they’ve been on at the parents house and the local authority haven’t picked up on it, I doubt a mortgage application will suddenly have any effect.

If they’re not on the electoral register anywhere, then your friend will probably struggle to get a mortgage, as it’s a basic necessity to pass a credit check.
 
I last lived in a Council flat, or Local Authority accommodation around 1969, so I’m neither au fait with how they “work” now, nor can I remember how they “worked” then, other than I paid the rent required, every week.
So I’m at pains to understand what the OP meant by ‘part time rent’, as they only work part time.
I appreciate that it was almost 50 years ago, but I’m pretty sure that if I had a week off sick, the Council didn’t give me a week of accommodation at a reduced rent rate.
 
your "friend" is going to Parkhurst for defrauding the social out of housing benefit. Mortgages will be the least of his worries when he is banged up in a cell with big bubba from D wing
 
We grew up in council houses, my nan had a council house and at 14 I moved in with her so I could care for her. As time went on I moved out at 26 into my own house, my younger brothers moved in and cared for her.

None of us appeared on the paperwork for the house so when she died we had no right to buy or live there, but it never bothered me when I went to get a mortgage.

They may want the past X years of previous addresses but that's it. If anyone asks, it was a postal address only with him visiting occasionally.
 
If the parents claim housing benefit and said friend was working then it should have been declared so that the council could properly calculate the amount due.

As for a "list" that usually refers to a council house waiting list that is completely irrelevant.

The bank will have no interest in checking with the council if you are legally living there.

Also I doubt the electoral roll record is at the parents address anyway as the council would likely have queried it before.
 
A2Z said:
As I have no idea.

A friend is a bit worried as their parents live in a council house, and pay some sort of 'part time rent because they only work part time', so apparently not the 'full' rent. Reason for the worry is about 5/6 years ago my friend got kicked out of the house and apparently 'taken off the house list' whatever that means? Some sort of tenancy agreement? Is that right?

Anyway they went and stayed with a friend for a bit then made up with the parents and split their time 50/50 staying at said friends house and the parents house for the last few years. All bills, driving licence etc address is still the parents house.

Said friend is now looking to get a mortgage to buy a house and is worried if they put their current address down as the parents house they might get into some sort of trouble for living there but not being named anywhere, and be asked to pay backdated rent from years ago? I would have thought a bank would have no interest in this.

Does this all sound right? Tried to get more details/told them to get the council tenancy or whatever it's called but they are unable to.

Can anyone shed some light on the situation as I have 0 experience with council houses.

Thanks!
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Just because you have things registered at an address =/= you are liable for rent.

I would say your friend wouldn't have spent exactly 50% of his time at either property, in most cases people have a "main" gaff that they store their belongings, unless he is a drifter.

He could argue that he has been couch surfing and uses the address to collect mail and register for things, but the onus would be on him to prove it.

As far as a mortgage company is concerned they have an obligation to protect their clients data, they have no reason to "taddle" on your parents to the local council or benefit system.
 
If the reason for the reduced rent is because they're part time workers (seems odd, but whatever), I don't see what difference having their child living there would make to any benefits they recieved, but because it sounds like a strange situation about how they're getting a reduced rent there might have be caveats written into whatever tenancy agreement they are under, saying something like; rent is dependant on number of occupants or something, I don't know without more information.

I went back to living at my parents house after I broke up with my girlfriend, just put my name on the electoral roll, I don't think I was ever put officially onto the tenancy. I don't know if my parents claimed housing benefit but I don't think they did, because I know there was that plan about taking into account all the workings peoples wages into calculating it and I was earning in the 40% tax bracket so was worried about that effecting them. I got a mortgage for my own house at the end of 2016 no problem.
 
Mucky_Pup said:
If the reason for the reduced rent is because they're part time workers (seems odd, but whatever), I don't see what difference having their child living there would make to any benefits they recieved, but because it sounds like a strange situation about how they're getting a reduced rent there might have be caveats written into whatever tenancy agreement they are under, saying something like; rent is dependant on number of occupants or something, I don't know without more information.

I went back to living at my parents house after I broke up with my girlfriend, just put my name on the electoral roll, I don't think I was ever put officially onto the tenancy. I don't know if my parents claimed housing benefit but I don't think they did, because I know there was that plan about taking into account all the workings peoples wages into calculating it and I was earning in the 40% tax bracket so was worried about that effecting them. I got a mortgage for my own house at the end of 2016 no problem.
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Once a child becomes an adult and starts working the total income for the house increases and it will have an effect on benefits/rent. As you say though, it really comes down to the tenancy agreement.
 
it's amazing how people go crazy about people defrauding the system and then the advice given on here is keep quiet and defraud the system.

you cannot have it both ways. your friend hasn't done anything wrong. however their parents have. their parents have committed fraud.

there is no come back on your friend.
 
Mucky_Pup said:
If the reason for the reduced rent is because they're part time workers (seems odd, but whatever), I don't see what difference having their child living there would make to any benefits they recieved, but because it sounds like a strange situation about how they're getting a reduced rent there might have be caveats written into whatever tenancy agreement they are under, saying something like; rent is dependant on number of occupants or something, I don't know without more information.

I went back to living at my parents house after I broke up with my girlfriend, just put my name on the electoral roll, I don't think I was ever put officially onto the tenancy. I don't know if my parents claimed housing benefit but I don't think they did, because I know there was that plan about taking into account all the workings peoples wages into calculating it and I was earning in the 40% tax bracket so was worried about that effecting them. I got a mortgage for my own house at the end of 2016 no problem.
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it would be dependant on household income, etc.

they will have been getting benefits based on just 2 of them living there. whereas in reality 3 have been and the third works full time. they won't have declared this otherwise it would have increased said rent.
 
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