Can i rent a house to my girlfriend?

[xanderman]

I own 2 houses, one i live in and the other i'd like to rent out.
My girlfriend is after a place to live and can also claim some housing benefits.
It would be good to kill 2 birds with one stone and have my girlfriend rent my second house with her benefits. but how legitimate is this? obviously i'd want everything to be nice and legal.

[Ethel]

Housing benefit will not be paid if the house is owned by a close relative.

Would the council necessarily know she is your girlfriend?

You don't intend living there as well, surely?

Could get awkward if you split up.

[Eve]

Some of the rules from here...

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/lifeevent/benefits/housi ng_benefit.asp#caniget

What else should I know?
If you have recently come to Great Britain, please first check extra rules if you come from abroad.

If you live with a partner, only one of you can get Housing Benefit.

Unless you are aged 60 or over and receive the guarantee credit of Pension Credit, savings over �16,000 usually mean you cannot get Housing Benefit.

Savings over �3,000 (�6,000 if you or your partner are aged 60 or over) affect how much Housing Benefit you can get. From 10 April 2006, this will increase to �6,000 for all.

There are special rules if you are single and aged under 25 years.

If you have come to the United Kingdom (UK) within two years of your claim, this may affect Housing Benefit.

Most asylum seekers and people who are sponsored to be in the UK cannot get Housing Benefit.

You cannot usually get Housing Benefit if you live in a close relative's household.

You cannot usually get Housing Benefit if you are a full-time student, unless you are disabled or have children.

We use partner to mean a person you are married to or a person you are living with as if you are married to them.

[Eve]

Ps you should check whether letting is permitted under any mortgage you have over the property as well as whether you are allowed to rent to someone on housing benefit.

They would also want her to be on a formal AST, especially as your girlfriend so that she has a formal occupation and cannot claim an accrued interest, either that or sign an occupier's waiver.

An AST would also made the position relating to her occupation of the property more straightforward should you split, however, she accrues rights under the AST such as notice periods.

[Twenty20]

My advice is don't do business like that with friends or family, it nearly always ends in bad feeling. It may seem like a good move at the moment, but it could get really awkward in the future.

[sara3]

if your gf fills in her Housing Benefit forms and states her landlord is also her boyfriend, it will all be above board.

[keyplus90]

I am not sure what Ethel said is correct about renting to close relatives. I know a family, they lived in the house for over 6 years and rent was being paid to private landlord. Then the landlord decided to sell the house. Eldest son of the tenant family who by then was 19 years old decided to buy the house (in fact with father�s help) and rented back to his own father, mother, brother and a sister. Council still paying the rent �1200 a month and he is paying �1350 mortgage. In other words bloody council is paying his mortgage from tax payers money and people like us are working hard to meet to ends.