lone parent cut and inheriting

hello, this is my first time posting here and am hoping to get some advice or help,

I was left a quarter share in my late mothers house ,

Im living on lone parent and its been cut by 80e per week . I have two children to support and dont work at present.

I receive no money from the rent of house as it goes into a seperate account for repairs and upkeep, which there has been a lot.

I have no savings etc or other money .i pay rent to council; 45 euro perweek , esb, oil food etc allout of this,


I have appealed and am awaiting reply, but have been told the social welfare are following their own rules, by citizens advice. they had no other advice.

Would i be able to transfer my quarter share to my childrens name - or some thing else on that line , so we have enough to live on?


Has anyone any help or LEGAL ADVICE on this or how it can be overcome? It would be appreciated .

the way it is, it has no benefit to us,
and we are left with very little to live on>

thanks for any help in adavance.











/

If you have been left a quarter share in the house, can the house be sold so that you can release the money?

at moment none of the others want to sell as the house is worth half of what it was and there all hoping for this to change.

Good luck with that plan

First thing is to make sure that they are assessing the value of the property at its correct price, property prices continue to fall. If they have assessed it an unrealistic value, you can ask for a reassessment/review.

You won't be able to just transfer it to someone else like a child, you would be considered as having deliberately deprived yourself of assets and would still have the value assessed against you.

There are a number of different ways of having a property not assessed against you. The main one is if it is your primary residence. Are you able to move into the house? If so, then it won't be assessed against you.

The other main way would be if the property was up for sale, but you have indicated that this is not an option at the minute.

Also if you were literally unable to sell the property, as opposed to just not wanting to sell it, then you could make a case that as things currently stand the property is of no value to you, and should be assessed at zero. As you stand to profit from any notional gain in value of the property then the Department aren't likely to look upon this favourably, but it might be worth a try if nothing else works, and you could appeal the decision to the Social Welfare APpeals Office if unsuccessful although that takes a year or more.

The other practical step you could take would be to sell your share of the house to the other family members. That would at least release your share of the capital, and would allow your capital to slowly deplete, therefore resulting in less of a reduction in as your funds get lower (although you will have to regularly request a review to make sure that the lower amount is assessed). Or if you used the proceeds to buy a house yourself, or pay off any outstanding mortgage that you may have, then it wouldn't be assessed against you.

Alternatively, if none of this sounds possible, then you could ask the other family members to offset your reduction by paying up a notional rent against your share of the property. After all, its their reluctance to sell that is preventing you from releasing your capital and that is costing you money.

Hope there's something in the above that is helpful.

Also, do you get a rent or mortgage supplement at the minute? If so, then make sure that you tell them about the inheritance, as they will want to review your entitlement to the supplement and will reduce your payment accordingly.

Ildanach , thanks for your helpful advice. I will look into the options you suggested.

bluetang said:

at moment none of the others want to sell as the house is worth half of what it was and there all hoping for this to change.

Click to expand...

So much wrong with this. If it takes 20 years to go back to boom time prices will you all keep it that long? Is there a time frame agreed with your siblings. What if a major repair has to be done, who is going to fund this.

As it seems to be of no benefit to you then you should get your siblings to buy you out or force a sale.

A house held by many and managed by one will in general only lead to more problems down the road. Far better to sort it out now.