Terms & Conditions

[davo]

Morning,
landlord has rented her property to her sister while she looks after her other sister in wales. she has mortage on property and will be returning back to her home address within 6 months.
as the landord main addres is still where her sister lives I see it as living with family even though she is temp abscent. can find info re tenants being temp abscent but not potential landlords.
any thoughts on this one.

dave

[andyrichards]

I can sort of see where you are coming from but the problem as I see it is that the two sisters have never actually occupied the property together and never will (if I am reading your description of the scenario correctly). So you would be stretching a point somewhat to argue that they “reside” together within the meaning of Reg 9(1)(b).

[jmembery]

I see your point, but I think you need to look at the tenancy agreement.
If the tenant has exclusive rights to occupy the whole of the property I don’t see how the tenant could be considered to be living with their landlord.

[davo]

to expand on what i did put earlier. the landlord did tell me she was away looking after a sister but previoulsy said it was a sick granny. she cannot give us any documents to say she is living elsewhere and she wants to benefit paid into her bank account so we would not really address to pay the benefit. we think she is still living with her sister but the problem is having the evidence.

[jmembery]

Well, your decision on where the landlord lives will be a finding of fact and must be based upon the evidence you have to hand.

Firstly, has the landlord given you an address where she is caring for the granny/sister? If so have you written to her at that address and did you get a prompt reply?

Has the Council Tax liability for the claim property been changed to that of the tenant? If so have they claimed a single person discount?

Whose name are the utility bills in?

Have you visited the property? If so, where are the landlord’s clothes etc? All packed up or still in the wardrobes?

Note down all the information you have, make a decision based upon it and record your reason’s why.

You can even try using CH/1786/2005 to support a “still resident” decision if that is what you do decide.

[Author]

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