No access to funds

Hi,

I currently have a case which has dragged on for so long I was hoping maybe someone on here would have some tips how to 1) - move this case on quicker 2) have some idea how to help our appeal be successful.

The client in question inherited 1/6 of her late Mothers property in 2010. This has since caused major problems with both Income support (Claimed this due to being in receipt of Carers Allowance) and HB. This is due to it being deemed that she has £36,000 in this property.
The tenant does not live in this 3 bed property any more as it was not suitable for her and her autistic son. The only person living in this property is the tenants Sister. HB stopped due to it being deemed she had over £16,000 and this has led to her being is a serious amount of arrears. Income Support has also stopped for the same reason. The major issue is that the other 5 siblings do not wish to dispose of this property and therefore the tenant cant take her part of the money from this property.

I have appealed this to the HB department and gave my reasons to why this case is very complex and we believe that due to the tenant having no access to funds there should be HB in payment. This case has been with myself for nearly 4 months and HB department do need seem to see how critical it is we get a decision soon. The tenant is likely to be evicted soon if there is not a positive decision.

In the appeal I have explained the reasons to why the tenant cannot dispose of the property. I have more info on this but hope that is enough for some helpful responses.

Thanks

Two lines of attack
Is the interest worth £36k? Everything has a value even if that is £0. With complications selling this may greatly reduce the value below £36k. I assume the LA have simply valued the property without these complications and apportioned a share. It it will be your argument to show this value to be incorrect. There is case law on this. One criticism of this approach is that the value could be established or realised if legal advice or action was taken to dispose of the property on open sale or to the other owners. If this was done the property could simply be disregarded under HB Sch 6 para f.  You also need to look at the sister to see if Sch 6 4(a) can apply to also disregard it. I’m not sure simply stating the value cannot be accessed would be enough in itself.

We won :)

Good news.

My assumption would be that the tribunal applied the correct test of the value as being that of a quick sale from a willing seller (of which there is clearly only 1) to a willing buyer (that could only be one of the other 5) bearing in mind the property is already occupied. Value therefore negligible.