Disregard of a property occupied by relative

Quick question:

Property owned by an HB claimant can be disregarded as an asset if occupied by PC-age relative (Schedule 6 para 4 of the HB regs). Does it make any difference if this is on a commercial basis, i.e. the PC-age relative is paying rent and claiming HB themselves?
(rental income isn’t going to be an issue, after mortgage costs are offset)

It makes no difference to the capital disregard.  You can test this by looking at para 17 of Schedule 5 which says that income from capital generally is disregarded, but not where the capital itself is disregarded under, inter alia, para 4 of Schedule 6.  The obvious way capital disregarded under para 4 of Schedule 6 could generate an income would be in the form of rent from tenants.  So it must be possible for a tenanted property to be disregarded under Schedule 6.4.

The income itself is therefore taken into account, but only after deducting the amounts referred to in subpara (2) of Schedule 5.17.  If that reduces it to nothing, the property has no effect whatsoever on the claimant’s HB.

Excellent, thank you.