Essential Repairs or alterations - disregarded capital

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge of what constitutes “essential repairs or alterations” in terms of Schedule 6 (paragraph 28)?

Capital to be disregarded:  “Any premises which the claimant intends to occupy as his home to which essential repairs or alterations are required in order to render them fit for such occupation, for a period of 26 weeks from the date on which the claimant first takes steps to effect those repairs or alterations, or such longer period as is necessary to enable those repairs or alterations to be carried out.”

A client owns her own property which she states in not habitable because she has OCD and has a very serious problem with hoarding.  It has been suggested to her that she could claim HB in alternative accommodation while the hoarding problem is dealt with.

My initial thoughts are that this would not constitute essential repairs or alterations, and her home would count as capital (in which case she is well outside of HB as she owns it outright).

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Martin

I am not sure she needs to worry about capital, but she would also have to satisfy Reg 7(4), which allows her to be treated as if she occupies the temporary accommodation despite the fact that her long term normal home is clearly the one being repaired.  It too talks about “essential repairs” so you come up against the same problem.

As far as capital is concerned, I think para 1 of Schedule 6 would cover it because the owned property is the dwelling normally occupied as her home.  For the purpose of satisfying the threshold condition of occupying the dwelling for which she is liable to make payments, Reg 7(4) acts as an exception to the “normal home” rule - it is saying that where the claimant satisfies Reg 7(4) s/he is treated as occupying a dwelling other than the one s/he normally occupies.  But when it comes to disregarding capital, you revert to the actual normal home.  This seems to me to be consistent with the policy intention which is to allow owner occupiers to claim HB for a short period while the house they own is undergoing repairs.  It would deprive that policy of any purpose if all those in a position to benefit from it were in practice excluded by the capital limit.

Still, to bring herself within Reg 7(4) and be eligible in principle for HB on the temp address she needs to get past the “essential repairs” requirement.  I am not aware of any case law turning on “essential repairs” in this context, but there have been one or two which have considered the meaning of the word “adapt” which appears elsewhere in Reg 7 and in those cases the UT has not been persuaded that the word has a flexible meaning depending on the needs of the claimant: the UT has consistently found that “adapting” a dwelling means doing something to the fabric.  I suspect that “repairs” would be viewed in the same way and taken as meaning fixing something structural that is broken.

Outside the Reg 7 context there are a few IS cases concerned with whether a particular job counts as a “repair” qualifying for housing costs support.  R(IS) 16/98 talks about repairs and improvements becoming a fixture of the dwelling (so provision of a fridge was not a repair or improvement).

Unfortunately I dont think the Council will see this as a “repair”, but there is nothing to lose by trying to persuade them.  It is Reg 7 where you need to focus - the capital issue shouldn’t be a problem.

Sorry for the late reply, and thanks very much for your assistance with this