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laylag

Hi all.
My mum is recently out of a long divorce where she was left our old family home as settlement. She is living in Limerick and on the state pension. Her life savings were used up throughout the divorce proceedings. The house has not been maintained over the years and it is very run down, full of damp, roof problems, no heat, no insulation...it basically needs to be gutted. The house has a mortgage of about 40k against it. She put the house on the market and after a year or so an offer was made for about 190k (while very run down the property is on 3/4 of an acre and in a nice area in the countryside). There is also a judgement of approx 20k outstanding to come out of the sale of the house in relation to a business that my parents once owned which my mum is having to cover solely as my dad is not acknowledging anything. (Long story).
This will leave her with approx 120k after legal fees are deducted etc and looking online there is very little in the way of housing in this price bracket. Does anyone have any advice as to how she could best get somewhere to live or does anyone know if she is entitled to any allowances etc? I am clueless when it comes to these things. Renting would only be a short term solution as her only income is the state pension. I am so worried about her as she has been through the mill to get this house and we had hoped she would have enough to get some decent accommodation to live in.
Any advice at all would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

splinter65

Is she on a con or non con pension right now?
Does she own the house she is living in right now?

laylag

splinter65 wrote:

Is she on a con or non con pension right now? Does she own the house she is living in right now?

She's just on state pension..she hasn't contributed to a pension fund sadly. Yes she owns the house now, there's mortgage arrears of around 40/45k owed on it though.

splinter65

So she’s on a contributory Pension (which is not means tested) as opposed to a non con pension (which is means tested) and she’s currently living in a house with 40000+ mortgage on it, and she’s going to come into about 120000 from the sale of another house.
Is that a correct summing up of her circumstances?

laylag

splinter65 wrote:

So she’s on a contributory Pension (which is not means tested) as opposed to a non con pension (which is means tested) and she’s currently living in a house with 40000+ mortgage on it, and she’s going to come into about 120000 from the sale of another house. Is that a correct summing up of her circumstances?

Sorry I wasnt clear. There is one house only. She is living in it currently but has it on the market and has accepted an offer on it. It has 40k arrears on it so she will be left with 120k after the sale goes through and at this point she will have no house.

mp22

Lets try and answer the pension question first please ....contributory or non-contributory.

splinter65

laylag wrote: »

Sorry I wasnt clear. There is one house only. She is living in it currently but has it on the market and has accepted an offer on it. It has 40k arrears on it so she will be left with 120k after the sale goes through and at this point she will have no house.

It makes a huge difference at this stage OP wether her pension is con or non con.
If you don’t know or your not sure then ask your mam. If she doesn’t know then you need to find out.

laylag

splinter65 wrote:

It makes a huge difference at this stage OP wether her pension is con or non con. If you don’t know or your not sure then ask your mam. If she doesn’t know then you need to find out.

Thanks. I've asked her and it's a non con pension. Any advice you have will be greatly appreciated!

splinter65

Ok so she will have 120k after the sale of her home and she has a non con pension.
Non con means that she has a pension based on her “need” financially. So ordinarily having 120000 would mean that she doesn’t need any pension at the moment and once she has informed pensions in Sligo (as she is obliged by law to do) that she has sold her house, they would stop her pension and expect her to live off this money.
However the fact that it is the proceeds of the sale of the house means that they won’t do this, but will give her a certain amount of time to buy another property to live in with that money.
The most important thing right now is that she engages with Sligo 1890500000 follow the prompts to non con state pension and tell them about her change in circumstances and they will take it from there.