I'm looking into this issue for some-one else at the moment. This is what I have found so far with regards to housing benefit for family member landlords. I live in a property owned by a family member - can I claim housing benefit? If you live in a property owned by a family member and pay them rent, you may be entitled to housing benefit. However, this will not be the case if you (or your partner) are responsible for a child and are renting from the other parent of that child. The council will also want to check: that you're paying rent on a commercial basis. In other words, that it's a proper tenancy, not just an informal arrangement between family. that the arrangement has not been set up in order to take advantage of the housing benefit system - this is called a 'contrived tenancy'. For example, if your landlord only asks you to pay rent when you are not working (and so are eligible for housing benefit), but not when you are working (and earning too much to claim housing benefit), this would be a contrived tenancy. The main issue with these claims is whether or not the claim is 'contrived'. The tenancy agreement must be a 'legally enforceable' agreement, which the local authority/rent officer will scrutinise to find anything which they can reject the claim on. From what I can gather, the family member tenant, must be treated in the same way as an unknown tenant would be with a commercial tenancy, including eviction procedure for non payment of rent, etc. Unfortunately, even with these regulations being adhered to, some councils/local authorities appear to be making the decision of 'contrivement' based on the fact the tenant is a family member. This fact alone is not a basis for refusal of Housing Benefit being awarded, according to guidance and regulations. The CPAG website, has a 7 day free trial, of the online welfare benefits and tax credits handbook 2011. I would suggest you have a look at the guidance in there before attempting to procede with this. (I think it's in chapter 10). I completely agree with sidewinder, and the current environment theory.

Another question and update. Santander have now accepted a cheque with 3 months payments. Thought I would send in a cheque to see if they would accept payments from me and they have. Does this mean I still have an agreement with Santander or not?

Hi there, thanks for your reply. I presume from my paper work that it must be a regulated agreement as it states 'Conditional Sale Agreement Regulated By The Consumer Credit Act 1974'. The original amount of credit was £6674 and total payable was £8958. I have paid 15 months of payments totalling £2190.15 along with 2 late payment charges of £60. I paid an additional £50 after I had received the Default Notice. I had also explained when I made the payment that I would have to catch up on the payments they had not collected from my bank account and that they should continue to debit my account for the monthly payments. On the Termination of Agreement letter it states 'We are now entitled to take back the goods you hold under this agreement and therefore we now demand the return of the goods. Please contact us immediately to arrange for our collection of the goods. IF THE GOODS ARE NOT RETURNED IMMEDIATELY, WE CAN TAKE THEM BACK OR IF NECESSARY, WE WILL TAKE LEGAL ACTION TO RECOVER THEM. YOU MAY BE LIABLE FOR THE COSTS OF THIS LEGAL ACTION.' I have not received anything further to this letter. I hope this info helps but if you need to know anything else, please just ask. Again many thanks.

Hi there, I am new here and I'm wondering if anyone can give me advice on my best course of action. I have or had a HP agreement with Santander. I paid monthly by direct debit, however, in August I received a letter stating my payment was in arrears. I phoned them to querie this. They told me that the direct debit was cancelled. As I had not cancelled it, I contacted my bank, to find that they had not cancelled it either. It was also showing as active on my online account. I called Santander back to inform them of this and asked them to continue to debit my account. When I looked at my account the last payment to be debited by them was in May 2010. Stupidly, I rarely looked at my full bank statements as I receive them online and had a tendency to only pay attention to the available balance section. I have since then received a Default Notice in late August. I called them again as they had still not debited my account. I gave them a payment (not a full payment) and again instructed them to debit my account as the account was still active and that I would have to catch up with the backdated payments. I then received a Termination of Agreement Notice in September. I called them again and they told me I could no longer make any payments as the account was passed over to debt collections. They gave me another number to call. When I phoned the number it was a Car Repossession Company who would only accept full payment or my car. I went to my bank and a member of staff phoned Santander and argued with them for about 20 minutes that the account had not been cancelled and that they had failed to debit my account. She also told them that if they had debited my account when they were supposed to that they would have received the payments. They just ended the conversation by giving her the telephone number for debt collections (the Car Repossession Company) and told her I should phone them to sort it out. I should add that I would prefer to keep my car. I need it for my work. I know this is rather long winded but any help would be really, truly appreciated. (I have not paid a third of the finance yet and I have moved the car off the public road.) Thanks. Maria