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B-228860,B-229281 1 (1988-08-19)

handle is hein.gao/gaobadneh0001 and id is 1 raw text is: The Comptroller General of the United States Washington, D.C. 20548 Decision Variable Housing Allowance - Allowable Expenses Matterof- for Offset File: B-228860, B-229281 Date: August 19, 1988 DIGEST 1. A service member married a woman who owned a house with a first and second mortgage on it, and it became their family residence. She had been previously married, and she had taken the second mortgage to pay her former husband an amount due him in their community property settlement whereby she retained the house after their divorce. The regulation defining monthly housing costs for purposes of computing a uniformed service member's variable housing allowance (VHA) excludes the cost of a second mortgage taken for other than repairing, renovating or enlarging a resi- dence since VHA is an allowance to help a member pay for housing in a high-cost area, not to satisfy a community property settlement. Neither may the second mortgage in these circumstances be considered a mortgage taken for the initial purchase of a residence. 2. The definition of monthly housing costs for purposes of computing a variable housing allowance (VHA) may not include a cost for the interest or other return on investment a service member loses for the money he puts down upon pur- chasing his residence (a so-called opportunity cost). In promulgating the VHA regulations, the services chose not to include opportunity costs, and it was within their latitude under the law to do so. DECISION This case concerns two separate but related requests for advance decisions forwarded to us by the Per Diem, Travel and Transportation Allowance Committee regarding whether certain expenses may be included in the member's housing costs in computing variable housing allowances (VHA) author- ized members of the uniformed services to help defray their -~~c T //3 QL42-

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