Can an elderly mother sell her house and give her son some/all of the money?

newan · 13 July 2014 at 8:54PM

Thanks for the reply Hunnie, yes that is quite the case. She doesn't need the house anymore, and would quite prefer to live somewhere close to a couple of her friends and the church etc. I'd love to be able to give her some good news but feel that if she did release some money to her son then it could come to haunt her later on. I read earlier about deprivation of assets, that they could consider you purposefully spending large amounts of money on holidays and leading an extravagant lifestyle to avoid paying care home charges and it would count against you in your means testing. If they go to that extreme when assessing your finances I can't see how giving her son a lump sum of money will be dismissed by them.

hunnie · 13 July 2014 at 10:24PM

Hi, Is her house worth a great deal?
Making a trust years ago suggests the house is quite valuable.
Could she downsize so that the new smaller property becomes the focus of any assets and give her son the difference.

g6jns_2 · 13 July 2014 at 10:59PM

newan wrote: »

Not sure if this is the right section for this.

An elderly lady me and my partener know wishes to give her son, who lives in germany, some money to help him through a difficult period in his life, he's 60+ years of age and has lived in germany for 40 years, the lady has always lived in uk. She is ready to go into sheltered accommodation and wants to sell her home and give her son as much of the money as she is allowed, her estate would be worth less than 325k, probably closer to 250k. Her pension will comfortably cover her rent in a sheltered flat and other living costs, plus any capital she keeps back for herself from the house sale. What she is worried about is if in the future she is put into a residential or nursing home will her son have to pay the fee's?? She is absolutely desperate to help her son have a comfortable life while she is still alive, and is completely confused by the whole thing.
Any advice would be appreciated as her health is suffering due to the worry of her situation.

Because this involves a trust she needs paid for professional advice from an expert the field. They may be able to provide a solution. It is certainly not a task to DIY. based on advice from here. Unless they have a specific qualification in trust law the average solicitor will be out of their depth.

newan · 13 July 2014 at 11:15PM

hunnie wrote: »

Hi, Is her house worth a great deal?
Making a trust years ago suggests the house is quite valuable.
Could she downsize so that the new smaller property becomes the focus of any assets and give her son the difference.

About 220k I think, I don't think she just wants to downsize, there is a place near the town centre that she likes, nice little sheltered flats, knows a couple ladies already there etc.

newan · 13 July 2014 at 11:23PM

g6jns wrote: »

Because this involves a trust she needs paid for professional advice from an expert the field. They may be able to provide a solution. It is certainly not a task to DIY. based on advice from here. Unless they have a specific qualification in trust law the average solicitor will be out of their depth.

She has had conflicting advice from two different solicitors and has subsequently lost confidence in what they are telling her she can and can't do. I do agree though, after reading about trusts and deprivation of assets etc today I am starting to see it is something you can't know the outcome beforehand.
She has been told by the solicitor firm that hold the trust deeds that she can come out of it though, and then sell the property as normal. Although at the moment the trust is doing it's job...if anything was to happen in the short term the house would go to the son, although I'm not 100% on wether he would have to pay a tax of any kind.

Savvy_Sue · 14 July 2014 at 12:36AM

She ought to be able to rely on the advice from the solicitors who hold the trust deeds though: the others cannot advise unless they've seen the documentation.

And the beauty of advice you pay for is that you can rely on it: in other words you can sue the pants off them if they get it wrong.

dancingfairy · 14 July 2014 at 7:21AM

If she needed to move into a care home and had a financial assessment my understanding is that the council would assume she had access to the money she had given away so would be likely to refuse to fund. The care home would then treat it as a private case and chase the residents relatives for the money or whoever has power of attorney. If the fees are still not paid and build up then the home is able to issue notice and ask the resident to leave. At this point I believe social services would become involved due to the homelessness and welfare issues. They would then try and find a new placement or try and negotiate with the current home. They are likely to end up paying for any ongoing fees (and possibly the arrears) but would then need to decide on what basis they were going to pay. They would need to decide whether they were going to pay themselves or whether they would need to recover the money from the family (perhaps by court?).
That's my understanding of how the process would work anyway.
df

dandelionclock30 · 14 July 2014 at 7:57AM

The majority of elderly people do not end up in nursing homes.
She needs to go and discuss all this with a solicitor who can advise her properly and who is impartial.
If you are a good friend find a solicitor for her who is knowlegable in these issues and make her an appointment. Let her go in alone.
I'm always suspicious of friends of the elderly who involve themselves in any manner in their money issues. Get her the proper advise then she can make her own informed choice.

newan · 14 July 2014 at 10:24AM

dancingfairy wrote: »

If she needed to move into a care home and had a financial assessment my understanding is that the council would assume she had access to the money she had given away so would be likely to refuse to fund. The care home would then treat it as a private case and chase the residents relatives for the money or whoever has power of attorney. If the fees are still not paid and build up then the home is able to issue notice and ask the resident to leave. At this point I believe social services would become involved due to the homelessness and welfare issues. They would then try and find a new placement or try and negotiate with the current home. They are likely to end up paying for any ongoing fees (and possibly the arrears) but would then need to decide on what basis they were going to pay. They would need to decide whether they were going to pay themselves or whether they would need to recover the money from the family (perhaps by court?).
That's my understanding of how the process would work anyway.
df

I wonder if she kept enough of the money back for herself to pay for some care home fee's should the need arise, would they still chase any gift payments made in the past once that money runs out? I think in an ideal world she just wants to give her son all the money, or most of it at least, and receive help with care home charges should she need it in the future.
Tbh, I think the trust she has in place is a good idea, that way her son will get the house eventually, but it's not what she wants anymore.

newan · 14 July 2014 at 10:31AM

dandelionclock30 wrote: »

The majority of elderly people do not end up in nursing homes.
She needs to go and discuss all this with a solicitor who can advise her properly and who is impartial.
If you are a good friend find a solicitor for her who is knowlegable in these issues and make her an appointment. Let her go in alone.
I'm always suspicious of friends of the elderly who involve themselves in any manner in their money issues. Get her the proper advise then she can make her own informed choice.

Tbh I don't want to involve myself that far, she has a solicitor and has spoken with them but she doesn't trust them for various reasons. I think the solicitor said she could come out of the trust, sell her house and give her son the money, then a family friend told her it might cause problems in the future with care home charges, so she feels the solicitor didn't tell her the whole story. I'd not feel comfortable finding her another solicitor in case that didn't work out and she'd paid out even more money. I'd rather just offer her some advice with regards to how the care home charges system works, and anything else she isn't sure about. She just wants piece of mind, to know what she can and can't do with her money, and we've certainly not involved ourselves, wouldn't dream of it.

Can an elderly mother sell her house and give her son some/all of the money?

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