Mirror wills

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retiredandskint
retiredandskint Posts: 845 Forumite
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My DH and I have mirror wills, is if he goes first everything goes to and vice versa. My husband has dementia and whilst I'm hoping to care for him at home realistically I can see this may not always be the case.

We don't have a large cash fund, although DH has a drawdown pension, we do own our home jointly. I accept that if DH needs care he will have to pay for it and I don't have an issue with that. What concerns me is, if a charge is put on his share of the house and I wish to downsize, would I be able to keep sufficient funds to buy another property and pay the costs incurred or would they, whoever they are, take their share first.

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  • greyfox
    greyfox Posts: 482 Forumite
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    If your husband goes into a care home, the value of your home would be disregarded (ignored) when the council work out his contribution to the fees. There shouldn't be any question of a charge being put on the property under the current rules.
  • Lorian
    Lorian Posts: 5,706 Forumite
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    retiredandskint wrote: »
    I accept that if DH needs care he will have to pay for it and I don't have an issue with that

    Worth reading this if his care requirements become primarily medical.

    https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/info/20032/legal_and_financial/848/what_is_nhs_continuing_healthcare
  • Mojisola
    Mojisola Posts: 35,557 Forumite
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    AgeUK have lots of useful information like this -
    http://www.ageuk.org.uk/home-and-care/care-homes/paying-for-permanent-residential-care/
  • CommyTooper
    CommyTooper Posts: 57 Forumite
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    retiredandskint wrote: »
    ?....we do own our home jointly?........
    We also have mirror wills. Our home is registered with us as Tenants in Common, not Joint Tenants, on the advice of our solicitor.
    That way we stand a better chance of keeping our home in the event of any charges being levied on it for care. How it achieves that I'm not quite sure.
  • Mojisola
    Mojisola Posts: 35,557 Forumite
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    CommyTooper wrote: »
    We also have mirror wills. Our home is registered with us as Tenants in Common, not Joint Tenants, on the advice of our solicitor.

    That way we stand a better chance of keeping our home in the event of any charges being levied on it for care. How it achieves that I'm not quite sure.

    Unless you each leave your share of the house to someone other than your spouse, that won't work.

    If one of a couple needs to go into care and the other will still be living in the house, the value of the house is not counted in the financial assessment.

    If one dies, leaves their share to the spouse and the survivor needs care then the whole value of the house will be counted.
  • Leear
    Leear Posts: 59 Forumite
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    How easy is it to transfer to "Tenants in Common" and can this be a DIY process?
  • CommyTooper
    CommyTooper Posts: 57 Forumite
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    Solicitor we have is fair minded, advised us to do it ourselves.
    We got forms from land registry (?) filled them in, posted them off with a cheque.
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