Trust deed- capital gains tax ?

Sue1610

I have just read all the information posted above and found it very interesting. At present my mum is in hospital shes 71 and my father is 72 neither are well. They own their own house and its probably only worth about 80k. The house is left to myself brother and two sisters in their will. However mum has asked me to take care of her bank accounts after my sister has secretly been helping herself to around 4k out of one of accounts - I was horrified how could she??? but anyhow. My mum should be coming home in about 3 weeks once my brother and I have redorated the sitting room and tidied all the clutter and made it comfortable for her as Dad was saying he could no longer cope, she shoudl be able to have carers come in 3 times a day 7 days a week so dad is happy about this as he was saying she would have to go into a Nursing or Care home. I realise if either of them were to go into a home they would have to fund the care and the house would have to go to pay for this. I saw my grandma lose her house in order to pay for her care about 30 years ago and my dad even had to pay out of his pocket for her funeral and my mum and dad are now wondering how they can get the house passed over to us??? My brother is happy for me to take control of mums finances and so is my younger sister as she lives a lot further away. Do i need to do this Lasting Power of Attorney then? I am going to mums bank on Thursday to get a form for me to become " third party " I think she said on the phone? Also i know mum and dad dont have great savings think dad has about 8000 in one account mum has 2000 in an isa - is it better for them to transfer the cash into my name at all? Its not that i dont want to pay for care but after they have worked hard and paid their contribution to the NHS I get a little annoyed when you see that some people who havent worked in their lifes and prob only rent their houses ( i do rent mine at the minute ) seem to get everything paid for? Any help and advice greatly appreciated

Sue1610

I also meant to ask in the above - Could my mum and Dad sell the house to say my brother and myself or give it to us as a Gift?

John_Pierpoint

As far as the house goes, they have almost certainly left it too late; assuming you live in England.
Legally the parents can give their house to their 4 children, then those children would be liable to Capital Gains Tax, unless the home became their "principal private residence". (Currently the first 10,100 of Capital Gain in any one tax year is "nil rated" (ie pays at 0%))
Messing about with the ownership of the house can be ignored by the local authority, as it counts as deliberate deprivation of assets; however while one of the elderly couple is living in the house, they will hold back.
Your mum & dad's "nest eggs" are very small and not large enough to allow the local authority to opt out of providing care.
Even when there is a house available, to have a charge raised against it, the local authority should pick up the tab for the first 12 weeks.
If the old person requires NURSING care the NHS should pay for this element of a nursing home's charges.
However the quality of the care provided by the local authority can be very "minimum adequate"; so members of the next generation might want to chip in and get their parents something better or better organised. The quality of the local authority funded care can a "post code lottery".

In the case of my mum, I had "authorised signatory" status on her bank account.
Lasting power of attorney is a complex procedure and costs 150 + 150 GBP just in charges to have the bureaucracy process the papers. The previous Enduring Power of Attorney was much more simple BUT the apparent attitude of your sibling; kind of explains why the procedures have been tightened up.
If you are going to obtain LPA, without using a solicitor, you need to do it now for BOTH parents. while they are still able to understand the forms they have to sign. The alternative is to risk financing them from your own pocket until such time as they die.
One woman in 3 and one man in 5 ends up in a care home; for an average of about 2 years.
In the case of my mum, we muddled through with mum at her home with a carer for four years. Though I had EPA, I never had to invoke it.