avoiding the sale of a family home to pay for care?

neilthom101

Hello all,

I hope someone can offer some advice on the issue of avoiding the sale of a family home to pay for care (biggest money saving mission i'll have to get around!!)

The situation is quite complex, my father has just been placed in care and my mother is now resident in the propery with myself (son) she however though not officially diagnosed as yet, is showing the signs or early to mid dimential (she has had some scans etc...though is awiting a further consultant appoint for the official diagnosis)...so the likelyhood is that she at some point in the not too distant future will have to be placed in care.

I need to establish if there is anyway to avoid the sale of the property to pay the care costs...even know i have always lived at the address, apparently makes no difference as i would have to be under 16 or over 60 for this to be a factor not taken into consideration.

apparently changing the title deeds into my name, would be considered a deliberate avoidance of the payment for care...there is some suggestion about doing so 6 or more months prior to care being needed getting around this (however the fact that my mother has recvd medical assesment re: her dimentia may cause probs here?)

Other suggestion have advised her selling to me via normal channels, me having to get a motgage etc...then here disposing of the cash to me??

Any advice greatly appreciated,

Neil

Tiggs_2

how old are you?

david29dpo

i would put the house in your name now, but i think its a bit late. if and when your mom gos into care i dont think they could take the house but may put a charge on it.

Bossyboots

david29dpo wrote:

i would put the house in your name now, but i think its a bit late. if and when your mom gos into care i dont think they could take the house but may put a charge on it.

I asked a solicitor this exact question a few months ago and they can take the house, even if it is someone else's name. The local authority responsible can ask a court to rule that the property was transferred to avoid care costs and thus the transfer is void.

david29dpo

the transfer would not be void, but authority could put a charge on the house.

seven-day-weekend

AFAIK, the only way round it is for you to buy the house from your Mum at market value (then she will have the money to pay for her care and will not have disposed of capital).

Is there any way you could make money out of the house when your mum's in care (i.e. renting rooms) so that the fees can be paid in full without taking the house into consideration?

dunstonh

A lot of the things you can do need to be done before you know that local authority care is going to be required. Things like changing the property to tenants in common and putting in place a discretionary will trust or placing investments into an investment bond help remove assets from the means test or prevent assets being used. However, its too late to do that now.