To transfer deeds or not?

JulieH

Hi all, I've been searching lots and have come across lots of threads but still am not 100% on the best course of action...this is my situation..

My mum has incurable cancer and at the moment we don't know how long she has left. She had already done her will, and in that leaves her flat (worth approx £80k) to myself and my brother. Now, I imagine that at some point she will need to go into residential care. Someone has advised her that she should transfer the deeds to myself and my brother now to avoid losing everything she has to pay for it. From her point of view she's worked all her life, came out of a divorce worse off, so only has her flat to show for herself.

Can anyone advise whether we would be better or worse off for doing this?

Biggles

JulieH wrote: »

Someone has advised her that she should transfer the deeds to myself and my brother now to avoid losing everything she has to pay for it.

That wouldn't work anyway, as the local authority would see it as deliberate deprivation of her assets, and she would be assessed as though she still owned it.

Savvy_Sue

Possibly neither. If it looks as if the flat was transferred into your names purely to avoid paying for residential care, then her 'assets' will be assessed as if she still had it - it's called 'intentional deprivation of assets' and we have a few threads where it's mentioned already.

Now, if she had no assets, and she needed residential care, then the council would say what they were prepared to pay, and either that would be where your mum would end up, or you / your brother could 'top up' what the council were prepared to pay to get somewhere of your choice.

Since your mum has assets, then these can be used to give your mum choice: if you don't want to see the flat sold, then is it worth letting it out? If it does get to the stage where mum definitely won't be able to go home, is it sensible to leave an empty flat? You get insurance issues, apart from anything else.

I'd get some advice from Counsel and Care, MacMillan, or Age UK. And I'm sorry for what you're going through.

JulieH

Thanks for your quick replies...will have a search for the other threads mentioned.

Can I ask...how does it work with regards to them taking the money? Say for instance she goes into a home and won't be coming back out...she has around £3000 in savings, would they use that first? Once that has run out how do they take the money from her flat? Do they sell it, or add it all up until we sold it (as it's left to us in the will) and then take it?

Sorry for all the questions, haven't been in this situation so just want to make sure we know some facts.

Savvy_Sue

I think - and I haven't faced this yet - that they should NOT take her £3000 first, but the LA would start paying for the care and give you a 12 week 'disregard'. They can put a 'charge' on the flat, meaning that when it is sold, they get their money. And they can, I believe, force the sale in certain circumstances. I think that both Counsel and Care and Age UK have Fact Sheets on paying for care, which would be a good starting point.

However if the LA are paying, that does mean that she would be living wherever they had an agreement to send people.

Another question is whether going into residential care is actually going to be necessary, and if it is whether that will be because she is too ill to remain at home. Here we enter the murky realms of NHS Continuing Health Care, on which we also have threads. That's where someone needs so much nursing care that they shouldn't have to pay for themselves. The best (or most depressing, depending on how you look at it!) is probably here.

I would definitely talk to someone at MacMillan: they are there to give support, and it must be difficult to deal with the whole thing anyway.

Oldernotwiser

I don't see that she's particularly likely to go into residential care if she has cancer, unless she has other issues. She's far more likely to be admitted to hospital or a hospice as the disease progresses.