Selling a house thats been disregarded in means test

jake+1

My wife who is over 60 has been her fathers live in carer for about a year. Unfortunately,on doctors advice he has just gone into a care home. With regards to the means test that has to be carried out, we understand that the property is disregarded as my wife is over 6o and living in it. Have read the Age.UK factsheet regarding care homes means test but a bit unsure about the selling of the property sometime in the future. It states that if the property is sold the residents share 'could' be taken into account in the financial assessment. Does any one know what would actually happen if the property was sold in say 5 or 10 years time ? Thanks

System

Why isn't your wife moving back to you now that there no longer a care retirement for her father? This would then mean that the house could be sold for his care home expenses

Mojisola

jake+1 wrote: »

My wife who is over 60 has been her fathers live in carer for about a year. Unfortunately,on doctors advice he has just gone into a care home. With regards to the means test that has to be carried out, we understand that the property is disregarded as my wife is over 6o and living in it. Have read the Age.UK factsheet regarding care homes means test but a bit unsure about the selling of the property sometime in the future. It states that if the property is sold the residents share 'could' be taken into account in the financial assessment. Does any one know what would actually happen if the property was sold in say 5 or 10 years time ? Thanks

I think that only works if it's the other person's home. Presumably, where you live is your wife's main residence.

blossomhill_2

!!!!!! wrote: »

the house could be sold for his care home expenses

Why would they want to do that when the house has already been disregarded?

jake+1

Thanks for the replies. I perhaps was not very clear with my original posting. I gave up a long term job with tied accommodation so my wife could look after her father, so I also moved in with her. Its an old house with a large garden, as I'm 63 and not exactly fully fit,I don't know how many years I can do the maintenance required if we were to stay. Hence my original enquiry with regards to selling the house in the future.

Mojisola

Thanks for clarifying. I'll be watching this thread to see if anyone has a definite answer to your question.

Trebor16

Hello Jake,

Who is the owner of the house? Is it wholly owned by your father in law or do you and your wife have joint ownership with your father in law?

jake+1

Hi Trebor 16, The house is owned by my FIL, its been the family home for about 50 years. Thanks

pmlindyloo

7.013 Where the LA has decided to disregard the value of a property, it is left to the LA to decide if and when to review that decision. It would be reasonable, for example, where the LA has been ignoring the value of a property because a long term carer was living there, for the LA to begin taking account of the value of the property when the carer dies or moves out.

Taken from:

http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/@ps/documents/digitalasset/dh_115533.pdf

Mmmmmm. Nothing is easy, is it?

I would suggest giving the local LA a call to see if they can shed some light on this. You may need to speak to someone quite senior though as it all seems very complicated.

It would appear that there are 2 questions here. What would happen if you sold before father died and what would happen if you sold after father died? (sorry, no offence meant)

I wonder if the fees can be taken retrospectively?

Mojisola

pmlindyloo wrote: »

7.013 Where the LA has decided to disregard the value of a property, it is left to the LA to decide if and when to review that decision. It would be reasonable, for example, where the LA has been ignoring the value of a property because a long term carer was living there, for the LA to begin taking account of the value of the property when the carer dies or moves out.

This does seem the most reasonable position. As the principle is that the carer is entitled to somewhere to live, it would be perverse to then try to claw back money just because the carer moves to another house.

I suppose it might depend on the value of the home. If the carer moved from a £500,000 property to one costing £100,000 the LA could decide that there was a good reason to claim some of the spare cash.

jake - if you follow lindy's advice and talk to someone at the LA, try to get them to put their advice in writing for your protection in future.

jake+1

Thanks for the trouble you've taken with looking into this for us pmlindyloo. I have already asked the question to the Case Manager who has been responsible for overseeing his care at home also for organising a suitable care home. She said she was'nt sure what would happen but would look into it, as yet we have'nt heard back from her. Although obviously this is not urgent as we're talking several years in the future,it would be nice to know what would happen. As mojisola also suggests that asking the LA might be the way to go, I'll try that. Thanks again to you both.