Putting home into family trust to avoid nursing home fees

Veryannoyed_3

I'll report back on how I get on. I'm not sure how we own the property at the moment but like McKneff I have also heard of being tenants in common and this sounds like a suitable option.

I'm sorry if anyone thinks trying to pass my home on to my children is evading my 'dues' to the state but my mother paid taxes all her life, my father was an army officer who bought his home out of taxed income and I don't see why, when they have never taken a penny from the state except in a small state pension, all their assets should be taken away when other people who have spent all their money get the same care for nothing. It's not going to happen to me if there is any legal way to stop it.

pollypenny

Bully for your parents, OP. Do you think other people are given their houses?

My parents bought the house in which we grew up, he was self-funding in a residential home, paying from pensions and capital.

He didn't ask anyone else to pay for him. If I need to go into a home I won't ask anyone else to pay.

And I don't want to pay for you.

Veryannoyed_3

pollypenny wrote: »

Bully for your parents, OP. Do you think other people are given their houses?

My parents bought the house in which we grew up, he was self-funding in a residential home, paying from pensions and capital.

He didn't ask anyone else to pay for him. If I need to go into a home I won't ask anyone else to pay.

And I don't want to pay for you.

Do you like paying for the lazy lifestyle choice of the sort of people I had the misfortune to catch on the Jeremy Kyle show this morning?

Personally, I find that a lot more objectionable than the state funding the nursing home fees of a war hero's widow.

Errata

Speaking as the daughter of a war hero and the stepdaughter of another whose mother sat on the dockside in the freezing cold and rain mending anti submarine nets and whose aunt worked in a munitions factory. I know ALL of them would be humiliated expecting the state to pay for their care because their relatives wouldn't look after them, when they were perfectly able to pay for it themselves, which two of them did.
It's called accepting responsibility.

Moody_Mare

his written wishes is that he would rather see his home blown up that go to keep him. I will not follow his last wish but I will try to protect it through the courts.

Veryannoyed_3

Errata wrote: »

Speaking as the daughter of a war hero and the stepdaughter of another whose mother sat on the dockside in the freezing cold and rain mending anti submarine nets and whose aunt worked in a munitions factory. I know ALL of them would be humiliated expecting the state to pay for their care because their relatives wouldn't look after them, when they were perfectly able to pay for it themselves, which two of them did.
It's called accepting responsibility.

No sympathy needed for me or my relatives.

I certainly won't feel humiliated when I pass on my home to my children!

Veryannoyed_3

pollypenny wrote: »

Bully for your parents, OP. Do you think other people are given their houses?

My parents bought the house in which we grew up, he was self-funding in a residential home, paying from pensions and capital.

He didn't ask anyone else to pay for him. If I need to go into a home I won't ask anyone else to pay.

And I don't want to pay for you.

But you're happy to pay for people who choose not to work and to take from the state without paying anything in?

Oldernotwiser

Veryannoyed wrote: »

I'm sorry if anyone thinks trying to pass my home on to my children is evading my 'dues' to the state but my mother paid taxes all her life, my father was an army officer who bought his home out of taxed income and I don't see why, when they have never taken a penny from the state except in a small state pension, all their assets should be taken away when other people who have spent all their money get the same care for nothing. It's not going to happen to me if there is any legal way to stop it.

No Family Allowance, no state pension, no Attendance Allowance?

Pretty unusual, I think.

corbyboy

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

No Family Allowance, no state pension, no Attendance Allowance?

Pretty unusual, I think.

Or NHS, or free bus pass or education.....

Paying taxes isn't about getting the money returned to you in cash. It's about using the services that taxes pay for.

jennifernil

IanManc wrote: »

No it isn't. It's a legal minefield.

If half the house is owned by the children then that half is part of their assets. The house could be subject to a forced sale if one became bankrupt, and it counts towards their assets if one divorces. If they don't live there then the children pay capital gains tax on their share when the house is eventually sold. If the spouse who still owns half goes into a home and the house isn't sold at that point then the council simply place a legal charge on the property for the care fees they've paid, and recover the money from the proceeds of sale when the house is eventually sold. Meanwhile the children have to maintain an empty house ....... or if one of them lives in it then they either have to pay rent to the parent in the care home who who owns half the house, which the council will use to pay the care fees, or the council will simply assume that rent is being paid and stop paying a portion of the fees to the home that is equal to the "notional" rent and if you don't like it they'll let you take them to court - where they'd probably win.

And those are just the obvious pitfalls .......

Ther really isn't an effective way of the last remaining spouse avoiding the sale of the home to pay care fees. If there was an effective method then the government would legislate to stop it - but they haven't done because a foolproof method doesn't exist.

Apart from that, less than one in ten homeowners end up in care homes anyway, so it is daft to deprive yourself of ownership of your home when there's at least a 90% chance you'll live in it until you die.

What would happen if a child had purchased, at market value, say half of their parents' house and lived there with their family, and the parents, one parent needs care, then dies, then the remaining parent needs care?

Once the parent- in- question's savings were used up, could the council place a charge on the house and eventually force the family to sell their home to pay the debt?

Does the "half a house has no value" type thing have any bearing on such a situation?