Putting home into family trust to avoid nursing home fees

borkid

missbiggles1 wrote: »

I feel like I can because I wouldn't want to "look after" my children in that way, having made sacrifices to give them a good education and the best preparation for life I could.

I'd rather give the money to charity where it's really needed, although I do appreciate that this is a minority viewpoint.

But surely that depends on circumstances. We have helped our children as much as we can but my daughter has a chronic incurable ( at the moment) illness and is unable to work and thus no private pension . She used to work in a very good job with excellent prospects. I would like to be able to leave her some money to make her life a little easier in her old age.

borkid

wyattnorm wrote: »

I'm glad I read this post as it has opened my eyes quite a lot. We changed to 'Tenants in common', not to avoid health care. I was concerned that being a man and readily accepting that we usually die first, if my wife remarried and as and when she died, someone else could inherit all I had worked for and my kids may get nothing.

How easy is it to revert to the conventional house ownership?

The 'legal minefield' is just that. Ordinary people are trying to use the legal system and not always understanding the full implications, as I am now trying to do.

I fully support us paying for the best care we can afford, which if you looked at my savings and situation, will not be too lavish.

Good site with plenty of good advice.

From what I can remember our trust is set up so that the remaining spouse has control over the trust and can borrow from it. The children don't have access to the trust monies until the second spouse is dead,. It was explained at the time that the house couldn't be sold unless the remaining spouse agreed.

john_t_65

good luck hope all works out in your favour.
I am of the same mind having paid contributions for over 32 years and serving in HM Forces for 22 years, I don't see why we have to sell what we have worked so hard for ,while some people who haven't paid in take take take and then have the cheek to complain they don't get enough to live on.

twokcc

IanManc wrote: »

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.

I realise that this is an old post and haven't read the thread in full BUT care home fees can be avoided if 50% house is in name of surviving partner(in a care home) and 50% of house is owned by children.
This is NOT anecdotal but actual fact. I dealt with my mothers estate, she has an EPA and after my father died they said she would have to be come completely self funding. After a lot of discussion with local authority the house was valued and they considered that her half share had a certain percentage value. After various allowances etc the 50% share worked at at just under the lower limit of £14k. My mum had to pay an extra amount of £20 per week from the cash she had above the £14k limit. Didn't pursue the argument that the 50% value of house should be NIL as considered it a reasonable outcome. It did take a lot of hard work and my solicitor(verbal advice only) was surprised by outcome.
Everyone's circumstance are not the same and it would seem that some authorities are more dogged at opposing the NIL valuation but there are arguments to counter this. If you are prepared to work at it and put the research in a sensible outcome can be achieved.

Savvy_Sue

twokcc wrote: »

I realise that this is an old post and haven't read the thread in full BUT care home fees can be avoided if 50% house is in name of surviving partner(in a care home) and 50% of house is owned by children.

HOWEVER, if any of the children have to claim means-tested benefits, or go through divorce, or any other financially life changing situation, then they will own part of a house which must be declared, and its value WILL affect them.

Also the transfer into the children's names must be carefully worded to avoid the children being able to sell the house without the parents' consent.

At the risk of sounding like a cracked record, do you / your parents want to be able to make their own choices, or do you / your parents want to rely on whatever the local authority is prepared to pay for?

Mojisola

twokcc wrote: »

I realise that this is an old post and haven't read the thread in full BUT care home fees can be avoided if 50% house is in name of surviving partner(in a care home) and 50% of house is owned by children.

After various allowances etc the 50% share worked at at just under the lower limit of £14k. My mum had to pay an extra amount of £20 per week from the cash she had above the £14k limit. Didn't pursue the argument that the 50% value of house should be NIL as considered it a reasonable outcome. It did take a lot of hard work and my solicitor(verbal advice only) was surprised by outcome.

I think most councils will now assess you as having in capital 50% of the market value of the house, set up a deferred payment scheme and reclaim the money when the house is sold or the client dies.

teddysmum

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

At the risk of sounding like a cracked record, do you / your parents want to be able to make their own choices, or do you / your parents want to rely on whatever the local authority is prepared to pay for?

Unless someone has considerable assets, they will only have the choice for a short while, as a house's value is soon swallowed up in fees.

twokcc

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

HOWEVER, if any of the children have to claim means-tested benefits, or go through divorce, or any other financially life changing situation, then they will own part of a house which must be declared, and its value WILL affect them.

Agreed but post is about avoiding care home fees NOT the impact on the other children who inherit, etc

Also the transfer into the children's names must be carefully worded to avoid the children being able to sell the house without the parents' consent.

Easily one by any decent solicitor

At the risk of sounding like a cracked record, do you / your parents want to be able to make their own choices, or do you / your parents want to rely on whatever the local authority is prepared to pay for?

Not a problem in our case we chose the care home which was actually outside the local authority area where mum resided, subject to several reviews but all without any pressure from local authority to move her to an alternative home

Just my actual experience and to give some balance to the points mentioned

twokcc

Mojisola wrote: »

I think most councils will now assess you as having in capital 50% of the market value of the house, set up a deferred payment scheme and reclaim the money when the house is sold or the client dies.

Agreed did this for mum but never signed deferred payment plan bills got up to about £30k. Just persisted with discussion about worth of 50% of house, council eventually agreed and all deferred payment "invoices" cancelled.

Poppy18

Hi, I'm interested to know how this worked out for you as I have been looking into setting up a Trust for my children/grandchildren. I would like to know whether it is legal or can be challenged.

Best wishes