Should my 78 year old mum buy a flat?

jayss

Are there any retirement properties in her area?
They often seem to be cheaper than flats for anyone.

spadoosh

Best scenario (financially) for your mum is renting. Shell see no benefit from buying and will have a smaller nest egg. If shes renting like you say the interest could help pay for the rent, put in the right places she might be looking at £3-5000 per annum interest (large chunk towards rent) (obviously this reduces as the capital does). Plus she can enjoy 1 or 2 cruises every year.

The benefit in buying goes to yourself or the people in her will. it will also largely reduce her current funds and almost make her reliant on her pension.

The onlytime it becomes less feasible is if shes in the house for 15+ years.

Mojisola

Has she talked this through with a solicitor? As a spouse, she has rights to the house even if it was only in her husband's name. I think she has the right to stay there.

p0d

McKneff wrote: »

Personally, I would have a look at the will and check everything.

Did the house wholly belong to him. Seems a bit unfair on your mum. Knowing him, would he really have done this to her, he loved
her enough to marry her.

Did he make his will before or after he married your mum, makes a big difference.
If before and he didnt change it, marriage voids a will written before hand

The will was after they married, has been checked by her solicitor, and is legit. She thinks it's fine because she sold her house to move into his house. The decision is made, she's going to move as was the agreement. The question is what is the best housing option for her.

Mojisola

If she wants to move, I would say go for somewhere rented. It will give her a lot more flexibility if her needs change in the future and no big, unexpected repair bills to pay.

pauletruth

get a view of the will and get your mum to see a solicitor. as has been said if the will was written before their marriage then its invalid. if he wrote it after he failed to take into count that as a spouse she has rights to an amout of his estate. don't let her walk away as she is still grieving and won't be thinking clrearly.

RAS

The will was written after they married.

OP, as a dependant, you mother has rights to the estate even if no provision is included in the estate.

Exactly what depends on which country she lives in as Scotland and England have very different laws.

She needs to speak to a solicitor.

Niv

Sorry for your loss.

What is the fitness of your mum? I ask as this may change the most appropriate option for her.

Instinctively i think the best option would be a retirement flat as they normally have some level os assistance for the residents. If fite/healthy/active I would suggest buying the flat if not so fit/healthy/active I would rent.

Niv

Werdnal

Might be a long shot, but it all else fails, could she approach the family and offer to pay them rent to remain there? It will give them an income from the property, which will still remain in their ownership, and she could suggest that selling now would not give them the best value in the property. If she could rent it for say - 5 years, then property prices could stabilise or even recover a little in that time.

They would obviously have to check the requirements of becoming her landlords and all the legal requirements of letting, but it could save her the hassle and upheaval of moving, and give a her more time to decide what she want to do and get over her loss properly.

Taking her age into account, if she bought a property and had to go into care, it would need to be sold to fund that care anyway.

zzzLazyDaisy

It is worth speaking to the local council/housing association as they often have retirement properties with short waiting lists. They may also have supported housing, which might be worth considering in view of her age. Unlike renting privately, she would have security of tenure and the rents tend to be reasonable (although not as low as they once were).

Personally at her age, I would not consider buying. The advantages to renting are that the landlord is responsible for any major expenditure such as boiler breakdowns, and if she later decided that she wishes to move to be nearer to you, or she doesn't like the neighbours or whatever, she is not stuck with selling her home first.

Also, by renting she is releasing the capital in her home which she can use to make her twilight years more comfortable. She would not need to restrict herself to only using the interest to supplement her income because at her age the capital will be needed for a finite amount of time, so she can use a combination of capital and interest. It is worth heading over to the savings board for more info if she decided to go down this route - but in simple terms, she would work out how much she would need to supplement her income for (say) the next two years and put that lump sum in the best paying easy access account, perhaps with a bit more to act as a buffer in case something unforseen crops up. The rest would go in the highest paying fixed term accounts - you can also stagger them so they mature in stages, so putting some in a two year account, three year and four year accounts so they mature on an annual basis if that makes sense? You should also consider ISAs, but depending on her other income she may not be a tax payer, in that case it may be that it doesn't make much difference and she may get a better return in a normal account by making a declaration that she is a non-taxpayer.

These things are for the future and she'd need to take advice, but in her shoes I would certainly look for a way of releasing the cash.