If my mum goes into care.....

Cacran

My Mum has the syptoms of dementia. she is getting less able to look after herself and very confused. My dad is looking after her in their own home. If she needed to go into a care home, if things got too much for my dad about how much would it cost? They have state pension and works pension each but not a great deal in the bank, maybe £15,000 taking everything into consideration. would they make my dad sell the house to pay for her care??
Does anyone know what 'Tennants in Common' means? When my mum was more lucid, she made a note of this and said it is something to do with inheritence. Please don't think that I am after their money, I prefer them to spend it all but it seems such a shame that by living in a financially 'careful' manner, they are penalised in their old age.

reehsetin

tenants in common means people each have their own share in the property, e.g. a owns 40% and b owns 60%

with regards to inhertience it was in the news this week because basically as tenents in common
if one person dies, their share e.g. 40k is just what is inherited not the full value of the house, so its more likely to come under the inheritence tax threshold (new to this but thats my understanding)

in the news because a couple tried to say they were tenents in common but IR said they werent because the wife did not buy her share the husband paid for it, so the tenent in common principle didnt exist because they did not buy individual shares in the property

reehsetin

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/tax-advice/inheritance-tax/article.html?in_article_id=404318&in_page_id=78

basil01_2

Hi Cacran,
If your dad is still living in the house they (Mum & Dad) own then no local government can make him sell to pay for your mum's care, it would only be applicable if Mum only lived at the house.
Hope it helps.
Basil xxxx

dunstonh

it may be too late to do it now. Taking action after knowing that local authority care is needed is treated as benefit fraud.

Jake'sGran

Cacran wrote: »

My Mum has the syptoms of dementia. she is getting less able to look after herself and very confused. My dad is looking after her in their own home. If she needed to go into a care home, if things got too much for my dad about how much would it cost? They have state pension and works pension each but not a great deal in the bank, maybe £15,000 taking everything into consideration. would they make my dad sell the house to pay for her care??
Does anyone know what 'Tennants in Common' means? When my mum was more lucid, she made a note of this and said it is something to do with inheritence. Please don't think that I am after their money, I prefer them to spend it all but it seems such a shame that by living in a financially 'careful' manner, they are penalised in their old age.

I arranged to make our deeds show Tenants in Common some time ago. We have split it 50/50. I did this because of possible inheritance tax. But, from what you have said, to the best of my knowledge, they are allowed to have £16000 before they would have to pay for your Mum's care therefore the local Council will be picking up the bill. I don't believe it is too late to arrange the TinC split because you don't know when your Mum will need to go into care. First, it depends on the date the house was built. It turned out that the simple declarations we made did not have to go to the Land Registry because, at the date our house was built, it was not registered with the Land Registry. If your parent's house is registered you can get a form from the LR - it's about £1, fill it in and send it off to them. The simple forms we did are attached to the deeds and I left it all with our solicitor last Monday when we signed our wills. It might be worth your while finding a solicitor who would let you have a free half hour and he/she will tell you if you can do it now.

If you can do it and your Mother does go into care, the council cannot make your Dad sell the house as he owns half i.e. you can't sell half a house. Get the info this week so that you will know where you stand.

If you look on the Internet you will find lots of information about care homes and the amount you are allowed to have before you have to pay anything.
Just Google "Care Home Fees and Means testing" . If you can't find anything I know I have something in My Documents on the computer I can post to you in an email or something. Good luck and sorry about your Mum.

Sillychuckie

reehsetin wrote: »

tenants in common means people each have their own share in the property, e.g. a owns 40% and b owns 60%

I understand becoming tenants in common is a very simple matter. It simply requires a letter drafted between the two owners (currently joint enants), and then a further letter to the land registry.
My question is though, how are the ownership %ages defined? I had always assumed it was simply 50/50 in a marriage (even as tenants in common), regardless of who had contributed to the mortgage payments over the years.
Am I wrong? What legal bumph would one have to fill in to assign unequal shares of the equity to each partner?
(just curious myself... this isn't a helpful response to the OP.. sorry). :rolleyes:

jamesd

reehsetin, that's an interesting IR argument when a married couple can freely gift unlimited amounts of assets between each other, including gifting ownership of the property portions as capital payments are made.

Cacran

Jakes Gran..... I will take heed of what you have said to me, thanks for taking the trouble.