Can I buy my grandparents house and let them live in it?

fiffio

Hi,

Hoping you all can help, to cut a long story short my grandparents are approaching their 80's and are worried about having to go into a home in the near future. They are the sort who say they have enough money to cover thier own funerals but want the house to be gifted down as they have worked thier whole life for it.

They own thier own home (we are all in scotland house worth c£80k) and they want to sell it to my dad or me and my dad so they dont loose it should they have to go into a home. They will then continue to live in the house until they are no longer able to or the worst happens. Is this a legal thing to do as sounds like some sort of avoidance?

They seem to think there is no difference in value to owning your own home as they would get treated the same as those who dont have thier own home or have any savings in terms of going into a home should it be required?

Is this correct?

Both me and my dad would struggle to be able to take out a mortgage to cover the whole house. If they sold the house to us for £70k could they gift us say £35k immediately which could be used as the deposit to buye the house? Is there a mechanism to allow for this as its prob the only way we could do it. This would also free up some cash for them to enjoy over the next few years too.

Any help greatly appreciated, as you can tell from this email I'm not clued up on this in the slightest!

Alter_ego

Here we go again

fiffio

thanks for that contribution. busy day huh.

have I missed something, did search and struggled to find much......

Alter_ego

Search deprivation of assets/capital.

Pixie5740

You really need to discuss this with a mortgage broker.

Potential pitfalls I can see are:

• Gifted deposit coming from people who will be living in the property.
• Deprevation of assets
• The large sum of money your grandparents would then have would be counted as capital in determining care home costs.

Do you and/or your father already have mortgages? Can you afford to pay this mortgage? Who would be responsible for repairs and maintenance?

Nobbie1967

You couldn't get a residential mortgage on it since you won't be living there. You couldn't get a BTL mortgage as presumably they won't be paying any rent. Not sure where you're going to get the money to purchase it.

Why don't they try an equity release scheme if they want a bit of money to spend?

G_M

The rules mau be different in Scotland, but in Eng/Wales they would not achieve their aim of protecting the property if they go into care.

Read up on 'Deprivation of assets'.

Deliberately impoverating yourself/reducing your assets so as to qualify for free Care costs cannot be done that easily!

I recommend the AgeUK website too.

Mojisola

fiffio wrote: »

They are the sort who say they have enough money to cover thier own funerals but want the house to be gifted down as they have worked thier whole life for it.

Very few people end in residential care.

If one of a couple goes into care, the value of the house is disregarded so the council would pay the bill.

You are suggesting something that is risky for your grandparents when there is very little chance of them needing residential care, especially if they have family around able to help them stay at home.

If you bought their home, you would be responsible for the maintenance and repairs. Do you have the money for that?

If you died, divorced or were made bankrupt, they could end up having to move out of their home.

If you needed to claim means tested benefits, you wouldn't be able to while you owned a home you don't live in.

mrginge

I have a question on a related matter.

I have approx 10k in the bank. I would like to go on a round the world trip for a year but don't want to pay for it as I'll have nothing left on my return. Is there any way I can get the taxpayer to fund it?

Dan-Dan

mrginge wrote: »

I have a question on a related matter.

I have approx 10k in the bank. I would like to go on a round the world trip for a year but don't want to pay for it as I'll have nothing left on my return. Is there any way I can get the taxpayer to fund it?

There must be a way , the Queen makes a good fist of doing something similar

HappyMJ

mrginge wrote: »

I have a question on a related matter.

I have approx 10k in the bank. I would like to go on a round the world trip for a year but don't want to pay for it as I'll have nothing left on my return. Is there any way I can get the taxpayer to fund it?

Yes you could voluntarily go to immigration and state that you are a national of whatever country you wish to get returned to and you are willing to return "home" at the taxpayers expense. You might need to find someone who looks similar to you on Facebook in that country whose identity you will need to borrow. Say you've been working illegally and they'll arrest you and remove you back to that country. You'll have to say you've lost your passport and don't have any documents which many illegal immigrants who wish to stay don't have. You can get help from a charity called choices to get the documents for the person whose identity you are borrowing. If you're white British a good choice of country to say you're from would be Australia, New Zealand, Canada or the USA. Once you're in the destination country have a holiday for a while then approach their immigration department and say you're from another country and get removed there at that country's expense and when you want to come home just do the same say you're British and you've entered the country to work and have no visa and you'll get flown all over the place for free.