My parents house and care home

blokes2

Hi i thought to ask some much needed advice on here,
We have two elderly parents who own their own home i live with them . They are at the moment not well but still able to get around a recent event where my mums brother went into a home made me think about the property, my mums brother lost his property psying fees to residential care after working hard all his life , my parents are in th e same situation they want to leave the house to their grandson but are worried about loosing it if they had to go in a home, i too would loose my pkace to live.
I suggested they could sell the property to my nephew for £1 .00 to safeguard it for him,
If they did eventually have to go in sheltered accomodation would the sale go against them with the authorities thinking thy offloaded their assets??? Or can tgey do what they want.? They have about 17000 savings which would go towards sheltered housing but its the house we need to safeguard,
Thanks

Pixie5740

What an original idea! Why has nobody ever thought of doing this before?! :think:

Ah, yes because deliberately depriving themselves of assets such as their house. See this guide by Age UK for further information: Deprivation of Assets

SuzieSue

There have been lots of questions like this in the past so you might want to do a search on the forum.

Also, Google Deprivation of Assets which will explain what will happen if your parents sell their house to your nephew for £1 (assuming he is over 18 as minors can't own land).

csgohan4

Pixie5740 wrote: »

What an original idea! Why has nobody ever thought of doing this before?! :think:

Ah, yes because deliberately depriving themselves of assets such as their house. See this guide by Age UK for further information: Deprivation of Assets

Interesting read, however historically people put their homes under tenants in common and split it amongst their children to reduce their home asset.


Will this still be acceptable I wonder????

LisaLou1982

blokes2 wrote: »

Hi i thought to ask some much needed advice on here,
We have two elderly parents who own their own home i live with them . They are at the moment not well but still able to get around a recent event where my mums brother went into a home made me think about the property, my mums brother lost his property psying fees to residential care after working hard all his life , my parents are in th e same situation they want to leave the house to their grandson but are worried about loosing it if they had to go in a home, i too would loose my pkace to live.
I suggested they could sell the property to my nephew for £1 .00 to safeguard it for him,
If they did eventually have to go in sheltered accomodation would the sale go against them with the authorities thinking thy offloaded their assets??? Or can tgey do what they want.? They have about 17000 savings which would go towards sheltered housing but its the house we need to safeguard,
Thanks

Your mums brother didnt "lose" his home. The money from it was used to pay for care that he needed in order to survive. Surely you dont think the alternative of him having substandard care so that someone else could benefit from his equity would be a better alternative?!

As others have said....google deprivation of assets. This is a hot topic on here.

SuzieSue

csgohan4 wrote: »

Interesting read, however historically people put their homes under tenants in common and split it amongst their children to reduce their home asset.


Will this still be acceptable I wonder????

Probably because they could argue that they were doing it to save inheritance tax (which is probably why the rules were changed so that they can't use that argument any more if the owners of the property are married).

csgohan4

SuzieSue wrote: »

Probably because they could argue that they were doing it to save inheritance tax (which is probably why the rules were changed so that they can't use that argument any more if the owners of the property are married).

What if the house price was say 120k with 2 children, so split 4 ways ergo 25% each, which would still be above the threshold for paying for your own care home. Also this house price is way below the IHT bracket.


How would that work?? would they force a home sale or put a charge on the house?

Pixie5740

They'd still be deliberately depriving themselves of assets whether 100% is given away or 25%. The local authority can still count the whole property when means testing.

G_M

Look - HMRC are not stupid!

If you have money, assets, resources etc then you pay for your living expenses, whether that be living in your own house, with your family, a hotel, or (yes) a care home.

If you have no £, then the state will make sure you are not destitute, by giving you some cash (eg pension, other benefits) or a place to live (eg a care home).

But people who try to claim benefits (whether a cash benefit or a care home or whatever) by hiding or giving away their assets tend to get caught out and (rightly) punished.

FreeBear

blokes2 wrote: »

We have two elderly parents who own their own home i live with them. [...] but are worried about losing [their house] it if they had to go in a home, i too would loose my place to live.

If one of the parents had to go in to a care home, the house would be disregarded as long as it was occupied by the remaining parent.

If you are under the age of 18 (or a pensioner yourself) or have a disability, then the home would still be disregarded if both parents needed residential care. Even if you are between 18 & 65 and in good health, the LA has the discretion to disregard the property if it is your only home.

Note for other posters - This has noting to do with deprivation of capital/assets and everything to do with protecting the OP's home and avoid being made homeless.

Mojisola

blokes2 wrote: »

my parents are in th e same situation they want to leave the house to their grandson

I suggested they could sell the property to my nephew for £1 .00 to safeguard it for him
Thanks

FreeBear wrote: »

If one of the parents had to go in to a care home, the house would be disregarded as long as it was occupied by the remaining parent.

If you are under the age of 18 (or a pensioner yourself) or have a disability, then the home would still be disregarded if both parents needed residential care. Even if you are between 18 & 65 and in good health, the LA has the discretion to disregard the property if it is your only home.

Note for other posters - This has noting to do with deprivation of capital/assets and everything to do with protecting the OP's home and avoid being made homeless.

There's nothing in the first post about the OP becoming homeless - it's all about passing an inheritance on to the grandson.