Advice please if possible?

nigelrholmes

Hi all, I wondered if there was any advice on the below:-

My father in law has been moved into a residential care home, with all the assessments completed etc, therefore leaving my mother in law in their marital home (joint ownership). She wants to move, and we have proposed that we combine the monies from the two properties in to one large one. Their home is mortgage free, we still have a over 70% equity in our own. What would be the best way of proceeding in order to put the funds together for a bigger property? Looking through general mortgage deals my partner and I could get a mortgage for the whole amount of a property we have seen, but should we try and sell both properties at the same time, sell the higher valued property first, or obtain a full mortgage and sell both after? also would the sale of my father in laws house affect any assessments done, and would social services try and obtain some of the house sale money? loads of questions I know, sorry!

pmlindyloo

nigelrholmes wrote: »

Hi all, I wondered if there was any advice on the below:-

My father in law has been moved into a residential care home, with all the assessments completed etc, therefore leaving my mother in law in their marital home (joint ownership). She wants to move, and we have proposed that we combine the monies from the two properties in to one large one. Their home is mortgage free, we still have a over 70% equity in our own. What would be the best way of proceeding in order to put the funds together for a bigger property? Looking through general mortgage deals my partner and I could get a mortgage for the whole amount of a property we have seen, but should we try and sell both properties at the same time, sell the higher valued property first, or obtain a full mortgage and sell both after? also would the sale of my father in laws house affect any assessments done, and would social services try and obtain some of the house sale money? loads of questions I know, sorry!

Before your questions about mortgages etc are answered you need to address the question of deprivation of assets as regards your FIL's care.

So, is your FIL self funding? Do they have savings/income which pays for his care and is likely to continue to do so for the remaining years?

Or, is his care funded by the council?

Please answer these questions first.

nigelrholmes

his care is being funded by a mixture of council/social services and his private pension, and will be ongoing for the foreseeable future.

LindaMary

Half the money from the sale of her home belongs to your FIL and can count towards his care funding

nigelrholmes

Can or will? I know that ultimately I will need to seek legal advice on this matter anyway, but its all a bit of a minefield. Thanks in advance

Brightspark87

Trust me - they will want £££ if she moves out of the house.

Assuming she is over 65 and therefore they cannot force the house sale to pay for care.

If she chose to sell then he will be entitled to his share and therefore could have over the £23,500 limit in England (different for other UK countries) when he has to start paying for his own care.

G_M

will.

At present, because his spouse still lives in the property he part-owns, that property cannot be included in his assessment for care home funding (the council could not force his spouse to sell to pay for his care).

But if you sell that property and she moves elsewhere, half the money raised will almost certainly be expected to be used for his care home funding.

You need specialist advice.

Start with the ageUK website?

nigelrholmes

Thanks all. I suspect even having the argument that she was putting everything back into a property that she was living in, and therefore not making a profit, would not be a valid one. Specialist advice is being sought. Thanks again

teddysmum

I seem to recall reading, a couple of years ago, that if the house is sold, half the value is attributed to the person in care, less a small amount allowed to help the house resident with moving expenses.


See page 11 of this document :


http://www.ageuk.org.uk/Documents/EN-GB/Factsheets/FS39_Paying_for_care_in_a_care_home_if_you_have_a_partner_fcs.pdf?dtrk=true

xylophone

See http://www.ageuk.org.uk/Documents/EN-GB/Factsheets/FS38_Treatment_of_property_in_the_means-test_for_permanent_care_home_provision_fcs.pdf?dtrk=true

4.5 Moving from a disregarded property on page 10.

In the circumstances you describe, it seems likely that at least part of the money raised from sale of your MIL's house would be required to be used for the FIL's fees.