Adding a name to house deeds

metalika

To cut a long story short. My husband's mother lives in a granny annex attached to the house. We had the house purpose built X years ago, my husband's and my name's are on the deeds, hers isn't. She's 77 and is becoming increasingly apprehensive and forgetful, and worried that if we decided to sell the house and move, we wouldn't take her with us, even though we constantly reassure her that she would come should we ever decide to do so, which is very unlikely in the near future.
This is the question I have:-
She has now asked for us to put her name on the deeds as well as ours, (so, she would have money to purchase a small property for herself, if we did want to move away, and she didn't want to come with us) We've not got any problem with doing so if it makes her feel less anxious, but, what we'd like to know is this?
Would naming her on the deeds have any implications should she have to go into a nursing/residential home at any point, bearing in mind she has already had 2 small heart attacks in the past. Would she be expected to "sell" her portion of the property to pay for her care?

Keep_pedalling

Did she contribute to the cost of building the house? If not it would be foolish to to add her name to it for that very reason.

If she did partly pay for the house then that should be treated as depreciation of assets, as well as making her feel insecure in which case you really should correct that.

metalika

Thanks for your quick reply.
Either way that's not what I'm asking, it's the question regarding the nursing/residential home, that we All want answered.

metalika

Put another way, simply. If all 3 names were on the deeds, what would happen if she had to move into a home because of I'll health, or she was unable to take care of herself, would her portion of the property worth be taken by the ' home, social services, or government?

Keep_pedalling

If you MIL needed to go into care her assets would be assessed for self funding purposes, and that would include any part of a property she owned, but the LA can also take into account any assets she had transfered to you that has subsequently been used to purchase the property you all share. If that is the case then it makes little difference if you make her a joint owner or not.

If either of the above apply you may end up needing to sell the house.

If she did not use any of her assets on your house then you should leave things as they are, otherwise you would be gifting her an asset that would be taken into account for care costs.

AnotherJoe

metalika wrote: »

Thanks for your quick reply.
Either way that's not what I'm asking, it's the question regarding the nursing/residential home, that we All want answered.

And the answer to that depends on you answering the question you were asked, "did she put money into the house?"

Because if she did, then most likely doesn't matter whether you add her now or not, it may be treated as if it was jointly hers in any case. I'm guessing from your reluctance to answer that indeed she did contribute. If she didn't, then IMO you'd be barking to add her as you'd be getting into a mess you needn't.

Signing a portion to her also might not solve the issue of her anxiety and nagging, if she is heading into dementia, she'll just keep nagging you about it even after you do it. Depending just how bad she is, you might look at making up some fake documents and getting her to sign them, but if my suspicion is correct, even after signing she'll still keep nagging you because she'll just forget.

Indeed, if that sort of subterfuge won't work, then you ought to be able to explain to her why this is a bad thing to do, and she would understand that. If she doesn't, then I suspect it won't matter a jot what you do, it won't help.

Yorkie1

If you have a mortgage on the property at the moment, the whole idea may be a non-starter in any event.

metalika

Thank you everybody for your help and advice.