help

bonkers12

Hi everyone, My mother and father in law are both in a care home now and their flat will need to be sold to pay for care home bills. The council have been paying their care home bills since mother and father in law have been in the home , the council are pressing us to sell the flat now , they sent us a letter in the week saying that mother and father in law owe £15,000 and they want the bill paid , i know we should have sold the flat last year but my wife's sister ( mother and father in laws daughter) was diagnosed with cancer last year and sadly passed away just before christmas so selling the flat wasnt a top priority last year, the mother and father in law up until recently were both of sound mind and were mostly in the care home due to not being able to get around on their own 2 feet, i completed a power of attorney for mother in law last week and i was just about to start on my father in laws today and we had a call from the care home saying he had taken a turn for the worse, his mental health seems to have taken a turn for the worse and i dont know if its too late to do a power of attorney for him, i guess when it comes to selling their flat we are going to have a problem with father in law not being able to sign any of the paperwork required as the property is in joint names, does anyone have any thoughts about what course of action i should take now regarding their flat being in joint names? thanks for reading this ,sorry if i sound a bit dim, im just tired and worn out . thanks

pmlindyloo

bonkers12 wrote: »

Hi everyone, My mother and father in law are both in a care home now and their flat will need to be sold to pay for care home bills. The council have been paying their care home bills since mother and father in law have been in the home , the council are pressing us to sell the flat now , they sent us a letter in the week saying that mother and father in law owe £15,000 and they want the bill paid , i know we should have sold the flat last year but my wife's sister ( mother and father in laws daughter) was diagnosed with cancer last year and sadly passed away just before christmas so selling the flat wasnt a top priority last year, the mother and father in law up until recently were both of sound mind and were mostly in the care home due to not being able to get around on their own 2 feet, i completed a power of attorney for mother in law last week and i was just about to start on my father in laws today and we had a call from the care home saying he had taken a turn for the worse, his mental health seems to have taken a turn for the worse and i dont know if its too late to do a power of attorney for him, i guess when it comes to selling their flat we are going to have a problem with father in law not being able to sign any of the paperwork required as the property is in joint names, does anyone have any thoughts about what course of action i should take now regarding their flat being in joint names? thanks for reading this ,sorry if i sound a bit dim, im just tired and worn out . thanks

Obviously the first thing to find out is whether your father has the mental capacity to sign the appropriate paperwork (his doctor should be able to advise)

If he still has mental capacity then don't forget to get LPA sorted asap.

If he has lost mental capacity then you will have to apply to the court of protection. This can take a considerable time but there are emergency orders and interim orders that can be made.

Read this and then telephone the Court of Protection for some advice.

https://www.gov.uk/joint-property-ownership/selling-when-an-owner-has-lost-mental-capacity

TBagpuss

Sorry to hear this.
As pmlindyloo says, the first thing is to establish whether your dad has capacity or not. This can fluctuate, so it is worth you speaking with your dad's doctor to ask whether they consider he has capacity and whether there is a particular time of day when he is at his best, for instance.
Once you know, you can either arrange for his solicitor to visit to get the POA drawn up or, if he doesn't have capacity, can talk to them about court of protection.

Then let the Council know the situation, as long as they know that you are taking steps to get to the point where the house can be sold they should not cause you too much hassle, they should be familiar with the situation and understand that things do move fairly slowly.

bonkers12

thanks too you both for replying,much appreciated

*~Zephyr~*

Having been through this myself with my Grandmother, I know how stressful it can be, so {{{{big hug}}}} keep smiling and try not to get too stressed over it.

I don't have anything extra to add to the good advice already given but just wanted to say don't let the Council bully you into paying the bill. Once the paperwork is sorted, put the flat on the market as soon as you can and just tell the Council that it will sell when it sells. These things can take a long time, they will just have to wait.


{hugs}

Mojisola

bonkers12 wrote: »

My mother and father in law are both in a care home now and their flat will need to be sold to pay for care home bills.

The council have been paying their care home bills since mother and father in law have been in the home,

the council are pressing us to sell the flat now

Hasn't the council set up a deferred payment scheme?

As your parents in law are self-funding, are they claiming the appropriate benefits?

bonkers12

Hi mojisla, thanks for replying , yes a deferred payment scheme is in place and mother and father in law are claiming benefits, they have put a charge on the in laws flat so its not like they wont be getting the money they are owed, they said in the letter that we had 21 days to pay what is owed them or they would tale court action , bit strong really .thanks again for replying.

bonkers12

Thanks zephyr that was a nice reply and you are right we wont let the council bully us, cant believe they would send out a letter saying "we will take court action if the outstanding bill is not payed up" , we maybe have a private buyer who is really interested in buying the property and i have estate agents viewing the property this week and contacting a solicitor who will act for us once things start to move with a buyer so thanks again for the hugs xxx

Mojisola

bonkers12 wrote: »

Hi mojisla, thanks for replying , yes a deferred payment scheme is in place and mother and father in law are claiming benefits, they have put a charge on the in laws flat so its not like they wont be getting the money they are owed, they said in the letter that we had 21 days to pay what is owed them or they would tale court action , bit strong really .thanks again for replying.

That's quite shocking! The repayment of the debt is certain - is the council really ready to spend money and time chasing a secure debt?

Can you mollify them by keeping them up-to-date with the stages of the house sale and show that you are making efforts to sell?

I had to sell my Dad's house under similar circumstances - the first sale fell through and then Dad died and we had to wait for probate before the house sale could go through but the council didn't get nasty with us.

bonkers12

Hi again mojisola, thanks for your recent comment, yes as you mentioned the debt to be repayed is secure as far as the council being repayed is concerned, i agree with what you suggested that we will keep the council informed on what is happening with things regarding the flat sale, we still have a private buyer whom is really interested so hopefully that will work out if not i will immediately put the flat on the market . as far as the council sending out a letter threatening court action if the current bill is not settled is maybe our fault to some extent as maybe last year we should have kept them informed with things regarding selling the flat but as i mentioned in an earlier message we were all pretty much overwhelmed with losing my wife's sister to cancer so things with the flat was put on hold for most of the year really,anyway hopefully in the next few months we can get it all sorted out. thanks again for taking the time to reply .