Selling my in-laws house

skyblue1987

Hi - My father in law is in his 80s and suffered a number of strokes and heart attacks in the last couple of years. He absolutely refuses to go into a home, and is quite happy with the care that he receives from home help and members of his family.

He has asked us to sell his house now, if there is any way it can be arranged so that he can still live in it until his death. His reasoning is that his children are all in positions where they would be better off getting their inheritance now rather than in 2, 3 or 5 years time.

Does anyone know of companies who would be prepared to purchase a house at today's value and either forego or charge minimal rent for a short period of time - as this will be offset against profits that they will make in the future.

Hope this is understandable, and that someone can offer assistance

duchy

If he gifts money and dies within 7 years there will a tax element on those gifts (on a sliding scale depending on the timescale). There is a threshold below which it doesn't apply so it would be dependent on the amount of equity released.
There are equity release schemes also purchase and rent back schemes but they are poor vaue for money and I would do a lot of research and take good legal advice before proceeding.

skyblue1987

I'm guessing that the house is worth £150K and will be divided equally between his 5 children, so I don't think inheritance tax comes into play does it ?

merlinthehappypig

We are in a similar, though not identical, situation.

There are a number of things to consider:

Inheritance tax is not an issue (though the number of children is irrelevant, it's based on the value of the estate, not how much each person gets), but you are well under the threshold.

I have no experience with the buy back companies, but I have never heard anything positive. The last thing you want to do is put your father's security at risk so I would think very carefully before doing anything that might result in him losing the house, however implausible that might seem, these things have a habit of going wrong.

If you father ultimately goes into a home, which you can't say won't happen if he gets seriously ill or develops dementia, there might be an argument for the council to say that he has deliberately deprived himself of assets and care fees might still be payable.

Bottom line is that I would take advice from a professional who knows about the law relating to this. This forum is great, but at the end of the day mostly what you get is people's opinions, not hard facts. For free impartial advice, Help the Aged are actually a good place to start, as are the various carers' support groups across the country.

poppy10_2

Sadly, it sounds like he will be dead in less than 7 years anyway, so selling the house now won't reduce the inheritance tax liability.

merlinthehappypig

poppy10 wrote: »

Sadly, it sounds like he will be dead in less than 7 years anyway, so selling the house now won't reduce the inheritance tax liability.

From the figures the OP has given there will be no inheritance tax liability anyway, but that isn't the only consideration in this situation - hence my recommendation for proper advice.