Advice needed on Buying a house with my mum

Bluerosenw

My mum has dementia, she was diagnosed 7 years ago.
As the illness gets worse it is becoming obvious her house is ill suited to her needs, it's a two up two down terrace with stairs like Everest. She's owns this solely.
I also own jointly with my hubby, a two up two down terrace.
What we would like to do is sell both houses and buy a nice bungalow or suitable house together to try to avoid mum having to go into care.
I am an only child and take full responsibility for mum already and have Power of attorney for health and welfare and property and finances.
However I am extremely worried the local authority would see this as deferment of assets, as mum would go from owning 100% of something to owning 50% of something, even though she would hold the same monetary value and of course I don't know what the future holds and it's possible towards the end she may need a nursing home.
The literature surrounding all this seems very grey, even my solicitor seems at a loss.
Has anyone On here gone through this? Any help or advice greatly appreciated.

Peelerfart

I don't have experience, or can I offer any meaningful advice. All I can do is wish you well and bump your thread.

Good luck

PF

Thrugelmir

Bluerosenw wrote: »

What we would like to do is sell both houses and buy a nice bungalow or suitable house together to try to avoid mum having to go into care.

Is there a way of achieving this without committing a 100% of her equity?

Yes you have POA. However you are acting in her best interests. You've should seperate this from your personal views. A glass wall in a sense. Difficult I appreciate acting in both a legal and family capacity.

getmore4less

Deprivation of assets won't be a problem.

Access to them might be.

Would she qualify for deferred payments.
Could you afford to buy her out
Could you afford any funding requirements

Do you have a support network for care at home to give you respite.


Her house is not suitable have you explored the other options.

AnotherJoe

My sympathies. Been there done that.


The main issue i can forsee is,whatever you do its going to be temporary especially if she's had 7 years with it already. You might sell two houses find another one adapt it, by the time you move in (could easily be a year), you may not even be able to look after mum by then, and also she may take against the new place (unless she has deteriorated such she doesn't know or care in which case shes probably beyond one person looking after her anyway)
The harsh truth is, however bad your mum is now, she is at the best she's ever going to be.

Which means it will get increasingly hard to look after her until it becomes impossible for one person. It will in the meantime put a great strain on you, husband ?children? and finances.

You may be able to put it off for a while but unless you can get social services in on an unrealistically frequent basis, just one person looking after someone with dementia doesn't work and she will need to go into care sooner or later. Does she have carers coming in now?

Would it be possible to adapt her house such that she can live on one floor (preferably ground floor) and carers on top floor at night (be that you or LA provided) until the time she goes into care, or does she live far enough away that's not possible?
IME sufferers tend to be on a plateau for a while, seemingly little change and then theres a step change when they drop down to a new lower level. Change from one level to the next can be charge from, you can cope, to, you cant cope. Can happen in a few weeks.
If you do go ahead, yes i can see social services/LA getting stuck into your affairs worst case force you to sell. If they couldn't do that, everyone would be moving their parents in even if just for 15 minutes to squirrel away the money.