Selling 50% of a house to pay for care home fees?

elsien

newbie1980 wrote: »

this is how my mums house has been split and my dad has passed so mum only owns 50% now
they was told by the person doing the will that by doing this this would stop the care home fees as you cant sell 50% off a house

how this will be in reality if ever it comes to it i dont know

And you paid for that dodgy advice? :eek:

lisyloo

Mojisola wrote: »

Or the council will refuse to pay the care home fees of a person who has enough assets to pay their own way and the care home will turf mother out.

I don’t think care homes are allowed just turf someone out (and it’s bad press).
However she could certainly be moved after assessment to somewhere cheaper, further away and frankly a place where loving children would put their mother “over their dead body”.

As has been pointed out already the POA means acting in HER best interests.

I recently looked at an annuity in my MIL best interests. It was NOT in her beneficiaries best interests.

Fire_Fox

Mojisola wrote: »

Or the council will refuse to pay the care home fees of a person who has enough assets to pay their own way and the care home will turf mother out.

How will your brother cope with looking after your mother when she has to come home?

More likely it would be viewed as an abuse of Power of Attorney and steps would be taken to revoke that. Adult Social Services and the Care Home should have policies in place to identify and report abuse of PoA.

Flugelhorn

could the LA put a charge on the 50% of the house?

lisyloo

Flugelhorn wrote: »

could the LA put a charge on the 50% of the house?

They can and will whilst the proprety is being sold.
They will want a DPA signed (loan for the fees) plus the forms for the charge (CH1??, ID1). I did this recently and I don't think they actually registered a charge in our case as we were SSTC, but they sure wanted the paperwork ready in their drawer and to be kept updated on the sale.



But this is whilst the property is being liqiudated.


if youre asking will they put a charge on and wait indefintely on the pleasure of non-dependent adults, then the answer is no.

xylophone

As I said in my post above, it appears that the house was gifted into a settlor interested Trust - the Trustees are the OP's mother (now "incapax") and the OP and her brother.

The LA might choose to "look through" the Trust if it regarded the exercise as a ploy to avoid paying care home fees, particularly as mother entered the home after only a year of setting up the Trust.

But if the property is wholly owned by the Trust, then there would appear to be various tax considerations to be taken into account if the property is sold.

lisyloo

The LA might choose to "look through" the Trust if it regarded the exercise as a ploy to avoid paying care home fees, particularly as mother entered the home after only a year of setting up the Trust.

It was 7 years wasn't it?


I read it as they are only looking for 50%.

getmore4less

brigez wrote: »

Dad died in 1994, trust was set up in 2011 by my Mum to reduce inheritance tax. Both my brother and me were aware of the trust but we are not aware of our legal responsibilities. The trustees meeting will hopefully set that straight and help us decide what is the right thing to do.

If the house needs to be sold in whole so be it, my brother will just have to realise what he needs to do.

In my original post I asked if anyone has sold 50% of a property before, as that is what the local authority are holding my Mum responsible for.

We will(may) get there in the end, when the op does not know the answers all we can do is get them to ask the right questions to find out what has happened.

xylophone

It was 7 years wasn't it?

Yes, you are right - misread the figure.

However, if the LA suspect DoA, they can go back as far as they wish - it is just that the closer going into care is from the gift (into trust or otherwise), the closer they are likely to look I should think.

With regard to the 50%, I am not sure how relevant this is.

The OP says that she believes that the property was wholly owned by her mother after her father died (rather than her father's having left his interest to her and her brother with a life interest to her mother).

It appears that mother then gifted the property into Trust and that the trust was "settlor interested" - ie she could benefit from the assets in the Trust, as could the other two beneficiaries/Trustees.

From what the solicitor to my relative's family Trust has said, Trustees have to be unanimous regarding decisions made about Trust assets.

Mother and siblings were in agreement about her remaining in the property and the brother's living there.

I had forgotten to mention that as the mother has lost capacity to be a Trustee, this can also bring problems in its wake.


https://www.furleypage.co.uk/what-to-do-when-a-trustee-loses-mental-capacity-to-carry-out-trustee-functions/

It could be argued that as the asset had been gifted into Trust, it no longer belonged to the mother so could not be taken into account in the means test - but (round in a circle we go), the LA seems minded to "look through" the Trust - if so, if (as appears to be the case) the property was wholly owned by the mother, then they could argue that the whole value of the asset should be considered in regard to the means test.

The OP said that she will be taking legal advice - it seems that she will need it.

brigez

Ok, Thanks for the help so far.

I've looked a bit more at the trust paperwork (just trying to sort out whats what has been a pain), and it says my Mum is the setlor, a potential beneficiary and a current beneficiary.

My self and my brother along with my Mum are potential beneficiary's
.
My Mum owns 50% of the property outright and my brother and myself hold 50% of the property in a family probate trust and are responsible for sharing out her estate as per her will to other named family members.

So It looks like if we sell the house she will be liable for 50% of the value to go to her care costs and the rest to be split as her will wishes.........I think