transfering house to children

patsyfagan1

Is it possible to transfer my house into my children's names to prevent my house being sold if I have to go into a care home. I do have some saved income. Do I add their names to the land registry or ?????

Browntoa

It's not without tax implications and other complications.

Councils also class it as "deprivation of assets" and can legally challenge . The asset is then classed as if it as yours and a charge placed against it .

I personally know of someone who did this and then were evicted by their own daughter 
 Ended up in rented accommodation living life on state pension . 

And have you actually had experience of council funded care homes , I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy in most cases .

I'd rather use my personal assets to fund decent care for myself and any decent children would applaud that and expect nothing from your estate .

You do realise that the rules are likely to change in a few years and a cap put on the maximum that can be claimed from your estate for care ?? 

TELLIT01

Such actions are fraught with risk, some of which have been outlined by Browntoa.  If you are seriously considering this you absolutely MUST take expert legal advice first.

Not only could this backfire on you, but in the event that any of your children found themselves needing to claim benefit, those could be affected by ownership of a property they are not living in.

user1977

Nothing to do with consumer rights, really one for the House Buying/Selling/Renting board - though I would agree with the comments above.

DB1904

Browntoa said:

It's not without tax implications and other complications.

Councils also class it as "deprivation of assets" and can legally challenge . The asset is then classed as if it as yours and a charge placed against it .

I personally know of someone who did this and then were evicted by their own daughter 
 Ended up in rented accommodation living life on state pension . 

And have you actually had experience of council funded care homes , I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy in most cases .

I'd rather use my personal assets to fund decent care for myself and any decent children would applaud that and expect nothing from your estate .

You do realise that the rules are likely to change in a few years and a cap put on the maximum that can be claimed from your estate for care ?? 

In real terms it's unlikely to change as the proposed changes are only for the care element. Most of the cost for end of life care is made up of the accommodation element which won't change. 

Aylesbury_Duck

patsyfagan1 said:

Is it possible to transfer my house into my children's names to prevent my house being sold if I have to go into a care home. I do have some saved income. Do I add their names to the land registry or ?????

Surely it's better to fund good quality care by selling your house, rather than rely on the state to fund what will be the very basic statutory level of care on offer?  Wouldn't your children prefer that?

Grumpy_chap

patsyfagan1 said:

Is it possible to transfer my house into my children's names to prevent my house being sold if I have to go into a care home. I do have some saved income. Do I add their names to the land registry or ?????

To do this for that reason would be deprivation of assets.  The value may well be deemed to be yours in any case for assessing care fees liability.

If you are to remain living in the house, then it would not avoid IHT either, as that would be GWR (gift with reservation).

How would you secure your tenancy in the property?  Even if you know your children would not evict, circumstances may force that upon them unwillingly.  Relationship breakdown, need to claim benefits are two examples.  Children lose first time buyer rights (if applicable) and / or may need to pay second-property stamp duty (either buying their own property, or on the gifted value of your property).

CGT will be payable on the property disposal whenever your children sell.

There is another thread that describes this matter and the potential issues that can arise very recently:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6305245/mum-wants-to-transfer-house-deeds-to-myself-after-dad-has-died-best-way-to-do-it-for-her/p1

mobileron

Why should we pay for your care home??

Undervalued

mobileron said:

Why should we pay for your care home??

It is not as simple as that emotive comment!

Take two people with similar jobs. One is very careful with their money and makes provision for their old age. The other "lives for today", spends every penny they have (and often more) and pays no attention to their likely future needs. By your argument "we" should refuse the second person any help in their old age as their inability to pay for it themselves is their own fault! Just how far do you take this?

Keep_pedalling

Undervalued said:

mobileron said:

Why should we pay for your care home??

It is not as simple as that emotive comment!

Take two people with similar jobs. One is very careful with their money and makes provision for their old age. The other "lives for today", spends every penny they have (and often more) and pays no attention to their likely future needs. By your argument "we" should refuse the second person any help in their old age as their inability to pay for it themselves is their own fault! Just how far do you take this?

And it is not as simple as that old chestnut. Every time this comes up it is about the equity built up in a home. Most of that equity will have had nothing to do with saving every penny but down to runaway inflation on property prices. That is certainly the case for us where 90% of our equity is down to inflation.

Few people in care homes funded by LAs fall into your second mainly mythical group, most have never been able to afford their own homes because the majority of people in the country are in relatively low paid jobs. Many are elderly women from a generation who stopped work when they had children. That was the case for my mother and of most of the other residence of her care home who I got to know while she was in there.

LA funded residential care is a safety net, and a poorly funded one at that. From personal experience I know how hard it is to clear the first hurdle to get it. You have to be in a really decrepit state to get the funding approved, so you may be struggling at home for months or even a year or two with very poor health and  little company with just short home visits from over worked carers, when what you really need is full time care.

Once you do get past that you are then left with a very limited choice of the care homes who are prepared to take on a LA resident for the amount a LA will pay.

Like most things in life those who have managed to accumulate more wealth always have better options, and for those with significant assets the difference is massive, and only a fool would deliberately deprive themselves of having control of what happens to them in their most vulnerable years. We have care costs built into are long term financial planning. We may never need it but if either of us do, we know we are in a position to get care when we need it, where we want it (preferable at home) and with who we want to deliver it. 

Gavin83

patsyfagan1 said:

Is it possible to transfer my house into my children's names to prevent my house being sold if I have to go into a care home. I do have some saved income. Do I add their names to the land registry or ?????

I agree with some of the others. This is generally a bad idea and I know of people who have ended up homeless in their older years due to attempting to avoid care fees they’ll likely never incur. Ironically when they end up homeless they often then expect help from the council. Couldn’t make it up.