Care home fees after inheriting 50% of property

sjl_elbac

Hi All, 
I think I know the answer to this situation but the Internet isn't giving many answers after hours and hours of research.  Hopefully. If anyone else finds themselves in this situation this thread may show up on Guugle.

lisyloo

sjl_elbac said:

Hi All, 
I think I know the answer to this situation but the Internet isn't giving many answers after hours and hours of research.  Hopefully. If anyone else finds themselves in this situation this thread may show up on Guugle.

Q: We inherited 50% of my parents property as tenants in common when my father died. It was put into a trust for me and my two daughters.
The will writer set it up while we were looking after my father in his last days at our rented property. 
My mother was in hospital but we pulled her out to be with her husband and was with him for his final weeks.
My father passed and my mother was too far gone with dementia and she had to go into care.
Then we were forced to leave our rented property and had to move into my parents house.
The LA included my mother's 50% share in the care home funding means test and concluded that she has to pay for her own carehome costs.
The carehome costs currently sit at £30k
I have told them we aren't in a position to sell.
We are waiting for the LA to get in touch.

The questions are: Will I have to sell? Will I be forced to sell? What are my options? What would you do? Should I fight or just sell.

I am employed, my wife is a housewife and she homeschools my two daughters 11 and 13. 

Thanks to all in advance.

Is anyone in the family over 60, sick or disabled?
the local authority may be willing to offer a deferred payment agreeement I.e. a loan on the house.
does anyone have power of attorney for her to manage her affairs?
if not you may need to apply to the court of protection (long winded) for deputyship to get a DPA on her behalf (I’ve done this).

Longer term You need to consider what happens when she dies? Could you take on a mortgage for her 50%?

If not then your probably living in a house that’s in excess of your means if you can’t afford half of it.

OutdoorQueen

Just a thought, others will know more than me.  I would contact the Alzheimer’s Society and ask about Continuing Healthcare Funding and if your Mum meets the criteria, and how to apply:

https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/get-support/help-dementia-care/nhs-continuing-healthcare

I know of some people who have had funding, but each case is different and I suspect each area is different too.  

Keep_pedalling

lisyloo said:

sjl_elbac said:

Hi All, 
I think I know the answer to this situation but the Internet isn't giving many answers after hours and hours of research.  Hopefully. If anyone else finds themselves in this situation this thread may show up on Guugle.

Q: We inherited 50% of my parents property as tenants in common when my father died. It was put into a trust for me and my two daughters.
The will writer set it up while we were looking after my father in his last days at our rented property. 
My mother was in hospital but we pulled her out to be with her husband and was with him for his final weeks.
My father passed and my mother was too far gone with dementia and she had to go into care.
Then we were forced to leave our rented property and had to move into my parents house.
The LA included my mother's 50% share in the care home funding means test and concluded that she has to pay for her own carehome costs.
The carehome costs currently sit at £30k
I have told them we aren't in a position to sell.
We are waiting for the LA to get in touch.

The questions are: Will I have to sell? Will I be forced to sell? What are my options? What would you do? Should I fight or just sell.

I am employed, my wife is a housewife and she homeschools my two daughters 11 and 13. 

Thanks to all in advance.

Is anyone in the family over 60, sick or disabled?
the local authority may be willing to offer a deferred payment agreeement I.e. a loan on the house.
does anyone have power of attorney for her to manage her affairs?
if not you may need to apply to the court of protection (long winded) for deputyship to get a DPA on her behalf (I’ve done this).

Longer term You need to consider what happens when she dies? Could you take on a mortgage for her 50%?

If not then you’re probably living in a house that’s in excess of your means if you can’t afford half of it.

The OP appears to have moved in after their mother went into care so I don’t think that will fly even if any of them are over 60. Buying the mother’s share could avoid the house being sold and if they already have POA they can do that before she dies.

New rules on care contribution come in next month which should mean the eventual bill will be lower, so if the council will defer the charges then the amount that will eventually need to be payed may be well under 1/2 the house value.

Exodi

sjl_elbac said:

The carehome costs currently sit at £30k
I have told them we aren't in a position to sell.
We are waiting for the LA to get in touch.

The questions are: Will I have to sell? Will I be forced to sell? What are my options? What would you do? Should I fight or just sell.

I think if you take a step back and reflect on the situation, you likely appreciate that her care home fees have to be paid one way or another, and she owns half a house. Your decision to move into the house that she owns half of doesn't change this.

Could you take a small mortgage out to cover it? Does she have any savings or assets? I'm really not clear on what you think you're 'fighting' - if they had to 'force you to sell' I think it would be a sad situation, really you should be proactive in dealing with this. If you were paying rent before, you should be fine to pay a small mortgage.

Unfortunately care home costs can be high because we commonly see people doing everything they can to try to avoid paying them. There can also be unfortunate conflicts of interest.

Keep_pedalling said:

The OP appears to have moved in after their mother went into care so I don’t think that will fly even if any of them are over 60. Buying the mother’s share could avoid the house being sold and if they already have POA they can do that before she dies.

^ this. Do you have POA OP?

Mojisola

Exodi said:

Could you take a small mortgage out to cover it? 

If you were paying rent before, you should be fine to pay a small mortgage.

People on low incomes can get help with rent but not mortgage repayments.

Exodi

Mojisola said:

Exodi said:

Could you take a small mortgage out to cover it? 

If you were paying rent before, you should be fine to pay a small mortgage.

People on low incomes can get help with rent but not mortgage repayments.

In the OP's other thread last year they mentioned about how they wanted to move into the house while the mother was in the nursing home to save on rent:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6381366/occupying-inherited-property-before-will-has-been-proved

So I assumed from this they were paying at least a significant part of the rent out of their own pocket beforehand.

I'd expect any mortgage taken out for the care-home fees to be considerably smaller than the rent they might have been paying.

Nonetheless, I think it's about trying to change the OP's perspective from "Looks like it can't be paid because I don't want to sell now I'm living here rent free" to appreciating that it has to be paid one way or another.

lisyloo

Exodi said:

Mojisola said:

Exodi said:

Could you take a small mortgage out to cover it? 

If you were paying rent before, you should be fine to pay a small mortgage.

People on low incomes can get help with rent but not mortgage repayments.

In the OP's other thread last year they mentioned about how they wanted to move into the house while the mother was in the nursing home to save on rent:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6381366/occupying-inherited-property-before-will-has-been-proved

So I assumed from this they were paying at least a significant part of the rent out of their own pocket beforehand.

I'd expect any mortgage taken out for the care-home fees to be considerably smaller than the rent they might have been paying.

Nonetheless, I think it's about trying to change the OP's perspective from "Looks like it can't be paid because I don't want to sell now I'm living here rent free" to appreciating that it has to be paid one way or another.

It does have to be paid, but you can’t sell half a house easily whilst it’s being lived in.
it seems to me the LA would probably rather have an agreed co-operative DPA than a forced court order and eviction.
However deputyship will required to agree to a DPA and to put a charge on the house.
I got this agreed whilst applying for deputyship, so if there is cooperation then that seems like a good route to go down to me.

Gavin83

The council will take the easiest route. Taking people to court is a last resort and they'd much rather come to some agreement. Ultimately either way it'll need to be paid but I expect they'd accept a deferred payment agreement so speak to them in that regard.

Technically I expect you should be paying rent to your mum for her half ownership, although I expect the council are unlikely to enforce this. Could be some argument that by not doing so you aren't acting in your mums best interests and therefore could have any PoA removed, although again I expect this is unlikely.

sheramber

Gavin83 said:

The council will take the easiest route. Taking people to court is a last resort and they'd much rather come to some agreement. Ultimately either way it'll need to be paid but I expect they'd accept a deferred payment agreement so speak to them in that regard.

Technically I expect you should be paying rent to your mum for her half ownership, although I expect the council are unlikely to enforce this. Could be some argument that by not doing so you aren't acting in your mums best interests and therefore could have any PoA removed, although again I expect this is unlikely.

Deferred until when?

The OP has no willingness to sell the house.

elsien

Keep_pedalling said:

lisyloo said:

sjl_elbac said:

Hi All, 
I think I know the answer to this situation but the Internet isn't giving many answers after hours and hours of research.  Hopefully. If anyone else finds themselves in this situation this thread may show up on Guugle.

Q: We inherited 50% of my parents property as tenants in common when my father died. It was put into a trust for me and my two daughters.
The will writer set it up while we were looking after my father in his last days at our rented property. 
My mother was in hospital but we pulled her out to be with her husband and was with him for his final weeks.
My father passed and my mother was too far gone with dementia and she had to go into care.
Then we were forced to leave our rented property and had to move into my parents house.
The LA included my mother's 50% share in the care home funding means test and concluded that she has to pay for her own carehome costs.
The carehome costs currently sit at £30k
I have told them we aren't in a position to sell.
We are waiting for the LA to get in touch.

The questions are: Will I have to sell? Will I be forced to sell? What are my options? What would you do? Should I fight or just sell.

I am employed, my wife is a housewife and she homeschools my two daughters 11 and 13. 

Thanks to all in advance.

Is anyone in the family over 60, sick or disabled?
the local authority may be willing to offer a deferred payment agreeement I.e. a loan on the house.
does anyone have power of attorney for her to manage her affairs?
if not you may need to apply to the court of protection (long winded) for deputyship to get a DPA on her behalf (I’ve done this).

Longer term You need to consider what happens when she dies? Could you take on a mortgage for her 50%?

If not then you’re probably living in a house that’s in excess of your means if you can’t afford half of it.

The OP appears to have moved in after their mother went into care so I don’t think that will fly even if any of them are over 60. Buying the mother’s share could avoid the house being sold and if they already have POA they can do that before she dies.

New rules on care contribution come in next month which should mean the eventual bill will be lower, so if the council will defer the charges then the amount that will eventually need to be payed may be well under 1/2 the house value.

If you are referring to the care cap, that’s not happening. The government did a U-turn on that sometime ago. Technically it’s delayed until October 2025, which is after the next election, so its looking increasingly remote that it will be implemented.