Care home fees after inheriting 50% of property

sjl_elbac

Thanks for all your comments.
Yes I do have LPA. 
My mother wasnt approved for Continuing Healthcare Funding. I've been warned that there are companies that offer the service to secure the funding but it is an expensive scam.
It's a strange situation to be in and it seems there isn't any agreed solution.
I did speak to a specialist solicitor and he advised me that my best option is to negotiate with the LA on the value of 50% of the property.
If we do agree on a value, what then? 
Can I buy the other half from my mother and settle the carehome fees?

Exodi

sjl_elbac said:

Thanks for all your comments.
Yes I do have LPA. 
My mother wasnt approved for Continuing Healthcare Funding. I've been warned that there are companies that offer the service to secure the funding but it is an expensive scam.
It's a strange situation to be in and it seems there isn't any agreed solution.
I did speak to a specialist solicitor and he advised me that my best option is to negotiate with the LA on the value of 50% of the property.
If we do agree on a value, what then? 
Can I buy the other half from my mother and settle the carehome fees?

The fees were always going to be payable and your mum owns half a house - the situation has only become 'strange' because of your decision to move in. The fees were inevitable.

Either the house is sold on the market and she is provided 50% of the value or assuming you reach a fair agreement with the LA on the value of 50% (and it should reflect true market value, and not 'mates rates' (as obviously there is a conflict of interest in you deciding how much you should pay for her half of the house, which by extension limits the care liability)), you could opt to take a mortgage out and buy her out of part/all of her share (could be 50%, could be less, unfortunately we don't know what her total care liability will be). Any excess would eventually form part of her estate.

I think you're on the right track, and the solicitor echoes what has been said on this forum.

The care home fees have to paid one way or another, unfortunately.

Gavin83

sheramber said:

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.

That’ll be down to the council. As I said the OP would need to speak to them to establish this.

Malthusian

sjl_elbac said:

My mother wasnt approved for Continuing Healthcare Funding.

Have you appealed?
As with all needs-based welfare, standard practice is to reject almost everyone who applies and look at the ones who appeal. Unless she is clearly not eligible I would appeal. You don't need to pay anyone to do this.
Did she have a full assessment or just the initial "checklist"?

Mojisola

sheramber said:

Deferred until when?
The OP has no willingness to sell the house.

It's a difficult one for the council and they may not allow a deferred arrangement.

When the council arranges a deferred payment, a charge is put on the house so that the loan has to be repaid as part of the house sale but if the OP doesn't put the house on the market but carries on living there, that leaves the loan outstanding.

At the moment, the debt is with the care home.  I'm surprised they have allowed it to get to £30k without evicting her. 

The OP is probably on borrowed time - find a way to pay the debt.

If you have to sell the house and use your share of the 50% to get sorted in another rental, that's what you'll have to do.

Presumably the children's share will be ring fenced until they are 18.

elsien

Malthusian said:

sjl_elbac said:

My mother wasnt approved for Continuing Healthcare Funding.

Have you appealed?
As with all needs-based welfare, standard practice is to reject almost everyone who applies and look at the ones who appeal. Unless she is clearly not eligible I would appeal. You don't need to pay anyone to do this.
Did she have a full assessment or just the initial "checklist"?

Op may need to check whether or not she was approved for the FNC nursing top up or declined health funding completely. That may form the basis of any appeal. 

Keep_pedalling

sjl_elbac said:

Thanks for all your comments.
Yes I do have LPA. 
My mother wasnt approved for Continuing Healthcare Funding. I've been warned that there are companies that offer the service to secure the funding but it is an expensive scam.
It's a strange situation to be in and it seems there isn't any agreed solution.
I did speak to a specialist solicitor and he advised me that my best option is to negotiate with the LA on the value of 50% of the property.
If we do agree on a value, what then? 
Can I buy the other half from my mother and settle the carehome fees?

Yes you can buy out your mother’s share but as you will also be selling her share using you POA, you must do so at a price that is in her best interest 
so anything less than 50% of its market value is going to be questionable. 

Spendless

Would a mindset change help how you feel about it?. If your Mum had inherited instead of yourself when your Dad passed away  then she'd now own 100% of the house, and the proceeds of the house sale would be paying care costs until either the amount reduced to her being fully funded by the LA or she passed away whichever came first. I know replies on here are often along the lines of people don't tend to live long in care homes. That's an average, some people do. My own Grandmother lived for 8 years in one, dying the month before her 99th birthday. She had dementia and was unable to cope at the point she was admitted. It is fortunate that you've inherited half of the house 

Also see your wife not working and home-schooling as working to your advantage too, it means should you be unable to get a mortgage for 50% of the house value and have to move somewhere cheaper, you haven't got schools and a 2nd job to take into account when looking for something suitable.

lisyloo

Malthusian said:

sjl_elbac said:

My mother wasnt approved for Continuing Healthcare Funding.

Have you appealed?
As with all needs-based welfare, standard practice is to reject almost everyone who applies and look at the ones who appeal. Unless she is clearly not eligible I would appeal. You don't need to pay anyone to do this.
Did she have a full assessment or just the initial "checklist"?

Dementia usually results in personal care and not medical care although it can come with a relatively small funded nursing care component.
so it’s fine to exhaust this route (and it’s what I’d do) but seems unlikely to me.

it’s a common complaint that those with cancer would get CHC but dementia you commonly have to pay your own way.

lisyloo

sjl_elbac said:

Thanks for all your comments.
Yes I do have LPA. 
My mother wasnt approved for Continuing Healthcare Funding. I've been warned that there are companies that offer the service to secure the funding but it is an expensive scam.
It's a strange situation to be in and it seems there isn't any agreed solution.
I did speak to a specialist solicitor and he advised me that my best option is to negotiate with the LA on the value of 50% of the property.
If we do agree on a value, what then? 
Can I buy the other half from my mother and settle the carehome fees?

Not sure why you think this is so strange.
a mortgage sounds like a great solution.
as others have said you need proper valuations to prove the market rate. It should not be difficult to get an independent valuation that shows your not getting a preferential rate,
The LA will be happy if they get paid.
you’re getting use of the whole house for 50%.

now there could be an issue if you don’t have a deposit but you don’t need the entire 50% now do you, so you could go for a smaller mortgage short/medium term.

that leaves a longer term issue but you have time to resolve