📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

Mum wants to gift her house to me

Options
1356

Comments

  • tooldle
    tooldle Posts: 1,604 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 24 January 2024 at 10:55AM
    If your mother does gift the house to you and somehow gets her care home fees covered, does she also realise her pension(s) will be taken, leaving her with only £25 or so each week for personal spends. In my neck of the woods that is less than one hair do each week. Forget having feet care, treats, magazines, new clothes etc. Many don’t seem to realise this. Pay for your own care and use savings / other assets to plug whatever costs the pensions don’t cover. 
    As others have said, self funders can choose when the time is right for them to make the move. Council funded people do not get that luxury, instead that must wait until an assessment confirms the absolute need for more than home visits. A friend of mine is running back and fore helping her dad at home, well past the point where my mum had moved into self funded care. 
  • Gavin83
    Gavin83 Posts: 8,757 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    If you ever need to claim benefits I think this could be an issue for you as you’ll be treated as having capital.
    my husband earns too much for me to claim benefits
    What happens if you were to get divorced? He'd be able to claim a portion of your mums house. Or even if he dies. As mentioned you'd be limited in what you could claim in those circumstances. Or even if you were to have a stroke/an accident and need residential care yourself.

    There are a lot of disadvantages to this, for both you and your mum. Even if none of those come to pass I agree with some of the others. If put in that situation your mum wants choice. I've been to a lot of care homes (I used to work in this area) and there's a massive difference between those homes with mostly council funded residents and those where they're all privately funded.

    Personally I think the negatives outweigh the positives for all involved but I'm getting the vibe you've made your decision already. For the record I've been in a similar situation in the past and I advised my relative to keep all of her property in her name. She's now in care and I'm glad I didn't take the opportunity to do this as she's in a great care home she simply wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise.
  • Mojisola
    Mojisola Posts: 35,571 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Mum is on her own, she has been talking to friends and has said that wants to transfer her house to me so that it wont be used to pay for her if has to go into a care home.
    This plan could result in your Mum's estate being liable for inheritance tax (because she'll still be living in the property), you having to pay capital gains tax (on the difference between the gift value and the ultimate sale price) and the council refusing to fund her care because of deprivation of assets.

  • caprikid1
    caprikid1 Posts: 2,454 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    "It used to be so many years elapsing before it became safely transferred (7 or 11 years i think ) but im not sure of the exact details now."

    As stated Google Deprivation of assets, there is no limit they can go back if they think the intention is as per the OP's stated attention.

    So as stated it probably will not achieve the objective and could incur legal fees when they come after the money.
  • KxMx
    KxMx Posts: 11,144 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    People trying to avoid paying for their care often have a complete fantasy as to what the council will provide, and equally important, when. 
  • paul2louise
    paul2louise Posts: 2,548 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I have read all the comments and I know nothing about it. She is meeting with a solicitor so they can explain it all to her. I will obviously explain what you have all told me too. Thank you for the replies 
  • Gavin83
    Gavin83 Posts: 8,757 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Exodi said:
    We simultaneously wonder why we have a social care problem in this country.
    It's generally these kinds of people who then complain about the poor standard of care their parent receives, not seeing even a slight sense of irony in them having caused the situation.
  • Mojisola
    Mojisola Posts: 35,571 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I have read all the comments and I know nothing about it. She is meeting with a solicitor so they can explain it all to her. I will obviously explain what you have all told me too. Thank you for the replies 
    Also worth asking yourself, could you enjoy spending the capital from the sale of the house while visiting your mother in a far-from-ideal underfunded care home or would you end up paying for her care in a place of her choice anyway?

Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 351.2K Banking & Borrowing
  • 253.2K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 453.7K Spending & Discounts
  • 244.2K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 599.2K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 177K Life & Family
  • 257.6K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.2K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.6K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.