Buying mum's house due to care home fees

Salamanderking

My father left 25% of the house he shared with my mum to myself and my sister when he dies, meaning we have a combined 50% financial interest in the property. My mother now needs to go into a home and we need to sell the house to pay her care fees.
We're struggling to sell it at 'market value' as assessed by 3 independent estate agents. My understanding (in simple terms) is that as long as it remains unsold we will be accruing interest on the money mum owes to the local authority for as long as it takes to sell.

Would there be any point in buying the house using the 50% interest we have plus savings in order to pay for the care home, the potential advantage being we would still have an asset and we could rent the house out instead of selling it.

Stubod

..do you really want to become landlords????.....keep trying to sell, even if it means lowering the price...(IMHO)...

Brie

Agree - sell the house.  you might not get any rent at all if the tenants are dreadful and still owe money.

That said - perhaps stating the obvious.  It's your mom's half that owes the LA money not yours.  So when it does sell - it's £X divided by 2 and mom's half goes into an account from which the LA can be paid and the other half is split evenly between you and sis.  If the sale drags on the LA cannot ask you or sis to contribute from your own funds.  (well they probably will ask but you can say no)

BobT36

If you're struggling to sell it at "Market value", then the "market value" that they have assessed is too high. 

Maybe try and objectively look at it, and see if there is anything that needs to be fixed that's putting off potential buyers. (Remember that if the price is reasonable enough to accommodate for this, even they will be overlooked)

MCT56

These situations are always difficult. It depends on so many factors. Your understanding about the cost of the care fees will be correct as the Local Authority will no doubt insist on a legal charge being placed against the property to ensure they get their money back, plus interest. I was quoted bank rate plus 1%. Their solicitor will charge for this order to be set up and to discharge it once the house is sold. In my L.A it cost £800 for this. If you have the luxury of time and financial resources you could potentially buy the share you don't own and sell the house at a time of your choosing.  As alluded to, renting out has it's own problems and don't forget that some L.A's have recently doubled the amount of council tax you pay on empty properties.