Selling house to pay for care home

Alphatauri

As pp have said start with your Dad’s will. What you need to confirm is whether or not when your Dad left you his. 50% of the house if he also gave your Mum a life interest. It is the life interest that is key.

I would also be good to check with Land Registry how the house is now owned and the definitely were tenants in common.

If you Mum was left a life interest, when you sell the house consider splitting the funds in two. 50% belongs to your Mum and can be fully utilised to fund her care costs. The other 50% belongs to the children but your Mum is entitled to any interest generated. Splitting it and investing both gives your Mum all the income but clearly defines the children’s inheritance. 

WRT investing the money. As with other income interest is taxable unless the money is invested in non-taxable savings. These are ISAs and Premium Bonds. I would be dripping £20k a year into ISAs to reduce the tax liability. Obviously if you find investments that pay high interest which, after tax still exceed the ISA interest rate then go with that.

msb1234

The first thing to look at is how much in income and savings does she already have? Another is, does she still have capacity to sell the house?
Her income will first be used to pay for her care fees. If you work on a weekly fee of £1k, and her weekly income is £500, then she will need to pay the remaining £500 from savings. With, say £10k in savings thats going to last her 20 weeks. Before that money runs out, a financial assessment will need to be carried out. The Local Authority finance team will need to see all the relevant paperwork including her husband’s will, her bank statements, income stream, and any trust documents that determine who owns what. 
Ultimately, they *could* decide not to take into account her share of the house, or put a charge against it.