Personal loans for older people?

wamble321

Hi looking to help my father in law. He's 91 and after a new hip and stroke we moved in with him to care for him full time. He has a good stable income (pension and benefits), owns his own house and also his car outright after he paid off a PCP loan about 3 years ago (so he has good credit history) Although mentally sound, he can't physically drive his car any more but has put me and my wife on the insurance as he enjoys being taken out for drives.

He's now set his heart on getting a £45K Lexus as a bucket list-type thing so he can enjoy a ride out in luxury. He has about £10k in savings, £15k part-ex for his current car and he wants to take out a loan for the difference.

The way he sees it there'll be enough equity in the car to account for depreciation so if he dies or loses his faculties, we're the executors/PoA so we'd just sell it and settle the loan from the estate. He can easily afford repayments as we share all the bills with him. I see his logic, but don't know how many lenders would be willing to lend £20K to a 91 year old!

Any ideas which lenders would be good to speak to first?
Thanks in advance.

bazdvd

can you not lend it to him as you are living rent free in his house and benefiting from the use and free insurance for the car?

wamble321

bazdvd said:

can you not lend it to him as you are living rent free in his house and benefiting from the use and free insurance for the car?

Thanks for the thought, We do contribute to the household bills but have no savings or capital otherwise we would of course consider that option. We have also just become debt-free so us taking a loan out on his behalf isn't an option either.

ManyWays

I would be surprised if a lender would lend that amount to him.

If he just wants an occasional treat, he could pay for you to hire a posh car sometimes? 

wamble321

ManyWays said:

I would be surprised if a lender would lend that amount to him.

If he just wants an occasional treat, he could pay for you to hire a posh car sometimes? 

Thanks but he likes to have a drive out about 3 or 4 times a week

Altior

Seems absolutely daft. Are any of the benefits means tested? This plan would be deprivation of capital if so. 

You can't own a car, insure it as the primary driver and never actually drive it, with only the secondary divers actually driving. Not legally anyway, it's fraud. 

If you have PoA then I feel like you need to act in the best interests of the FiL. Which wouldn't involve sinking all of his cash assets into, and obtaining a £20K loan to sit in a car (if the loan was even possible, which is highly unlikely). 

Nasqueron

Lenders typically have an age cap for obvious reasons, for mortgages as an example, it usually got to be repaid by 75-80

It might be worth speaking to a group who deals with older people like Saga to see if they have any suggestions though you could just google age limits for each bank

sheramber

Is £10k His total savings or only part? 

sourcrates

I would say he would be looking at a product such as equity release to obtain a loan of that size at his age.

I think your expectations of obtaining funds from a conventional source would be wildly optimistic.

bazdvd

cant he buy an old lexus? would still be comfortable to sit in?

wamble321

Altior said:

Are any of the benefits means tested? 

Nope.

You can't own a car, insure it as the primary driver and never actually drive it, with only the secondary divers actually driving. Not legally anyway, it's fraud. 

He is only the registered keeper. We are aware of the law and that is why he isn't insured on it - but we are. We considered a lease but they do insist that the person leasing is the main driver so it wouldn't work.

If you have PoA then I feel like you need to act in the best interests of the FiL. Which wouldn't involve sinking all of his cash assets into, and obtaining a £20K loan to sit in a car (if the loan was even possible, which is highly unlikely). 

He's 91 and of sound mind so PoA is only there if he needs it. He's lived a good life and we are just trying to facilitate a little bit of pleasure for him.