Tennant's in common

thebullsback

Someone I know who's wife has had MS for over twenty year recently had a 5 Day stay in a care home organised by the NHS at no charge.

After this event the couple decided to apply for Tenants in Common and had a new will drawn up .

I suspect that if care costs are required in the next few years the 100% of the property value will be taken into consideration regardless of the Tennant's in common Claus.

Am I right or wrong ?

Thanks for reading

sheramber

if her husband is resident in the house it is ignored.

Ms_Chocaholic

Depends on their age.

If held TIC they can only put a charge on the property for the half the husband owns, that' my understanding.

thebullsback

Will Deprivation of Assets come into play due to the medical history?

Savvy_Sue

I don't know, but ... Is the husband over 60? And bear in mind there may be valid reasons for doing this unconnected to DofA.

thebullsback

He 73

She 71

Savvy_Sue

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81859125#Comment_81859125

In that case, the house is disregarded for the purposes of calculating care costs, as long as he remains living in it. So I'd say you're wrong, because the value of the property is unlikely to be a relevant consideration for care costs.

And changing to TiC before drawing up a new will may also give protection to their children - if they have any - which can be particularly important in a blended family (either of them having had children with a different parent), or to avoid the children being disinherited by a remarriage - which you might think unlikely at their ages, but is not impossible.

Changing to TiC was presumably done following 'proper' legal advice, the kind they've paid for. If they said "we want to avoid our home being taken by the council for care costs", they should have been advised a) that this was unlikely to happen and b) that taking action with the intention of avoiding care home costs rarely 'works' the way you think it's going to.

PLUS, unless you know more than you're saying, you don't know what other assets they may have for covering any necessary care home costs. The wife may need to survive in a top of the range care home for 30 years before they need to worry.

Keep_pedalling

Do they have any children? Does their new wills create an immediate post death interest trust on the first death? This does sounds rather like a knee jerk reaction to the house possible being needed to cover care costs at some point in the near future, but there is nothing to protect while one of them remains living there.