Care Home Fees?

martinmcg_2

My mother in law has had to go into a home this week due to the fact she is needing a little professional care than she can gets at home ( dementia has started so not safe to leave on her own for long periods).
5 years ago my mother in law sold her house, my wife and i sold ours and we all moved in together with around half the mother in laws money going towards the new house which we all shared- the rest mortage with extra from the previous house sale.
Can the local authority now claim back half the house from us as we still live in it, could they make a retention on the house so if we one day sold it would have to pay the local authority back? Neither of us are over the age of 60.

EdInvestor

How is the legal ownership of the home arranged?Will MiL be in the home long term?

More info on financing care:

https://www.hsbcpensions.co.uk/nhfa/pdfs/is6.pdf

martinmcg_2

If she settles into the home then i would think that it would have to be long term, she has been assessed and told that a care home would be the best place for her.
The house is in my wife and my names, we have a small mortgage and contributed towards the initial price of the house. My mother in laws name is only on the mortgage saying she is in residence with us.
I have heard stories that the local authority can claim back money and put it on hold until such time as we decided to sell it. - It seems to be a mind field with no clear easy answers. With this being a stressful time in itself with my wife upset she has had to put her mum in a home..the added thought of possibly losing the house is driving her crazy !

treliac

You could contact your nearest Age Concern office and ask for advice on local solicitors who specialise in this area of law.

Options may include:

• The possibility of mother in law qualifying for continuing health care funding - http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_079515

• If you and your wife have been caring for her, the local authority may disregard her interest in the property anyway.

The LA is mostly concerned with people who have acted with the intention of avoiding the payment of fees. I would recommend getting some sound legal advice on your position in this.

monkeyspanner

I think you will need to take expert advice. You could try this charity initially.
www.counselandcare.org.uk they have a number of very good leaflets on care home funding which can be accesseed online.

As your house is in your wife and your names then the money your MIL contributed to the house should count as a gift to you both when the house was purchased. You mention a mortgage, has your MIL been contributing towards this?

The only grounds I can see that the council may investigate your MIL's contribution towards the house purchase is that they could consider the gift as a deliberate reduction in her assets as an attempt to avoid paying care home fees. They would need to demonstrate that this was done with the intention of deliberately depriving herself of assets and due to the length of time which has passed I would think this would be difficult to prove particularly if your MIL was in reasonable health at the time of the gift and there was no prospect of her needing a care home placement. This might become more difficult for you if for instance your MIL had a diagnosis of dementia at the time of the gift then the council could say there was a reasonable prospect of her needing a care placement in the future.

I believe the process is that they can try to recover the money disposed of from the recipient i.e. you and your wife, but a direct charge over your house would I have thought been difficult for them. I have heard that some councils don't investigate this type of transaction back more than 2 years but I think theoretically they are allowed to look back as far as they like.

You mention that your MIL split the proceeds of her house sale. If she has more than a maximum savings limit of around £22000 then she will be expected to self-fund the care home fees until her savings reduce to the upper limit. In addition if below this limit her income except a small weekly allowance of about £20 will be used to pay part of the care home fees with the council topping up the balance to their assessed care fees level.