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Elderly parents

Is this taking the piss?

30 replies

mumtumtru · 04/06/2023 14:35

My husbands mother has been ill for a few years but after some treatment is now mentally much better and living a good life in 3rd party care. She has a few properties which my husband shares trustee ownership of with her. One of the properties has already been sorted by the managing agent who did everything and let out. The other is a bit of a dilapidated old house, but is in an excellent location that she would like us to do up as a holiday let. I have somehow ended up with making all the decisions on this, new carpets, 2 types of hard flooring, sofas, side tables, dining tables, bedroom furniture, mirrors, console tables, electrical questions - new circuit board, new leds in all rooms, safety questions like blind cords being replaced in most of the rooms for child safety, dealing with all the safety regulations and so on. ive spent my days researching furniture, sending off for paint samples, carpet samples, floor samples, on and off the phone to curtain lady etc etc etc. Basically a glorified interior designer/project manager. There is a builder whos got the guys to do the work (electrician/plumber etc) but he still expects answers on all of these questions and my husband can help with some of them isn't great when it comes to other kind of stuff. When I raised the topic with my husbands mother and said "look you know I don't want to seem like I'm overstepping the mark here (which I do, as it's not my bleeping house!), is there anything particularly you'd like in the house, fabric wise for curtains, furniture etc" i.e. trying to get her to take some ownership she just replied "You're very good at this you decide". I suggested we get an interior designer she said no as it would be too expensive...when my husband complained about all the work required she said "i didn't ask you to do any of it" but, its his responsibility as a trustee to ensure what's in the trust is maintained. He wanted to sell it but the mother wants to make it a holiday let and he's agreed, neither of us realizing how much work is really involved.

To be clear this is a house neither my husband or I will have any financial gain from. I doubt we'll inherit it and the time that we want to use it will likely be booked up now as its becoming a holiday let (and hopefully a nice one once we are done doing it up). She was a house wife her entire life, never worked, the father was very successful in his work, and made all the decisions, paid all the bills etc, she would have just pottered about at home doing nothing if it wasn't for him. She is now in a place where everything is done for her. The father sadly passed away and fortunately she has been left in a very good position financially, but despite suggestions made, zero effort to gift has been made. As a result this has meant my family have provided a lot more. I respect that's her choice, but this is now starting to raise resentment in my husband whos basically taken over managing all of her affairs for free and now im afraid to say partly me as I feel like my good nature may be being taken advantage of.

WWYD in this position?

OP posts:
threefiftysix · 05/06/2023 15:40

Why do you say you won't inherit the house? Surely you'll have a huge inheritance coming you're way in which case it seems a bit mean to charge her for doing the house up? Or am I missing something

MereDintofPandiculation · 05/06/2023 15:39

Take that suggested number and triple it... Did you mean the care costs or her portfolio? I doubled the care costs from what we're paying, so if she's paying £300,000 a year, I hope she's getting value for money!

mumtumtru · 05/06/2023 14:45

MereDintofPandiculation · 05/06/2023 09:07

That’s not quite true, depends on her assets. As long as she doesn’t run out of money to pay for her own care, she can do what she likes with the surplus. So if care is costing £100,000 per year, and she’s 90 (so likely to have less than 20 years left), and she’s got £3m in assets, then there’d be wiggle room.

But for most of us, no, there’s very strict guidelines on what would be seen as legitimate giving if we reached a stage where the money had run out.

Take that suggested number and triple it...

Gifting aside, which is her prerogative. I'm trying to work out what our incentive, (particularly mine!) is to do all this work for her, and, if we do go ahead, which looks like we are...whether we should potentially charge for it. It's ALOT of work. My husband has spent the past 3 weekends just clearing out the house, and that's before any works started to take place. Ive spent literally hours/days choosing all the furniture for each room, carpets, flooring, paint scheme, mirrors the list goes on!

OP posts:
MereDintofPandiculation · 05/06/2023 09:07

Mosaic123 · 04/06/2023 17:51

If you are in England she won't be able to gift you anything at this stage, even if she wanted to, and is mentally competent to do so, as she is in care.

It would be seen as deprivation of assets. She might need to sell the house to pay for her future care.

That’s not quite true, depends on her assets. As long as she doesn’t run out of money to pay for her own care, she can do what she likes with the surplus. So if care is costing £100,000 per year, and she’s 90 (so likely to have less than 20 years left), and she’s got £3m in assets, then there’d be wiggle room.

But for most of us, no, there’s very strict guidelines on what would be seen as legitimate giving if we reached a stage where the money had run out.

Mosaic123 · 04/06/2023 17:51

If you are in England she won't be able to gift you anything at this stage, even if she wanted to, and is mentally competent to do so, as she is in care.

It would be seen as deprivation of assets. She might need to sell the house to pay for her future care.