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Elderly parents
Original poster

Person going into care home thinks they have avoided selling their house to pay fees?

440 replies

LindorDoubleChoc · 11/08/2023 19:59

A distant relative has just sadly gone into care (dementia). He is not married but has a long-term partner with whom he has two adult children.

His family seem to think he won't have to sell his property to pay for the fees because "he has put his house in his son's name". I'm trying to think what this means and surely if it were that simple everyone would do it?

Are they misunderstanding the system? Or how could they have achieved this? They are in England.

OP posts:
Hellsbellsandspidersankles · 11/08/2023 20:53

Stressfordays · 11/08/2023 20:45

There are a lot of loop holes to get around this. However a lot of people don't seek the correct legal advice and mess it up. It depends how it was done. If he was clever about it then it may actually be true that they have avoided the care home fees.

Define “clever”, in this scenario?

Original poster
LindorDoubleChoc · 11/08/2023 20:53

To those who think the LA will always find out - is that a bit hit and miss depending on LA (as with school place fraud) or absolutely 100% guaranteed? Would it be possible to hide/disguise it in any way?

OP posts:
tedgran · 11/08/2023 20:49

My understanding isthat if he lived in it and it was in his sons name he should have been paying rent to the son.

Stressfordays · 11/08/2023 20:45

There are a lot of loop holes to get around this. However a lot of people don't seek the correct legal advice and mess it up. It depends how it was done. If he was clever about it then it may actually be true that they have avoided the care home fees.

Original poster
LindorDoubleChoc · 11/08/2023 20:39

His partner apparently has no interest. Do you mean "when" it was done rather than "where"?

OP posts:
TakenRoot · 11/08/2023 20:38

Depends on the reason and if it was done before any condition that suggested a care home would be likely was evident.

AgeUK have a really informative page on all this.

Also a house wouldn’t be sold from under his DP if she owned a share.

CaveMum · 11/08/2023 20:12

The 7 year rule only applies to inheritance tax IIRC. As far as care home fees go there’s no limit on how far the council can look back. If they think there is a case of “deliberate deprivation of assets” then they will come for the money.

Depending on how the ownership of the house is set up, if it is 50% his partners then they can’t touch her share. In that case they’d put a charge on the house that when it is sold they will reclaim costs from the proceeds.

Alwayswonderedwhy · 11/08/2023 20:10

They sound very niave and obviously haven't done any research.

CMOTDibbler · 11/08/2023 20:08

Actually, it doesn't depend when it was done - when the financial assessment is done the local authority can go back as far as they want to determine if someone has intentionally deprived themselves of assets. But the answer is that avoiding care fees through putting the house in someone elses names, or putting it in trust doesn't work (a very few exceptions may apply, but increasingly rare I believe)

Hellsbellsandspidersankles · 11/08/2023 20:07

Dacadactyl · 11/08/2023 20:05

My understanding of this is that if the local authority think that a move like this has been pulled to avoid paying care home fees, then they will treat it like a deliberate deprivation of assets.

Of course they will. So many people thinking this is a clever wheeze nobody has ever thought of before 🙄
It doesn’t work.

Alfiemoon1 · 11/08/2023 20:05

Depends when it was done

Dacadactyl · 11/08/2023 20:05

My understanding of this is that if the local authority think that a move like this has been pulled to avoid paying care home fees, then they will treat it like a deliberate deprivation of assets.

Hoppinggreen · 11/08/2023 20:05

Depends how they have done it and when.
It could be deprivation of assets and the council will come after the son for the house

Ohdearwhatnow4 · 11/08/2023 20:04

Also how long ago

JaninaDuszejko · 11/08/2023 20:03

Depends where it was done and his partner might have a lifetime's interest.