Eviction from care home - what will happen?

[54321nought]

Any experiences or insights of knowledge about what is likely to happen?

The dispute is over who pays the fees, the resident has been given a date to leave by, which is this week. The resident will not be leaving on that date, but is expecting to leave around a week later.

I am assuming there will be no physical eviction, or will there be? Will it take time to get a court order, as in evicting a tenant? Or will it be possible to evict the resident on the day of the dead line they have been given?

What form will the eviction take? Bailiffs etc? ( resident cannot walk)

And if not evicted on the day of the deadline, what will happen after that, between the deadline day and the day they actually leave?

They are dependent on staff for care, dressing etc, and taking to the toilet, and of course for being given food.

Will this continue? Or will they be left?

I am assuming care will continue while the individual is in the home, but I am not sure.

Anyone with any knowledge of these situations? It is a Bupa home, if that makes any difference.

@CovoidOfAllHumanity

Whilst he remains in the care home they will care for him anyway. No-one is that cruel as to stop and they are mindful of their reputation

But equally this is clearly a situation that can't continue from their POV so they had to put a deadline on it to force action. They are very very unlikely to actually call the police after 24hrs but they can't have many weeks of free care giving whilst people fanny about so they put a deadline to force action from social care I suspect. They would be unreasonable to discharge him whilst social care are actively trying to put a plan in place but if they feel social care are not trying hard enough to put alternative arrangements in place they have to threaten eviction.
He will owe them for the fees to now but it's quite likely they'll write them off if it means taking him to court.

The other thing care homes sometimes do is dump the person at A&E. its not the right thing to do but it happens.

I suspect they took him with a 'property disregard' which happens when someone has no money but has a house to sell. They allow x weeks for it to sell and expect to get the money afterwards. He would have had to agree to that. Looks as if he did and then changes his mind.

It is no part of the care homes job to discuss his prognosis etc with him. That's for his Drs and his social worker.

The property disregard is intended for circumstances where the person might improve enough not to need residential care or is reluctant to agree to it. The intention is to see if the person does improve in independence or finds that they do after all like communal life. During that time, nothing needs to be done to sell the property and it is not taken into account when calculating the person's contribution to their care. Once the six weeks end, if the person is going to stay at home then the property becomes included in the calculation. If there is a reason not to include the property at this stage then that same reason would have applied earlier in the process. People DO NOT get the property sold from under them, its just that after that six weeks the value of the property is then included in the calculation of their assets. I have known circumstances where family have taken on the balance of the fees in return for having the house signed over to them, also where family members have set the house up as a rental property and the income covered the care home costs.

I’m questioning if they have capacity given they are refusing to sell their house in the face of a possible eviction from the care home!
I’d be extremely concerned about their ability to deal with their financial affairs (and welfare).

@Shedbuilder

Scrub that, I just spotted that you are an ex and a friend. So can you get the gas and electricity back on in his house and organise a bed downstairs or whatever it is he needs to be able to manage in his own home?

OP DON"T seriously do not get involved.

As others have said why was he living in a house with no water and electric prior to the stroke?

Unless it was just for a couple of days after the flood then either he had no insurance to cover the damage ie has a history of poor decision making or would not leave despite property being uninhabitable ie has a history of poor decision making. Or he was unable to organise and manage the necessary repairs which doesn't bode will for living independently with a disability now.

@HeronLanyon

I’m questioning if they have capacity given they are refusing to sell their house in the face of a possible eviction from the care home! I’d be extremely concerned about their ability to deal with their financial affairs (and welfare).

yup me too!

If returning to his home is actually realistic at some point in the future it is still his home and not a capital asset.
He can’t be expected to sell and be homeless when well enough to be discharged from care.
A person’s home is only treated as a capital asset if they are permanently admitted to care. He can be treated as being there on a temporary basis for up to 52 weeks, and the value of his property disregarded.
He was placed in the home by Social Services or NHS, and somewhere along the line of of them needs to take responsibility for him.
There may be more to this than is immediately obvious, but pressing for the admission being temporary might be a good place to start.
Age concern have an excellent help page regarding this.

I agree that Age Concern are brilliant.

Wrt a bed downstairs etc,the OT will assess all that and make sure it's in place so don't get involved with that OP.

So @LumpyandBumps Age Uk page says he could sell the house to buy something more suitable to his needs if he is only a temporary resident of the care home.

But he needs a plan for the future. Being stubborn about paying fees he may not have consented to is one thing but if he can't show a capable plan and they decide he has capacity an eviction could happen.

Mums in a similar non Uk set up and the family home had to be sold as it was included as an asset above the govt assistance allowance.

Since many years have passed since her entry into care, she is now semi funded by the tax payer with the balance paid from the remainder of what is left, including wee interest from that.

So, I would assume if your ex has an asset that isn’t protected by a long term trust set up, then he is going to have to suck up he owes a debt.

However it sounds like he is due for a health assessment and so they won’t chuck him out on the street just yet. They might send him home with some back up care but only when it’s been formally decided.

Personally I'd contact SS and cut off all contact until he was sorted. If anyone is around they are very good at making it your problem.

OP - My father had a stroke when it was seriously touch and go. He went back to working shifts. It is possible, but in the case of your friend, it doesn't sound likely. A stroke, even severe, isn't necessarily a life sentence, but you have to be realistic.

Strokes can affect the thought processes, as it is the brain that is affected. In my father's case, it amplified certain aspects of his personality. If your friend has always been a difficult personality with a reluctance to pay for things (eg living in a house with no electricity or water after a flood) then that may have got worse.

After you have contacted the vulnerable adult team, I suggest that you do as little as possible and make sure that your friend understands that. They may be assuming that you will do the running around for them - make sure that they know that you can't.

Sometimes you can't help people. All you can do is perhaps pick up the pieces afterwards (within limits) after the crash.

I work in care. If the person is a self funder - has agreed to pay the fees and there is an agreement/contract the care home can ask him to leave if there are arrears. If it is not a social services funded case then this will be a civil debt and would normally be dealt with by county court proceedings if it remains outstanding. If there is no payment they would probably secure a charge against the house.
No care home would risk the adverse publicity of the physical eviction of someone who cannot walk. Adult Social Services should be involved as the potential discharge of a vulnerable adult to unsuitable premises where their care needs will not be met is a safeguarding matter. They can help arrange works to the house and put in a homecare package to support th former resident, he might be looking at 4 calls with 2 carers if he has very poor mobility they will help with washing, dressing and meals. The value of the house does not count for home care so it will depend on income if a contribution is payable. The main thing you can do, OP is ensure this is reported as a safeguarding matter and Social Services are involved.

@Terhou

The question about rehab is a difficult one, especially with the Covid issue. In normal times, rehab is given if its going to do any good...so the person has to be capable of learning and retaining new stuff, to agree to co-operate and the potential for actual neurological recovery has to be assessed too. If the person has a partner who will be involved in their care at home (OP NO! do not offer) then they may also be taught how to help the person to move and so on

Off the point, but I'm quite surprised at this. A relative of mine was put into rehab - he'd had an illness which put him into hospital suddenly, but before that he was fully mobile and able to cope at home with carers coming in twice a day. However, his illness made him lose confidence in his ability to walk again. We really thought that a rehab place was the answer, but it absolutely wasn't. He was lucky if a physio turned up once a day for a desultory attempt at a walk up and down the ward, and if he was asleep or doing anything else they just went away again. The inevitable result was that his muscles totally atrophied and he lost his mobility completely and had to go into a home.

can't comment on this one....but when i was working, if it was only a confidence thing then the expectation on a rehab unit would be that the nurses and care staff would be expected to support and encourage the person to do stuff, with input from the Occupational Therapist. Physio would only become more involved if there was any kind of physical limitation or issue that needed assessment and treatment. Staff also can't make a person undertake activities...so if they are doing something else other than stuff like eating and personal care and decline to see rehab staff, then the staff won't come back at the patient's convenience. Rehab unit places are scarce and the most important thing while people are in them is the rehab.

At the very least it sounds as if they'd need some very heavy-duty physiotherapy - are they getting that?

In a nursing/care home (unless meeting stellar standards, the like of which I have yet to encounter!) this is very unlikely. Homes tend to act as 'waiting rooms', sad to say, rather than rehab facilities, or even settings where importance is placed on preserving those faculties which remain to residents on admission.

@LumpyandBumps

If returning to his home is actually realistic at some point in the future it is still his home and not a capital asset. He can’t be expected to sell and be homeless when well enough to be discharged from care. A person’s home is only treated as a capital asset if they are permanently admitted to care. He can be treated as being there on a temporary basis for up to 52 weeks, and the value of his property disregarded. He was placed in the home by Social Services or NHS, and somewhere along the line of of them needs to take responsibility for him. There may be more to this than is immediately obvious, but pressing for the admission being temporary might be a good place to start. Age concern have an excellent help page regarding this.

that 52 weeks would be blooming unusual and would be based on agreement involving a medical/rehab assessment.

@HunkyPunk

At the very least it sounds as if they'd need some very heavy-duty physiotherapy - are they getting that?

In a nursing/care home (unless meeting stellar standards, the like of which I have yet to encounter!) this is very unlikely. Homes tend to act as 'waiting rooms', sad to say, rather than rehab facilities, or even settings where importance is placed on preserving those faculties which remain to residents on admission.

yup....rehab is not their job or remit...and level of rehab would very much depend on prognosis and the length of tiome since stroke, plus any previous disability...from the discussion about house with no electricity and water and previous SS involvement, I think we have a chunk missing from the story here

If resident has capacity they can either take out a loan secured on the house, negotiate with the council to pay with that also secured on the house, or move home and fund their own care. They sound utterly selfish and unwilling to engage with the issues.

@54321nought

although equally, it is possible they will be living independently and working again in a few months, possibly still in a wheel chair

If he no longer has a job, how likely is it that man in his early 60s, in a wheelchair, will be working again ‘in a few months’?

@pianolessons1

If resident has capacity they can either take out a loan secured on the house, negotiate with the council to pay with that also secured on the house, or move home and fund their own care. They sound utterly selfish and unwilling to engage with the issues.

no I don't think selfish, I think mentally incapapable. I suspect (yeah yeah I know) either previous dementia or previous strokes.

I would say that if they are not mobile, are not being realistic about going back to work (I assume they are not getting rehab?) and are intending to return to a house they will not be able to access-stairs, unable to manage them) then I would question their insight into their situation and therefore their ability to make safe decisions. This would inform whether they actually DO have capacity which I would say, with the information you’ve given, they don’t.
Who are you to them? Is it possible that you don’t know all that’s going on in the background? I think it would be extremely unusual for someone who cannot walk to simply be evicted without another plan in place.

Honestly, the rehab units around here were clearing everybody out last December/January, so they could take new people in and get them out of the main hospital to make space for expected covid cases.

I can see how somebody not well enough to go home got shuffled sideways into a nursing home. And from his point of view, he was told to go there and sees it as part of "getting better", rather than "future living".

If the person has potential to physically improve then he can ask for residential rehab or rehab in his home with a care package. If he's being unrealistic then that's another issue.

My thought is that non-payment of bills is still going to bite the person in question on the backside. They might be evicted but the home is also likely to pursue the non-payment anyway.

That could in theory lead to baliffs or enforced bankruptcy and loss of the house anyway. If thats the case and enforced sale is made on the property, then they will be looking at recieving less than the maximum value of the house.

I don't think homes can afford not to pursue non-payment.

The fact that there's no electricity and water also means that there is a safeguarding issue which could lead to questions about capacity being raised too. Its not safe. This could mean the council are obliged to step in and provide suitable accomodation, but again theres the issues of fees and enforced sales.

If they do have capacity, they might run out of options and the situation will leave them with less choices in the long run anyway.

Needs to go through the court of protection if a local agreement can it be made.
Robust MCA & BID (if needed) in place.
It will be highly unlikely that a card home will turf a vulnerable person out with no where to go. Safeguarding no doubt. Other alternative is that the person will go to hospital & CH refuse to have them back.