Selling mother in laws house to pay care home fees

[nitgel]

We have started to clear her house to sell as we understand she will need this to pay her care home fees. Is there something we may have forgotten or need to do ? We have financial poa and she is in a lovely nursing home. She is paying her fees now with savings and a small benefit received from the LA. She is 93 and has dementia to the point that she cannot communicate now or walk. I just feel awful clearing the house etc.

Bump

Could you rent it to pay the fees?

Yes, having been through this myself with an elderly relative I can sympathise with you completely. It's a horrid situation but necessary to do to enable her care.
Have you taken advice on what to do with the money after the sale? Eg invest some whilst leaving done in an easy access account to pay fees?

Yes, if you have POA it may be more sensible to try and rent the house to cover fees so that the asset itself remains, rather than selling and using up all the proceeds until there's nothing left

An awful situation to be in for all of you. You need to think that its in her best interests.
She will need to pay her fees until her savings reduce to an amount around £24,000. Under that, I think the state will pay.
If you sell her house and use the POA to pass it to you, her assets will be reduced.

The rent wouldn't bring in enough to cover the fees. We have a good financial advisor and will get advice about investing some.

You probably already are claiming attendance allowance, but just in case, I believe you are entitled if paying your own fees.

Ask about nhs continuing care, of she needs nursing care for medical reasons it's free (there may be a modest top up facilities fee for activities etc but we were told that was capped)

Shes getting attendance allowance. I have asked twice about continuing health care and both times was told that her needs arent complex enough and she wouldn't qualify.

Asked the social workers in her ward when she was hospitalised.

Have you checked if the care home has different rates for LA paid residents and private paid residents? If so, you are probably better off deferring payment and the council paying the cheaper rate. At some care homes this rate difference can be seriously substantial. You can then rent out the house to help offset the fees when you sell.

I will have a look. I dont remember them being them being much different when we signed the contract.

We sold my Grandma's house to make sure we had the money for her care home fees. She wasn't going to live there again and none of us were in a position to live there. Did feel guilty about clearing it and selling it but had already sat empty for months.
Luckily the sale completed just before lockdown and she passed away in May which has made dealing with the estate much easier with no house to sell.

Can I recommend you speak to Beacon. They are a free support line, funded by the NHS to help people with Continuing Health Care. They are amazing.

www.beaconchc.co.uk/

Continuing Health are notoriously difficult to get funding from, however, you can beat them by really understanding the CHC Framework. We managed to get 24/7 care for my Mum and home, which they were not happy about but we really did our homework and fought and won.

It is appalling that Dementia is treated as social care, it is not, it is a disease and requires medical care.

I can also recommend this company who, if you have funds can help.

eldercareconsultant.co.uk/

Good luck, it is such a difficult time. My thoughts are with you.

Just in case you haven’t already thought of this, do check to make sure that the care home will keep her on once she stops being able to fund herself as it can be so distressing for those with dementia to change surroundings.

We sold FILs house to pay for his care home fees. He gets a small amount of amount through SS which will be increasing soon as he now needs personal care. His pension pays half the monthly amount and the rest comes out of his savings.

We have just sold MIL's house as there was an equity release policy that required repayment once she went into long term care. Otherwise we might have rented it, but the option wasn't there.