Selling home to pay care fees

[Noitsnotteatimeyet]

It looks like the least stressful way of paying for my dad's extortionate nursing fees will be to sell his flat. Quick question - will he be liable for capital gains tax? He was living there until a month ago

No capital gains

Phew! Thanks

If he signs 51% of the flat over to you he wont have to pay for his care as its not his assets. Unless he has big savings.

I don't see how he could get away with that!

There is a technical term for that. Deprivation of assets, I think. Unless he survives seven years, it will need to be returned.

Sorry, that was to holly.

No capital gains if you sell within 18 months of the flat ceasing to be his main residence.

Holly is wrong. What she is advocating is illegal.

And pickle, i may be wrong but I think there are two issues:

1. If he fails to live 7 years, OP would become liable for IHT on the gift.
2. I don't think there is a time limit on deliberate deprivation of assets, but could be wrong. It is something that the Local Authority would pursue.

Plus if the LA are forced to pay care home fees, they get to choose the home. Many people would like their parent to be able to use their assets to choose the most appropriate home.

Have you considered renting out the property to help cover costs rather than selling it?

Holly's advice is completely wrong that's just not how it works anymore. Having just run out of money for funding his own care the LA are going through my grandad's finances with a fine toothcomb before signing of on paying for his care. It's just not possible to squirrel away money to avoid care home fees these days but I would recommend getting some independent financial advice on what they are not allowed to take etc.

We did consider renting it out but he's a higher rate tax payer so after agents' fees and tax the return isn't enough to cover the gap

We're talking to a financial advisor who specialises in paying for care fees to see if there's another option but at the moment it's looking like the least stressful way.

Thankfully his flat is worth a lot so he won't run out of money even if he lives past 100 ...