LA charging full fees for the week FIL died

[Diversion]

Very sadly FIL recently died on a Monday. We have just received the invoice for his care and have been charged for the full week (they were self funding), he shared a room with MIL who is still there but has been moved to a single room now. We are happy to pay for the room for the full week if required, but not the care which he did not receive for the days after he died. We completed the tell us once information which they may not have received yet but can we dispute this invoice and are we likely to receive a refund for the days which they have charged us for? We are going to contact the care home and LA tomorrow but would be grateful for others experiences.

You need to check your contract.

Rooms are ususally paid for until the deceased belongings are removed from them, which people ususally do after the funeral, not before.

Not sure about a shared room but it will be in your contract anyway.

You are lucky, we were charged a full month as relative died on "payment day:. We challenged it. Bloody cheek told us we could use the room ourselves. In the end they agreed on a week and had to wait a yesr until probate went through.

The issue it that staffing rotas have to be done in advance, staff will have been allocated for your fil's care, food, other supplies etc bought, one week seems pretty reasonable to me as a notice period. Dsd's care package is rolling 3 months!

As brutal as it sounds they still have to pay their staff. I work in social care although not elderly care, and while the costs are huge on paper, there is very little margin. They will be making a loss until his room is filled.

are they general care costs of specified 1-1 hours, as 1-1 would more likely be cancelled than core support costs.

im so sorry for your loss, it does feel like an extra thing to be dealing with at such a sad time xxx

My dad died in November. I thought I'd closed his bank account but in January got a text from the home manager to say they had received 2 months of fees from the standing order (which I assumed would have stopped when I told the bank he had died). I've not actually had a bill so I presumed we paid to the end of the month ( he died on the 16th).

Thank you for the prompt to check.

The local care home my Mum was in - she paid to the day of her death (although she was in hospital for the last two weeks and we had to clear her room within 48 hours of her death. It was all rather brutal to come back to clear her room but it was the agreement.

Thank you everyone. We have enquired today and been informed that we will not be charged.

I was just going to add that the CMA has provide consumer guidance to care homes - a summary is here:

https://www.stephens-scown.co.uk/specialist-sectors/healthcare/can-a-care-home-continue-to-charge-fees-after-the-death-of-a-resident/

Essentially, care homes can charge for up to 3 days after the death of the resident if belongings are removed promptly, or up to 10 days if relatives ask for more time to clear the room.

Rooms are ususally paid for until the deceased belongings are removed from them, which people ususally do after the funeral, not before.

Don’t wait for the funeral to clear the room - waiting times for crematoriums can be several weeks.