Protecting parents

[Mbear]

We would like DH’s parents to come and live with us but we would need to build an extension for our house to do this. They will live separately to us, so their own bathrooms and kitchen etc. but we will share utilities and they won’t have a different address to us. We have planning permission for this.
They will sell their house which will pay for the extension, give them some savings and they would like to give us some towards paying off our mortgage - this would not pay off our mortgage. At some point we would like to remortgage for a better deal.
I can’t work out if we can add them to the deeds of our house and if that would cause an issue when we remortgage, but we want to protect them. We are happy to change wills etc.
I just wondered if anyone had any experience of this?

I’d definitely be talking to a solicitor about it.

Sorry, yes, I should of said that we will do that - just wondered if anyone had done this before.
I like knowing the answer before we ask the solicitor

If you put them on the deeds and then they need to go into a care home, your house would count as one of their assets.
I appreciate you're hoping you can care for them but a stroke or something could mean it's too much and they need nursing.

You need to consider what happens if things go wrong.

What happens if you and your husband divorce? I know nobody thinks it will happen to them, but it does. If your house is tied up legally providing a home to your in laws, guess which out of you and your husband will be stuck without the means of buying a new home, until they both die?

What happens to them if you and your husband go bankrupt or lose your jobs? Due to illness, or misfortune? They will be out of a home, whereas at present, presumably, their home is free of mortgage and secure.

If they want to be near you, why not get them into their own retirement home nearby? Then they are not exposed to all the risk of you and your husband's lives on top of their own.

Thank you, that’s definitely some things to think about and raise with everyone.
Seems it will be difficult to navigate. People do do this though, so I wonder how they make it work - either that it’s not thinking about future proofing.

They do. And then it goes horrifically wrong. I've had divorces where the presence of someone's parents has caused no end of difficulty, and appalling hardship for at least one party.

My advice, as a Solicitor? Don't do it.

As @MrsBertBibby says, divorce is probably the killer here. We come across this kind of situation from time to time and it does really mess everything up. Either the parents have security, or you and your husband have the ability to sell up on separation to provide continuing homes for yourselves. Seldom can you have both.