mum's inheritance -advice

[gemstoneju]

My mum has inherited money from the sale of a house from a childless, single sibling. It's a lot - £140,00.

She says she wants to divide the money between my brother and me. She is late 80s, with about £30,000 in savings and her own house, which she is no longer living in. She's in a kind of assisted living development for people in the early stages of dementia. We have EPA, just recently granted.

I am worried about the rules around deprivation of capital, though. Mum is paying about £1100 a month atm, for a little support and her rent, but obviously dementia is degenerative (hate thinking about this) and she will likely need private nursing care at some point.

Anyone advise on our position? And what would be the best thing to do with her house - it's in the process of being cleared atm, though market is a bit listless. It's not really lettable without a great deal of investment. Thanks.

Most responses on here that bring in deprivation of capital as an automatic response are excessively negative and scaremongering. But one of the key test is could the donor reasonably have foreseen that they didn’t have any care needs, and I think in this case there could be a genuine issue here given her age and current position, so I would tread carefully. How much could she get for the house, in its current condition? If that’d cover, say, 10 years of care then I’d be less concerned than if it could cover 2 or 3, if that makes sense?

Is it possible to vary the terms of the will such that the inheritance bypasses her altogether, or has probate already been granted and the spectate distributed?

Already granted, everything divided between her and another sibling.

Roughly guessing from houses in the area, which are round £140-50K, her house is worth about £120K I guess, needs a LOT of work done. Will have to get it valued properly. Care costs are about £4./5000 a month where I am!