Inherited Macartney&Stone retirement flat - anyone rented one out?

[damemaggiescurledupperlip]

We inherited a one-bed retirement flat from DH's parents over a year ago. It has been listed for sale since then, but no real interest.

An alternative would be to rent it out. Has anyone done this in a Macartney and Stone development?

(I don't want to be a landlord, but the ground rent, service charges and double council tax do stack up. We have lowered the price twice, but nothing in the block is selling.)

My mum moved into a M&S retirement flat over a year ago. She loves it. They were there for us when she needed care (ok yes, she/we paid for it) but I can’t fault them. When the time comes when we need to sell it then we (the family) are happy to sell it at a cheaper price. She loves it and that is priceless in itself.

Its lovely, but like many others, in the middle of no where, no pavements on the immediate roads and even the main road nearby has no pavements

Im very interested in this as I wont have anyone to look out for me

I think I have just resigned myself to the fact that if I move to a retirement village, I won't actually leave the site much. The one I am interested in is also in the middle of nowhere, but it has huge grounds a lot of activities, plus organised trips out in a mini bus etc so I will just rely on that!

I think this is partly the point - you will get service charges on ‘any’ flat - retirement or not that have to keep being paid if it’s not sold- I guess what makes it more acute is that people are often needing to sell to pay care home fees or placate people wanting their inheritance, or pay off these charges etc when owners have these places but no other money - and it’s a much smaller market than the open market due to a lack of buy to let purchasers etc - I do think the whole sector needs looking at so it’s not such an onerous commitment - developer buy back at xyz % after a set few years etc -

This is quite a useful site, explains about various options, including Extra Care housing. I’ve visited a couple of complexes, one LA, one housing association, all independent flats around a hub with services that can be increased if and when necessary.

https://housingcare.org

I had an aunt in Canada in an assisted living facility, where many of the residents were in reasonable health, much like most who move into an M&S flat. She had a one bed flat with open plan living room and kitchen. There were lots of social activities, many of the residents had cars and were still out and about. But the big difference was that it then had far more supported living available on site, including a dementia floor. So if/when your health deteriorated you didn’t have to find somewhere else to live. My aunt moved in while she was still fairly independent, with a few physical issues. She ended up bedridden and with dementia, and actually stayed in her own flat with the on staff carers coming in multiple times a day. She could have had the publicly provided carers coming in to the extent she was entitled to them but chose to pay for the facilities carers. Though the home worked closely with the public health services - they got the health service specialist nurses in when they were concerned about her skin care for instance.

All of this cost of course, and you needed to be able to pay the high fees but all of the flats were rented so when she eventually died we just had to organise clearing out her belongings.

It was purpose built, even had a small swimming pool. Meals, which felt of a restaurant standard (I ate there several times over a few years) were available to everyone, in a dining room ( with a separate dining room on the dementia floor). Having seen it operate over a number of years including how good the staff were to me trying to figure out how various things worked in Canada when sorting out her paperwork, it’s the sort of place I’d like to be able to chose (and afford).

Well, yes, of COURSE I would be focused on the repercussions facing me, why on earth would I not be?! If people do buy one of these places, knowing what a hassle and a nuisance it's going to be for their adult children, (when they die), then they are showing no thought whatsoever for their adult children.

I wouldn't care if my parents bought one of these places, but I would refuse to accept it as an inheritance. It's not LAW to accept it. You can refuse. And I would. I am not desperate for an inheritance, and will be perfectly happy to never get one.

Thankfully, my parents (who died some years ago,) didn't put me in such an awful predicament as to be landed with one of these McCarthy and Stone places!

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This sounds great and is exactly what I would like for my own old age. Glad to hear your aunt had such a good experience.

sad to have it confirmed that you put your own monetary considerations above the comfort of your parents

I’m really confused by the pp’s saying they would refuse to inherit a M&S property - surely you would just sell it at a massive reduction, to get it sold quickly?

I have to say that I have held the view for a number of years that I don’t think it is possible to assume that one will inherit anything (due to possible care home fees / nursing home fees etc - especially if there is dementia in the mix (at £100k plus a year..). So in some ways it is better to let go of that idea entirely (of an expected inheritance) - and it makes it easier to then support the decision / needs of whatever is needed by your elderly parents when the time comes.

I think equity release schemes are possibly in the same category - a choice that elderly parents might make in order to stay in their own home, but that the finance company will potentially make a massive amount of money / profit from (with really high interest rates, and ‘mortgage payments’ added on to the cost of the loan each month, all massively compounding, for 5-10 years…), so I imagine this will (in many cases) eat up all of the remaining equity in the house, leaving nothing to inherit. But that is the decision that they make, as it is most important for them to stay in their own home.

@Zov, its a common theme.

My friend had similar with her bachelor uncle, she was harrassed on the phone by a rude as fxxk person in the hospital about him going home with her.

She is soft, but I persuaded her to block the number of the hospital and I wrote an absolute stinker email to the hospital on her behalf, copied lots of people in the hospital randomly, Patient advocacy services etc.,and told them that she would be contacting the media about their abuse of a relative visiting regularly and the presumptuous assumption that they could tell her that she had no choice but to take her Uncle in to her private home.
The cheek of her!

It was a furious, vicious email, quoting and obviously naming the total bitch in bed management that thought she could speak to her like that.

She received an unequivocally apologetic response by email and the assurance that the staff member involved would be going for additional training.

A few years ago another good friends horribly abusive father in law was taken into hospital. She couldn't stand him but her husband would bring groceries to him weekly but was always stressed from seeing him, however briefly.

He was taken into hospital after a fall and the hospital rang to TELL her husband to collect him and bring him home.
Fortunately my friend was with him when the call came and was well able to put a flea in the ear of the woman calling, that there would be no collection of him and not to ring this number again.
She followed up with a stinker email laying out his abuse of her husband, and said they were never to be contacted about him again.
Its two years on and after 40 years her lovely husband is finally letting go of his grief through no contact.
Poor man wishes he had been able to do it years earlier.

When my neighbours husband died 25 years ago and i had 3 small children she asked me about my husband cutting her grass, we have large old gardens.
I asked her about her 3 sons and was told they had "very busy careers"🙄.
I told her VERY firmly but sweetly, that so did MY husband. The cheek of her.
I studiously avoided her for the rest of her days, having gotten the measure of her. Waving and no more after that.

Zov said she didn’t want an inheritance. I’m an old person, DH and I would like to move into a suitable flat, we’d prefer to rent. Far less hassle for our DC when the time comes.

i am not disputing that renting has merits over owning when it comes to this sort of property, but multiple comments on this thread have focused on how the relative is "inconvenienced" by being left with property that is not selling and is costing the estate money whilst it remains unsold.

I am focusing on how quick people are to convert their relative's life into £ they stand to inherit when the relative dies. Apparently thus ignoring quality of life for the relative before that happens, and the fact it is the relative's choice how to spend their own money in their final days.

The point is that they don’t sell even with reduced price. It is not like the usual property market. Hence the stress. Supply outstrips demand.

I think part of the problem for that though is a combination of bad press about them not selling ( kind of a viscious circle) and the fact that many of these developments and flats are looking very very drab and tired indeed - older people’s standards have changed too , ( especially those in a position to pick and choose in areas where homes have more value if you sell up) my FIL at 86 would certainly want one of these flasher newer M&S/Rangeford type development's and could afford it - lots of people bought these places 15 years ago second hand, families and owners never did a thing to keep them up to scratch and they now look awful - it’s a mix of all of it - if I had the cash and was in that position I would be banking the cash and renting at the better developments that have the odd rental and using the interest towards the rent - would make more sense than throwing £150k straight down the toilet- in fact if M&S, Churchill etc had any sense they would be building developments 50% buy, 50% built to rent