Care Home feee

[davidbrt]

Hi

My mother lives in a flat. I bought this with her under the council right to buy scheme by adding my name to the rent book and we jointly owned it. A few years later, we removed her name from the property and added my wifes name. This was back in 1993, and has continued to be owned by me and my wife ever since, and mother still lives there. There is no mortgage. She doesnt pay us any rent, we cover the costs of the running of the flat, we just wanted to give her more free income from her pension to do with what she wants.

She is now elderly and we have to think that at some stage she may need to go into a home. If this were to happen, does anyone know for sure if to cover care home fees they can make us sell the property, bearing in mind it is owned no longer by her and hasnt been for nearly 17 years??

[Nosha123]

I wouldnt have thought they could force you to sell after such a long time - but who funded the purchase in the first place.
1) Did your mother put money towards the purchase from the Council?
2) Did she receive anything back for her 'share' when your Wife's name replaced your Mothers on the deeds?

I guess you may be able to argue that since she lives there rent free and has done for 17 years - that is her 'payment' for the sale of her share...

Someone more legal than me will be able to advise..

[Kathyan]

I thought that after 7 years of transferring ownership, they can't touch it!

[buildersmate]

Age UK are probably the best people to seek advice from (Age UK is the new name for ge Concern).
This organisation produces a series of Factsheets, one of which is this one - no. 40. - about deliberate deprivation of assets.
http://www.ageuk.org....ion_fcs.pdf?dtrk=true
There is some case law about this covered in the Factsheet which I suggest you read - 17 years is indeed a very long time..
The business about '7 years' above seems to have no direct relevance to your question - I suspect that this refers to the length of time after which a gift has no importance for calculation of IHT. However since your mother still lives there rent-free, she made a 'gift with reservations'. That is a different issue, unrelated to care home fees.