Can I buy my mums house

[Racy Tracy]

PLEASE HELP!!! SO SO CONFUSED All I want to know is, can I buy my mums house to protect it from being sold on if she has to go into care? I'l try and give some more details as to why I want to do this:-

In Aug 2013 I was made redundant from my job as a Civil Servant. Then in April 2014 my husband who was only 45, was killed by a car driver whilst riding his motorbike. Since then I have concentrated on looking after our son, who misses his dad terribly, and still struggles to sleep to this day. Then 8 months after losing my husband, I lost my dad on the 7th Dec. Now my time is split between looking after my son and my mum, who on the 2nd June was diagnosed with Dementia. My mum & dad both made wills quite a few years ago, and whichever one passed first, the other would inherit all the possessions. As a result, as I am an only child, when my mum passes, I will inherit everything. I promised my dad on his death bed that I would always look after my mum and that no one would take the house off her. But as her disease progress's I am more and more aware that she may not be able to stay in her home any longer. The home that they both built together from scratch, and have lived in it for over 50yrs. I have Power of Attorney for my mum for Health & Welfare and Property & Finance. She has carers coming in at the moment, but its things like remembering to wash, eat etc.....anyway I want to make sure that her house is protected. I have looked into putting the property into my name now, but I have been told that that wouldn't be an option I have also looked into my mum 'gifting' it to me, but apparently she couldn't even do this as it would be suspected that she had only done it to prevent care home fees. So the only thing I can think of is, me actually buying the house. Due to my husbands death, there is a civil claim going on, and I stand to receive quite a large payout. What I would like to do is get the house valued by an Estate Agent as it stands (it does need some modernising) and then go to a solicitor to get the rest sorted. So please please please can anyone tell me if I can do this. I need to protect my parents house, its mine and my sons future, and its a promise to my late father

[des8]

Re: Can I buy my mums house

What a sad situation for you.

IMO there is no reason why you should not buy your mother's house, so long as this is done at market value and the proceeds of the house are held in trust for your mother and used for her care and support.
Obviously the concerns will be raised by third parties that any such deal was a deliberate move to avoid having to use the house to pay for your mother's possible future care home costs,
However if you are scrupulously open in your dealings, using estate agents and solicitors, I doubt there will be any real problems, although you may need to appoint a deputy to act for your mother.
I'm sure others here will have ideas and tagging [MENTION=141]enaid[/MENTION]

[CYNthesys]

Re: Can I buy my mums house

Hi Tracy, I deeply sympathise with the position you find yourself in. My late husband suffered from Alzheimers so I do undertand your predicament.
There is just one thing that jumped out at me, - Whilst I dont know how advanced your mums dementia is, and I dont even know if this is relevant in your case, but it used to be the case that if an Alzheimer/dementia sufferer had been detained under a section, when discharged from the secton into the care of a nursing home, care home fees were met by the state and his property would not need to be sold to pay for his care and would remain in his estate.

[Arcadian]

Re: Can I buy my mums house

The Mental Capacity Act would apply here, have you had a look into the guidelines relating to it and ensured that you would be following them?

Assuming that your mother still has some decision making capabilities, professionals dealing with such decisions are usually obliged to attempt to support the individual in making their own decisions, if at all possible.

I have no doubt that you have your mother's best interests at heart when suggesting this course of action, but you will also have to convince any professionals who have a duty of care and safeguarding to an individual who is classed as vulnerable.

[enaid]

Re: Can I buy my mums house

Hi and trust me I know exactly where you are coming from and have every sympathy with your situation.
If you were to buy the house from your mum then the money from the sale would be classed as capital and be counted in a financial assessment done by the LA.
Buying at a nominal amount would also be very risky please have a read of this FACT SHEET on Deprivation of assets so too putting the house in any kind of trust.
You say your mum has carers coming in now, are they LA carers or are you paying privately?
If the care is coming from your LA then there would have been a full care assessment and also a financial assessment, the house would not be counted while your mum was still living there. I suspect they may have noted that she owned the house on the assessment and if there is no one else living in the house and there are rules on that too, then they will count the house after 12 weeks of going in a home.
As your mum gets worse and her needs assessments are being reviewed then ask for her to be considered for Continuing Health Care if this is awarded then the NHS pays for all your mums care no matter if she is in her own home or a nursing home.
Also have you considered renting out your mums home to help cover her care costs, not knowing your mums other financial situation, she would have to be able to pay the rest of the costs from her income. Any pensions she has could go towards the cost and Attendance Allowance as it is not means tested.
I hope this info helps and I am going to a meeting later today to get the ball rolling for CHC for my MIL expecting a scrap but will give it my best.
Hopefully I will get to know a bit more about it and then can pass on the info.
Good luck and best wishes Enaid x

[Racy Tracy]

Re: Can I buy my mums house

thank you very very much for your replies. To CYNthesys, im not sure how advanced my mums Dementia is either. She was only diagnosed on 2nd June 2016, and is due for a follow up appointment in Feb, hopefully I will find out then how advanced it is, needless to say I can see a definite decline in the few months that has passed . To Arcadian, unfortunately I would say, my mum doesn't seem to have the capacity to make decisions any more if you ask her a question she doesn't know what to say, she just says 'errr'. To enaid, the carers are provided for by the LA. I receive an invoice for the cost every month. There was a care assessment done, but it was mainly to see what care and help my mum needed etc. Having said that, this is being reviewed in the near future as he needs have increased slightly. My mum is still very mobile and can feed herself etc, its mainly help with washing, prompting her to put clean clothes/underwear on, and reminding her to do things. Yes, a financial assessment was done and as you have said the house was not taken into consideration. I haven't heard of the Continuing Health Care and I will most definatley look into it, just out of interest who would I need to approach about it, and would I need to do that as soon as possible. As for renting my mums house out, that is one of the reasons why I want to keep it for myself. So that I can do that with the house, and keep it as an investment for the future for me and my son. But unfortunately because the house is very old fashioned as in it doesn't have central heating, in fact there is no gas to the house, and the decor etc is very old, it would need a lot of work before I could rent it out. My mums only form of heating is a coal fire, the type where you would pull the damper down at the back of the fire to get hot water. My dad was very old fashioned, and he hated gas with a passion, so thats why there is no gas to the property. I have looked into getting central heating for my mum whilst she is still in the house, she can get a grant to get a boiler and radiators put in, but unfortunately because a gas line would need to be put in from the road to her house, and this would mean digging up her drive etc, she would have to pay towards the cost of it, and my mum does not have a lot of money in savings, so this isn't an option. Does the fact that I have POA for Health & Welfare and Property & Finance not give me some say as to what happens to the house? I know that care home fees have to be paid, and they would be out of the money from the sale of the house. The money would go into my mums bank account (which I have POA for) and I would pay my mums care home fees from this, I just need to keep the house

[enaid]

Re: Can I buy my mums house

Your mum is getting Social Care then through her LA and is paying for it either in full or partly because of her savings ?
Continuing Health Care is not something easily awarded and you should speak to your Social Worker or the assessor when the next assessment is due, they will advise you about it fully.
Are there no safety issues with your mums house having only a coal fire for heating and water?
As long as your mum is in the house it is not counted as capital, if your mum has less than £14,250 then all charges will be disregarded.
Income will be also assessed but most benefits are disregarded, has your mum had a benefits review? is she getting all she is entitled to?
I find you last sentence confusing as you say 'you just need to keep the house' well yes you can as long as if your mum goes into care her fees will be covered, but it will be counted as capital as long as she remains in care.
You could also look at your councils Deferred Payment scheme info on that in the link.

[Racy Tracy]

Re: Can I buy my mums house

to enaid....whether my mum is paying for her care in full or partly im not sure. All I know is she pays 51.12 per week for her care, and this is regardless of how many visits she has per day (just for info she has less than £3,000 in savings). There is no safety issues with my mums house. She did have a safety check done by the fire service approx 3 months ago, and they said that everything in her house was ok. As for the benefits my mum gets, she has her ordinary pension, a payment from my late fathers works pension which is paid into her bank every month (but that isn't mega bucks, less than £150) and she gets AA. She also gets a small amount of Pension Credit, £1.75 per wk and thats it. She had a review a while back and was told that she is getting everything she is entitled too. Im sorry you found my last sentence confusing when I said "I just need to keep the house", i'l try and explain what I meant by that.....I have no idea how the care home system/process works, so I didn't know what would happen (if and when the day comes) that my mum has to go into a care home. Would my mum be forced to sell her house to pay for her care? Would the care home take over the sale of the house and keep the proceeds, using that money to pay for my mums care. I just don't have a clue and I get told and hear so many different stories that I just wanted to try and protect my parents house before the day comes that my mum has to go into care. You see, my dad & mum always told me that one day their house would be mine. The day before my dad died he told me to make sure I kept the house and use it as I want too, and I promised him that I would. I understand that obviously things change and there is no way that anyone could of foreseen what was going to happen with my mum, and when the time comes that my mum is no longer with me and has gone back to my dad, I would like to rent my mum & dad's house out and use this as an investment and therefore secure the future for my son and I. So this is what I meant when I said "i just need to keep the house". Hope this makes sense x

[enaid]

Re: Can I buy my mums house

I have put the info HERE this from Age UK and I think it is one of the simplest to understand re paying for Care homes.
There is a new cap on fees and this should have been coming out this year but as always this has been put back until 2020 and to be perfectly honest the way it works would leave very few any better off.
Living on her own she should not be paying council tax either as long as she has been diagnosed with a mental illness and this is backed up by her GP info on that HERE
Unless your mum got Continuing Health Care and I have mentioned that before, then it will be the LA that takes charge of your mums care (classed as Social Care) and your mum will be expected to contribute to the cost of that care depending on her income and capital and sadly the house will be classed as capital.
If you can in any way cover the fees without selling the house then that would be great but if you look around at the cost of care homes then you will soon see how expensive it is and how much it would be over a long time.
Just as in idea my MIL pays £472 per week and has been for well over the last 6 months, this is by no means an expensive home there are lots that are well above that.
We rent out her house and with her benefits and pensions this goes a fair way to help with the, cost the rest comes out of her life savings which when she gets to the magic £23,500 and less would have enabled her to get a little from the LA towards the costs, but as the house is capital it will be a long time before she gets below that figure. Hopefully the family will manage to keep the house but only time will tell, hope this explains it for you