long term care

One of the major concerns today of many of our clients is the likelihood of their homes having to be sold to fund nursing home fees. We at mfg Solicitors can offer advice to our clients to protect their assets in the long term.

We are often asked by clients whether they should transfer their home into the names of their children to ensure that they receive their inheritance. This is not an avenue that we would recommend our clients to pursue for the following reasons.

  • If you go into care within six months of the gift then the recipient will be liable to pay for any care that you receive up to the value of the property gifted.
  • The Income Support regulations and Social Services charging regulations both contain provisions to the effect that they will treat you for the purpose of calculating income support, or contributions to your care in a home, as if you still owned any property which you had given away if at the time you gifted your property you were aware, that permanent care would be required.
  • If you are receiving care at Social Services' expense, which you cannot pay for yourself because you have given your house away, the Social Services could make you bankrupt. If they do so then your trustee in bankruptcy is entitled to claw back the gift you have made in the past and have it set aside, the property would become part of your assets again and liable to the charges.
  • Your children may decide one day to evict you from your property and place you into a nursing home so that they can sell the house. Most clients feel that their children would not do this. However, what you must consider is if one of your children died before you the beneficiaries of their will would be entitled to your property. Secondly, one of your children may go through a divorce and again your property would be considered as an asset of your child's divorce settlement. If one of your children became mentally incapacitated his or her receiver might require their interest in the property for the benefit of the patient. Finally, what if one of your children became bankrupt? In this case, the house would most certainly be sold by the trustee in bankruptcy and again you would be left without a home.

There are ways and means of protecting your home and at the same time overcoming these problems. This needs careful planning and we would be more than happy to advise you on this.

If you would like to find out more, please contact us.

 

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