PROTECTING YOUR HOME
It is a sad fact that many of us will know someone in some form of long term care.
It is also a fact that Local Authorities have a legal right to take possession of your home to fund the costs of this care. Approximately 100,000 family homes are being legally seized, each year, with a value totalling in excess of £5 billion. Most of this would have been family inheritance and could have been avoided with careful planning.
Local Authorities cannot take possession of a property occupied by the partner of the person requiring care. They do have a right to place a charge on the property for possession on the death of the partner.
If you are the survivor of a partnership and need care the Local Authority would automatically include the home as part of their assessment of your ability to fund the costs of the care.
With care fees any where between £400 and £900 per week, depending upon the level of care and quality of the establishment, it does not take long for the full value of your home to be eroded.
Fortunately, there is a solution if you own your own home and plan before the first partner needs care, or dies.
It is illegal to deliberately transfer your property to someone else to avoid this asset being used to assess your capacity to fund long-term care.
However, you are completely within your rights to make provision, within your Will, to transfer your share in your property to a beneficiary, other than your partner.
To achieve this you need to transfer the ownership of your home into Tenants in Common (see our fact sheet Property Ownership). In your Will you need to make provision to create a trust where your beneficiaries receive your share of the property on the death of your partner, with your partner retaining a life interest in the property.
This protects your share of the property from being included in any calculation made by the Local Authority to assess your partners contribution to long term care, should this be necessary. You can also make provision for your partner to move to another property if they wish.
Our Protecting Your Family Fact Sheet shows other benefits from this type of trust.
We can advise on how this affects your own situation and ensure you take full advantage of the options available.
THE WILL WRITING PARTNERSHIP
LLP
Somerdown Farm Slade lane Lympsham
Weston Super Mare BS24 0DP
Tel 08000 93 92 21
Registered in England under
Number OC316557
Member of, and regulated by, the Society of Will Writers And Estate Planning Practitioners
Membership Number HA46080111/5