Property Press Online

It can be a shock to anyone when homeowners find they may need to sell their property to cover health care costs. It is only natural that those who need to pay nursing costs look at alternative ways to protect their home from being sold. This is especially the case if you wanted your children to inherit your property.

This blog is going to look through different ways of protecting your home from these costs.

Facts around avoiding care home fees

There is no way that you can deliberately avoid these costs; even if you do put your property into a housing trust of gift your property. If you do try to do this, this is called deprivation of assets. Having said this, there are alternatives to help you stay on the correct side of the law.

Unfortunately, some elderly people cannot see for themselves that their health is deteriorating. Meaning that they don’t always consider residential care altogether or decide when it is later down the line.

The best way to avoiding residential care is to get financial advice as soon as possible. Having a plan in place can help save £’s.

FAQ’s around selling your home for health care

There are many common questions asked around the subject of selling your home and health care.

“Can I just gift my money and assets to escape paying care home fees?”

In simple, the answer to this question is no.

On the other hand, under certain circumstances, it may be possible for you to give away assets. Certain local authorities may not calculate certain assets when assessing your capital for nursing home costs.

As long as all your actions that you are take are legal, then you may be able to avoid certain fees.

“How can I not sell my property before I go into care?”

This is one of the most asked questions when looking on different search engines.

One of the ways to do so is by putting your property into a trust. Hence, this allows you to cover fees whilst being able to pass your property onto your children. There are typically three different types of trusts that Britons use to do this. These are a Life Interest Trust, Interest in Possession Trust and Protective Property Trust. Although, this isn’t always as straight forward as it seems and the local authority may look into the reasons why you are doing this.

Unfortunately, when it comes to avoiding fees sometimes making the correct decision at the right time increases the likelihood of you being able to keep your property whilst avoiding these costs.

Therefore, unless you have specific financial difficulties or circumstances, then you may not be able to avoid these fees. Hence why early planning is key.

“How could I end up being accused of deprivation of assets?”

As previously mentioned, deprivation of asset can be when you gift someone your property. However, the are other ways you could be assessed and found to deliberately trying to reduce your assets or money. Some examples of theses could be:

• Gambling most of your money
• Gifting money to people within and outside of your family
• Buying expensive items that may not be counted within a financial assessment such as jewellery or a car
• Demonstrating very unusual spending habits or patterns
• Transferring the ownership of an assets to other people within your family