Rules for care costs to be funded by house equity

[fourtwentyfour]

Which board would be best for this question please?

What are the rules which apply preventing a council taking equity from a house when the owner goes into care? I am thinking of the over age 60 son/carer living in the same house and any exceptions that prevent the house being taken.

Moderator Message:
Moved, leaving a link. - Chris

[AleisterCrowley]

Legal issues - Practical may be a good place
viewforum.php?f=2

[chas49]

See this AgeUK factsheet:

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/a ... re_fcs.pdf

Which includes this

4.1 Mandatory disregards
If you enter a care home permanently, any interest you have in your
existing ‘main or only’ home is usually taken into account as capital.
However, the value is disregarded from the means test if any of the
following people occupy the home. It applies if you no longer occupy the
home but it is occupied, in part or whole, as their main or only home by:
 your spouse, partner, former partner or civil partner, except where you
are estranged
 a lone parent who is your estranged or divorced partner
 a relative of yours, or member of your family, who is:
 aged 60 or over, or
 a child of yours aged under 18, or
 incapacitated.
They must have been occupying the property before you went into the
care home. The disregard lasts until this changes, at which time it may
become an eligible capital assets.

[sg31]

My parents had a property held as tenants in common. When mum went into a care home dad was obviously going to continue living in the property so at that stage the property was 'disregarded'.

Mum was in a care home for a long time and eventually dad became very ill due to heart failure and dementia,. My sister moved in with dad to look after him. She let her own house go once it became obvious dad wasn't going to get better. Dad later died and mum was still in the care home.

As my sister was by that time over 60 we successfully argued that the house should still be 'disregarded'. The council wanted to know if my sister had anther property she could live in because in their view this would allow them to disregard the disregard (so to speak) but that wasn't the case.

I've not seen the 'having another property' aspect in writing but I think the councils argument would be that if someone moved into the property to look after the resident then there would be no need for them to continue in residence once the sick person had died if they had another property to go to.

[fourtwentyfour]

Thank you, these replies seem to suggest that I need not worry about my future, as I satisfy the conditions mentioned. I am grateful for your time and trouble.

[sg31]

Thank you, these replies seem to suggest that I need not worry about my future, as I satisfy the conditions mentioned. I am grateful for your time and trouble.

Hi 424, I've just noticed you are a new user to these boards. Let me be the first to welcome you, I hope you stick around and find The Lemon Fool as useful as I do.

If you need any help with almost anything you are likely to find someone with the relevant expertise on here.