My parents house 'V' free care home costs.

[auditt]

My parent's only real asset is their house...........My father is elderly and quite frail, my mother is his full time carer.
If for any reason, my father had to go into a care home because my mother could no longer look after him, they would have to sell the house to pay for the care home fees...
Their savings are under the council means test limit �12,500, but they have the house!...This means that they would not be entitled to the council paying for the care home costs.
Is there anyway that I can protect them from selling the house, if the above was to happen.
I am currently paying the remainder of their outstanding mortgage, by tacking their remainder onto my current mortgage,even though their names are still on the deeds, I have been paying this for the last 5 years, but no where is this written down.
Can they sell the house to me at a under the market value?
Can I change the name on their deeds to mine, so the house becomes mine?
Any ideas....................Thanx in advance...............AudiiTT.

[pauln90]

Check the website of you local authority.I know in Lancashire you are not obliged to sell the house if there is a surviving spouse. If however there came a time when your mother needed to go into a home you would then have to face the prospect of selling the house.

When your father is considered for residential care they will do a financial assessment on his circumstances and if they discover that you have tried to hide or dispose of his assets they can claim them back to help fund his/their care.

[Illyria54]

I read somewhere just recently that a house was sold to a child for �1 all the papers signed into their name, that way the house no longer belonged to the parents, talk to a solicitor about doing this, there is always a way around these things.
Good luck.

[JRB]

Illyria54 - this is rather naive advice.

As already stated by pauln and in a pickle it is unlikely that your parent's home would be sold as long as your mother is still living there. However strict measures exist to ensure that anyone seen to have deprived themselves of assets in order to claim State benefits can be fully investigated and forced to pay. So those who sell the home to a family member or otherwise seek to avoid paying, can be pursued in the courts. Local councils are fully aware of all the tricks. There used to be a time limit (10 years?) after which such a sale would no longer be subject to this check but I cannot find out if it is still in force.

[vibrator]

hi. i bought my parents house for 30k when it was infact worth 130k. Asked the solicitors and they said it is legally mine now. however my parents have moved out like. From what i heard from a solicitor is that if you try to avoid paying care fees they will just sell the house so you got to make it undisputable

Hope this helps