using your home for care fees

[johnny37]

Say you jointly own a house with A.N.Oher who is not your spouse and you live in a care home. A.N.Other does not live in the house. Do care homes have contracts that do not involve putting a charge on the house and which A.N.Other would be unaware of? Making the care home the benefiiciary in your will would not be watertight as you could change it. Would Land Registry be involved?

Hope this makes sense!

[Barmaid]

It does not really make any sense because there are different types of ownership in property. Whilst you may be joint legal owners, A N Other could be the sole beneficial owner; or you and A N Other could own it as joint tenants; or you and A N Other could own it as tenants in common.

You need to look at the CRAG guidance on this (shortly to be updated), but broadly speaking, if A N Other beneficially owns at least half the property the care home can charge half of the home (after all it is an asset owned by A N Other). However, if you lived in the home and were a relative or full time carer to A N Other before they entered the nursing home, they are unlikely to take it into account.