Selling a home to pay care fees. What could council actually do.

[Nick_b4]

Hi, I'm disabled and live with my mother. I receive a care package from my local council.I want to help my partner buy a house that's close to me. I don't have any funds of my own, I don't own a home, but I do have family whom I could ask for some money from. I would only be a minority holder in my partners home.

However if I do this the council will then finance assess me and say that proportion of her home is mine and it would be enough to put me over the £23000 limit so I would have to pay for my own care, which I could not do.

I have tried to get the council to tell me what they would actually do if I went ahead with what I propose. I asked if they would force my partner to sell her home to release funds? they won't answer. I asked would the council leave me with no care? Again no answer. There are rules about what the actual market value of part of a home is but I'm just trying to find what I could feasibly do.

I have made a complaint to the council asking them to disregard this property If I contributed but they say they won't. I've since gone to the ombudsmen, waiting for reply. It's very much an unusual circumstance which is why I think the council should have thought more about it.

Any thoughts?

[SpeedyH]

Since this is a forum for people with learning disabilities, I assume that this is your situation. There are many factors to be considered. Your LA is likely to be concerned from a safeguarding stance that you are considering taking a loan, or a gift, from family members in order to then give assets to another person.

Either way, there is a rule in LA financial assessments that they can include assets that you 'give away' as this can be seen as avoiding charges. So the money will always be included in your assessment.

If your family members are happy to part-finance your partners house (and that will depend i'm sure on how close their relationship is with the person etc), then they need to do that direct and not give the money to you. I would very much advise that they get legal advice and a properly drawn up agreement before doing so, however.

[Nick_b4 in reply to SpeedyH]

Hi, thanks. We've used mencaps trust services, which is why I post on this forum.The money would be given direct to my partner so it would never pass through any of my bank accounts.The issue the council have is that if I own 10% say of another house then they would consider it my asset in a finance assessment, even though it was never my money. We would rather me and my partner own the house than my partner and one of my family members. The latter is one way around it, the other is just giving it to my partner but I have zero right to the property which is problematic in case of separation.

[Scrutineer in reply to Nick_b4]

Given you already use Mencap Trust services an advisor will have been allocated to your case, who is your first port of call for advice. If you benefit from a Discretionary Trust, you have no say in how the trust funds are used it is only the Trustees who hold that authority. It is unclear if you are receiving disability benefits or you act for someone who has a learning disability. Mencap charges for trust services so any advice needed will be included in the fees.

[Balamorym]

I believe it also depends on whether you intend to live in the purchased property as your main and only home. When my son had his financial assessment, it asked whether he owned any property other than his main home (which would be disregarded in the assessment). As in the previous reply you might want to take legal advice including what would happen if you separated from your partner and were no longer living in the property or had sale proceeds in your bank for a while which could then be assessed as an asset.

[Nick_b4]

Thanks, yes it's difficult. I wouldn't live in this other home, I can't due to my disabilities. Visits and her visiting me only. I don't actually own the home I live in, which is considered my main residence. It seems there's no situation in the rules for where a disabled person cannot live with their partner. There have been allowances made for other people in the past in terms of the bedroom tax (2 rooms were required due to disability), but not 2 houses.

[Chocolate-heals-all]

Well - there is the idea of a family member being part-owner, but I can see there would be tax implications for that individual, plus there are issues of dignity and balance of power.

There are housing associations that will partner with an individual to buy a home. Two I know about are wayhome dot co dot uk - but they have a waiting-list and have done for years - and Heylo Housing heylohousing dot com /find-a-home which would allow her to put up twenty-five percent (or more) of the cost of the home, in cash, and then to pay rent to them on the remaining seventy-five percent (or less) Generally, the difficulty with shared ownership is finding an agreement as to who pays for what type of maintenance cost: such as a new roof.

I wonder whether your family could set up a family trust which would be discretionary with several family members being beneficiaries: even your partner could be a beneficiary. They would choose trustees whom they trust! Then the trustees could invest some of the money from the discretionary trust in part-ownership of a home along with your partner. They would share the ownership severally, meaning that the trust and your partner would each own a proportion of the property outright.

If your partner writes a will, she could bequeath her share to whomever she wants, including to the discretionary trust, or to a family member of hers, and then there would be a joint decision among the trustees and the inheritors as to whether to let the home out or whether the inheritor lives there and perhaps negotiates a rent with the trustees. If you die, that makes no difference to the financial arrangement, because that proportion of your partner's home is owned by the trust, and you are only one of the beneficiaries.

You'd have to think about whether you and your partner would put in writing an agreement as to what would happen if you split up: whether you would name a rent she would pay, or whether she would at that stage buy the remaining part of the property from the trust.

The point of a discretionary trust is that none of the beneficiaries have to declare that money, in any means test. That fact has been tested in court, numerous times. You'd need to get a good lawyer, but that is always the case when you're disabled. Property ownership by a trust is different from ownership by an individual, and there could be issues around whether this would be acceptable in some leasehold arrangements: some freeholders insist on specific terms. So this arrangement might restrict your partner's choice of home. And the same difficulties will apply regarding agreeing how to split maintenance costs.

[Nick_b4 in reply to Chocolate-heals-all]

Hi, I had been investigating mortgages, she would need one, but so far no lenders would allow part ownership of a home by a trust. The other part being her as an individual.