Protect your Home

Care Home Fees / Spouse/Partner Re-Marries or goes into a New Relationship

Sadly, some people in the past have given their homes to their children during their lifetime in the hope that this will protect their property for their children, only to find the money being clawed back by the government if they go into a care facility. It is also far from unknown for the children to force their parents out of their own home. This can also happen if the child gets divorced as the property forms part of the estate being divided up.

The means testing criteria of the Care in the Community Act 1990 means that the equity built up by owning a home for thousands of people is at risk through having to pay for the cost of their care. Although this can vary from one local authority to another, as a general rule if your assets are more than £22,500 then you will have to fund your care yourself.

What Can You Do?

An excellent way of protecting at least half of your home for your children to inherit, without taking out expensive insurance, is a Property Protection Trust. The most common reason for this Trust is to protect at least half the value of your home if one of you dies and the other has to go into care or if the survivor remarries and inadvertently disinherits the children. We set up a Trust in each will giving your share Upon Trust for the eventual benefit of your beneficiaries (i.e. children) and also giving a lifetime interest to the survivor over the share owned by the children. This allows the survivor to live in the property for as long as he/she wishes or to sell the house under the terms of the Trust and purchase another. Normally the survivor is the Trustee and the children have no rights over the property until the survivor dies or gives up their lifetime interest in the property by going into a care facility, so this works well.

If your spouse/partner goes into a new relationship or re-marries there is a risk that your children may be left with nothing. A Property Trust will make sure that whatever happens in the future you know that your children will get your half of your property one day. All things being equal, this means that they will eventually get both halves.

Joint Ownership of Property

To make this work we need to change the way you jointly own your home from 'Joint Tenants' to 'Tenants in Common'. When property is owned jointly it is owned either as Joint Tenants or Tenants in Common. Most property is owned as Joint Tenants so we would need to 'Sever the Joint Tenancy' and create a Tenancy in Common. As Joint Tenants the survivor owns all irrespective of what you say in your Will, but as Tenants in Common you can dispose of your share as you see fit.

If the property is registered with the Land Registry then we notify them and they issue a 'Completion of Registration' .

With a Property Trust you can be sure that your share of the house is protected, will pass to your beneficiaries and cannot be used to settle debts or pay care fees for your surviving partner or inadvertently by-pass your children and go to a new partner.

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Testimonial

Jeremy & Caroline F. in Surrey says:
KEWsWillS managed the implementation of our Wills and Lasting Power of Attorney; resulting from several home visits and fitting in with our family’s commitments. We were guided through the complexities of the LPA via a relatively painless process and were given tax and legal advice, enabling us to make informed decisions. It was all achieved in the predicted timescales and with no issues overlooked.