Mother wants to sign over house to me

Denny54

New member
May 13, 2018
1
0
My mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2015. She had a small stroke in January 2018 and her dementia has progressed very quickly. She is living with me that's what she wants and it's what I want. She has left her house to me in her will. She wants to sign the house over to me now I don't what's involved
 

Shedrech

Registered User
Dec 15, 2012
12,649
0
UK
hello @Denny54
and welcome to TP
I'm sorry to read of your mother's situation
You need to be very careful over this - sadly, as your mother has Alzheimer's, in any financial assessment regarding her care fees, it will be considered that there is a distinct possibilty that she will require full time care at some point, and 'gifting' her property over to you now will most probably be considered a deliberate deprivation of assets (in other words, deliberately trying to avoid having to self-fund any fees) - this could mean her LA assessing her as though she did own the house and so refusing to take on any part payment of her fees, leaving her and you to fund her care
there is also a potential issue over whether your mother would be deemed to have capacity to make such a decision
also, an Attorney, assuming you have in place LPA for finance and property, may not benefit from being an Attorney
 

Carolyn B

Registered User
Apr 29, 2018
49
0
North West
I think if you are over 60 then you are ok living in the houe. They won't look to the house as an asset. But yes as above re signing it over. If she had signed it over seven years previously you are ok, but otherwise leave well alone.
 

Blondee

Registered User
May 12, 2018
105
0
If your mother signs her house over to you now and later goes into care and is not self funding then the Local Authority could treat this as Deprivation of Assets. They could deem that your mother has disposed of the asset i.e. given it to you, in order to avoid it being used to pay care home fees. Therefore if the house was worth say £150k then she would be treated as having notional capital of £150k.
As for the time period the LA would go back over, every LA sets its own rules about how far back they look. My LA goes back to when the legislation was introduced - early 90’s I think - a long way back anyway. On the other hand one of my neighbouring LA’s only goes back 2 years and another goes back 5 years.
A very tricky area and something you want to think carefully about.
 

jugglingmum

Registered User
Jan 5, 2014
7,085
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Chester
My neighbour is a senior SW and he commentedin passing that his LA employs a whole team of people specifically to deal with deprivation of assets.
 

lemonjuice

Registered User
Jun 15, 2016
1,534
0
England
You need to be very careful over this - sadly, as your mother has Alzheimer's, in any financial assessment regarding her care fees, it will be considered that there is a distinct possibilty that she will require full time care at some point, and 'gifting' her property over to you now will most probably be considered a deliberate deprivation of assets (in other words, deliberately trying to avoid having to self-fund any fees) - this could mean her LA assessing her as though she did own the house and so refusing to take on any part payment of her fees, leaving her and you to fund her care
there is also a potential issue over whether your mother would be deemed to have capacity to make such a decision
also, an Attorney, assuming you have in place LPA for finance and property, may not benefit from being an Attorney
I agree this is a very tricky area.

I was also about to say what jugglingmum says
the seven years relates to Inheritance tax,
, it may not be related to deprivation of assets but assuming your mother were to die within the next 7 years could incur huge costs. Transfer of the house would come under 'lifetime gifts with reservation' (I think that's the correct term anyway) and tax is payable at 40% (of the value of the gift) on a sliding scale down to 0% after 7 years. So if your mother's house is worth say £150k you could be faced with having to pay £60k should your mother die within a year. :eek: and even 4 years after transfer it could still be around 16% £20k! :eek: And HMRC don't wait for payment and settlement of the estate. :(:( (My son received a gift of some land with a workshop from his grandfather and died within the 7 year period and so we had cause to know about this.)

So all things considered I would be very wary on several counts.
 

nitram

Registered User
Apr 6, 2011
30,081
0
Bury
To cut to the chase.
Has your mother capacity to gift you the house?
Not disagreeing with previous comments.
 

Kevinl

Registered User
Aug 24, 2013
6,063
0
Salford
I'm not clear, Denny says "She is living with me" which to me implies that the mother is living in Denny's house and the mother's house is elsewhere the way I read it, but it's unclear.
Should they ever become involved one of the first thing social services will want to know is where she lives and has lived, my mother came to live with me in one LA but had lived in a different LA for the previous 30 years. Social services wanted to pass it back to them but as I'd sold her house the original LA didn't want to know and they had a right argument about who should be funding.
If there are 2 houses involved and the LA find out she's gifted hers to you they may treat her as still living at the old address and if that's in a different LA thing can get complicated, trust me I know from experience.
K
Sorry I forgot to save that if you do own it as a second home then when you sell you could end up with a significant tax bill that would not apply if you inherit.