Property Question

[father ted]

Don't know if anyone can help me and it is not an issue at the moment but looking into the future.....

My father died in 1998. The house that he and my Mum lived in was in his name only. They divorced about 20 years before his death but continued to live under the same roof as neither could afford to move on. My father died intestate so I applied for probate to sort out his affairs, I am an only child. I was his next of kin as he was divorced from my Mum despite them being under the same roof. When he died, as next of kin the property was put in my name but my Mum continued to live there and when she could no longer live alone she came to live with me and I rented out the house rather than sell it as I gave up work at the time to look after her and my daughter and the rental income compensated me for my loss of wage.

I have cared for Mum now for 7 years and as the dementia progresses it gets harder especially as I care for someone else too. Should my Mum go into residential care would social services have any call upon the property. It was never in Mum's name but it was her home for 40 years.

 

[nicoise]

Going on the information you have provided, whilst your mother may have lived in the house, and it was her home for many years, she never owned any part of it, and her name would never have been on the deeds.

I suggest you ensure you have copies of all legal paperwork such as divorce papers, the paperwork relating to your father’s estate to show the transfer of the property from your father’s estate to you, what was recorded at the Land Registry, and so on. That way you are covered if there are any queries relating to any financial assessment that might be carried out to establish your mother’s financial status.

 

[Kevinl]

If she's not the legal owner of the property then no, it won't count in a financial assessment.
You inherited the house, it is registered as such and any beneficial interest ended when she moved in with you. Had she been a joint owner, you inherited your dad's share and she then gave you her share then that would be different, but that isn't what happened.
Had she still been his wife when he died she could have contested the will, but she wasn't.
I can't see how they could claim otherwise.
K

 

[jugglingmum]

I have no idea, but to throw a curve ball in, at the point of divorce, the marital assets would normally be divided, and whilst your mum continued to share the house with your dad, there was never any call on the assets. So did half the house really belong to your mum.

Ultimately the name on the deeds and land register is not necessarily the legal owner, I know where we deal with partnerships, no more than 4 peoples names can go on title deeds so they own it on trust for the other partners (eg accountants, solicitors, GPs).

So the name on the land registry doesn't prove anything, the question is, did they split assets and jointly own the house on divorce? If one of them had moved out, the other would have had to pay out was presumably why they didn't move out.

I don't know the answer - and I realise you are now trying to unravel from 20 years ago for your father's death and longer for the divorce.

I suspect it would be beyond an LA to unravel, unless you told them the situation.

 

[father ted]

Thanks for your responses.

With regard to their divorce, I have no idea how I would find out the terms of their divorce. No papers have ever surfaced for either Mum or Dad and I have no idea of the solicitors they used. Do you know where I could access details of their particular settlement?

 

[Kevinl]

Possibly they didn't use a solicitor, plenty of people don't. it may just have been an informal agreement that they split and continued to live in the same house. Who knows what happened 20 years ago? Did your dad make some cash settlement with your mum, was it agreed he got the house and she got some other asset, how is anyone supposed to be able to prove anything.
If the land registry accept the house is yours then as Jugglingmum says for the LA to go back 20 years and unravel the situation is neigh on impossible.
My wife divorced her first husband over 40 years ago, it was all done without using any solicitors so there's nothing on paper, but after they split his mum died and left him her house, he signed certain things over to my (now) wife if she dropped any possible claims on his late mum's house.
Nothing was done in writing but the deal was fairly amicable I understand but nothing exists to prove what actually was agreed at the time other than that's what they tell me happened.
K

 

[jenniferpa]

If a divorce actually happened there is, of course, a record of it. It might not contain the information you are looking for but it's there.

https://www.gov.uk/copy-decree-absolute-final-order

 

[Kevinl]

If a divorce actually happened there is, of course, a record of it. It might not contain the information you are looking for but it's there
reconcilable

My wife is on there as "irreconcilable differences" there is no record of the financial settlement.
Divorce records show the grounds on which the divorce was granted not the financial side of the arrangement unless the court was involved.
K

 

[jenniferpa]

That's why I said the info might not be there.

 

[copsham]

I was in a sort of similar situation when my mother went in to a nursing home. My mother had signed over her house to my brother and I, 12 years previously. The agreement was that she could live there rent free for the rest of her life. So the house had been in my brothers and my name for 12 years. There was no problem at all with this. She was not assessed as having a property. Local authority have to be assured that she did not deliberately deprive herself to avoid nursing home fees, which given the length of time was not a consideration. I was pleasantly surprised at how pleasant and easy most of the process was.

When she went in to a nursing we had to go to the Court of Protection to have her right to live there for the rest of her life, removed, so that we could rent it out. It took 12 months for a hearing! But other than that all surprisingly simple.

It is good to think ahead!