When can the LA place a charge on a property?

[Liver1]

Hi,
My parents are tenants in common and Mom has advanced Alzheimers. They own home and have separate savings. If Mom goes into full-time care and the savings run out, can they take her half of the house or put a charge on it later?
We are v. Confused.
The other idea we have is for Dad to sell the house, live with us free and enjoy the rest of his years as this is ageing him terribly, and Mom go into full time care. Would this be a better idea or is Dad chucking half of the property straight to the LA?.
Any advice would be brill thank you.

 

[jenniferpa]

If your mother goes into residential care, and your father remains in the family home, that home is completely disregarded. There will be no charge made on the property. The time you would have an issue is if after your mother goes into residential care, your father decides to sell the property. While some LAs may allow your father to retain more than his 50% share in order to allow him to purchase a smaller property, they do not have to.

edited to add

Please also bear in mind there is a sliding scale when it comes to savings. If your mother has more than £23K in savings she will be self funding, while if her savings are below £14,250 the only thing she will have contribute is her pensions less the personal expense allowance. In between those number the LA assesses a tariff income of £1 per £250 per week (plus, of course, her pensions).

 

[Liver1]

Thank you for your help

I wonder if you can you tell me the situations in which a charge can be made on a property?

Thanks

 

[jenniferpa]

The most common one is when the well partner dies, and the ill partner has to go into a home: the result can be a deferred payment agreement either while the property is being sold or if the family want to rent out the property for example.

I suppose the other situation would be if the ill partner was placed in a home, and the well partner wanted to downsize but needed more than their 50% share of the property to purchase a smaller property. In that situation an LA might well decide to allow the partner to use more than the 50% but want a lien against the property for care home fees up to the "more than 50%" they were allowing the partner to use. I've not actually heard of the latter happening, but I think it could.

 

[Liver1]

Thank you so much