​One option that many people look at is to use equity release to avoid paying care home fees.   This allows you to take money out of your home and avoid having to pay care home fees.

This is a regulated advice area however, I am authorised as an Independent Financial Adviser to help in this area.

It is possible to put your house into a Trust and assign your property to someone else, such as your children.  However, there have to be valid reasons as to why you would put your property into trust and not just because you don’t want to pay your care fees. Without valid reasons this will be classed as deliberate deprivation of assets.

The three main types of Trusts available to protect your property are typically;

• Protective Property Trust

• Life Interest Trust

• Interest in Possession Trust

It’s Never Too Late

As far as a Will is concerned, can I take any steps to protect my half of the property should my surviving partner have to go into a home?

You can do this but you have to do two things:

1. Firstly, you have to convert the ownership of the property from Joint Tenancy to Tenancy in Common. Once you own the property as a Tenancy in Common, it becomes owned in two separate shares (which may be half but not always) and then can form part of separate estates.

2. Make a WILL

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It’s Never Too Late

It very well come as a shock to discover that you may need to pay over £100,000 for care home costs. It is only natural for those people that are looking at protecting their assets from nursing home fees and looking at how to avoid, and not sell, their property should they go into care. Especially, if you wish to leave your home to your children.

Should you go Nursing Home then the assets that that individual owns can be taken into account to fund the home fees. The only amount that an individual can retain is £23,250.00 and may include any property that is owned by the individual.

So, how can we avoid selling your house to pay for care?

Gifting your Property| Change the Tenancy | Equity Release

​Joint Tenants - Generally individuals own a property between themselves as Joint Tenants and is regarded as being in equal shares and upon death, regardless of what your Will says, the property automatically goes to the survivor. Therefore your surviving partner would inherit your share and your share could be used for care home fees if your spouse/partner then went into care.

Tenants in Common - Owning your property as Tenants in Common means that you own the property jointly, but in equal or possibly unequal shares.

The advantage of owning a property as Tenants in Common is that any property owner may leave their share in the property under their own will to another person of their choice. The owner has the full right to deal with their share as they see fit.