This is a typical story we come across regularly:
"My mum died quite a few years ago and my father promised her “I will make sure Yvonne and Tony” inherit the family home between them”. It was a very modest terraced house, but it was their little castle and home full of memories for 42 years.
Unfortunately, Dad eventually became ill and needed to go into long term care. After some time in care he was told that he would now need to use his home to pay for care fees. He was worried that the longer he was in care the less that would be left for me and my brother Tony to inherit. As much as we tried to reassure him that wasn’t important, he felt he was letting mum down on the promise he made.
He spent nearly 5 years in the care home constantly aware our inheritance was dwindling week after week. Nothing we said could reassure him that wasn’t important…but to him it was. Sure enough, when he died there was only a relatively small amount left for us to inherit.
Ironically, we had met a lovely old lady in dad’s care home who had no house to sell, she had always rented her home. She lived in that same care home as Dad and her fees were paid by the authorities, it seems so unfair. We hear and read about so many people losing a substantial part of their inheritance as a result of care fees, but it is not just about the money, it saddens both of us to see that house whenever we drive past it"
Gillian Hardy at Secure Inheritance: With the Right Will and Trust in place when Mum and Dad were alive Yvonne and Tony could have had certainty about inheriting, at the very least, mum’s share of the family home
