How to Avoid Selling Your House to Pay for Care

If you are facing a big care bill, you may be wondering if you need to sell your home.

Family members might have encouraged you to move into care, but now you are struggling to pay for it. Today’s care costs are extremely high and continue to rise.

This issue is something that is particularly affecting people in South Wales. Care home fees are high relative to both wages and pension incomes, making them unaffordable for many.

Fortunately, there are some alternatives to avoid selling your house to pay for care. We explore them in more detail below.

If you are in a position where you really do need to sell a house and you need to sell it quickly, please contact me today on 02920 501 001 or click the button below. We buy any house in South Wales regardless of the condition or situation.

Use equity release

One option is to use an equity release scheme. This lets you get cash for the equity already stored up in your home so that you can fund your care.

Equity release increases the value of your mortgage over time. Unfortunately, most lenders repossess and sell your home, leaving your next-of-kin with nothing when you’re gone.

Choose at-home care

Residential care is expensive because you have to pay for both bed and board. But if you get care in your home (particularly if it is included in your means test) then you can cut costs significantly. You just pay a weekly or monthly fee for the services you use, and that’s it.

It’s worth pointing out that nobody can force you to sell your home to pay for care under the law. You and your qualifying dependents including your spouse partner, civil partner, unmarried partner, an ex-spouse who is a single parent, can all veto such moves.

Get help from the local authority

If your financial assets (i.e. savings and investments) are below a certain level, you may qualify for local authority care funding. Thresholds depend on where you live. Unfortunately, if you have assets above these thresholds, you won’t qualify for funding.

In Wales, for instance, you can get extra payments if:

You have less than £24,000 in assets and receive care in your own home

You have less than £50,000 in assets and receive residential care

The payments you receive should be sufficient to provide you with a reasonable level of care.

Don’t transfer your property to your children to dip under the threshold. The authorities will view this as a “deliberate deprivation of assets.”

Use a deferred payment agreement

Lastly, you might want to use a deferred payment agreement, a contract with the local council to use the value of your home to pay for long-term care. Under such schemes, councils may agree to pay your bills on your behalf.

Sell your home quickly without hassle 

As we have seen, there are many ways to avoid selling your home to pay for care. However, if the issue is simply the difficulty of the property selling and the issues with this process, then as a property buyer, I can help. I will buy any house in any condition and can complete sales in as little as 7 days, eliminating fuss, and getting you the money you need. 

If you are certain you are going to sell your house to pay for care, or if you know someone who is considering this option, call me on 02920 501 001.

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