Mum wants to sell up and move in with me
Discussion
My 83 year old mum, who appears to be as fit as a fiddle, wants to sell her house and live with me and my wife. We have planning permission to build an annexe and mum wants to contribute to the build and live in it. This is fine by us and on the surface appears to be a bonus. The value of mum's estate is under the IHT threshold but can she just give her money away to me and my sisters or do we incur some kind of tax? The other thing on my mind is about care home costs. What if after a few years she needs to go into care and doesn't have the money for it? I can't believe someone can just dump their money onto family members to avoid paying for care themselves. Am I walking into financial issues here?
Louis Balfour said:
Lord Flashheart said:
My 83 year old mum, who appears to be as fit as a fiddle, wants to sell her house and live with me and my wife. We have planning permission to build an annexe and mum wants to contribute to the build and live in it. This is fine by us and on the surface appears to be a bonus. The value of mum's estate is under the IHT threshold but can she just give her money away to me and my sisters or do we incur some kind of tax? The other thing on my mind is about care home costs. What if after a few years she needs to go into care and doesn't have the money for it? I can't believe someone can just dump their money onto family members to avoid paying for care themselves. Am I walking into financial issues here?
I don't know about the financial aspect, but think twice about moving her in. We moved in my grandmother (mother's side) under the arrangement you describe and it nearly drove us all nuts. My parents made me promise I wouldn't make the same mistake.OP here. Thank you for your comments and opinions so far. All food for thought. I'll be speaking to a lawyer this week about the financial situation, that I will then report back here on.
As far as caring for mum in the future goes, I know there's a risk of bringing misery upon myself and wife, but it's a risk we will take if the money is safe. I should point out that we would take her in even if she didn't have any money too. The problem we have is that our house is not old person friendly, so the out building is a necessity.
My mum is definitely not a person whose last years should be spent rotting in a care home, albeit I do appreciate sometimes the level of care just can't be at home. Both of my parents worked hard all their lives, paid their taxes and their NI. To give their hard earned to a care home is not something either of them would have been happy about. My mum in particular gets very angry that those who aspire to nice things in life and work hard for them are penalised at this stage, when the spongers who have done nothing get rewarded and looked after by the state. She's old school.
As far as caring for mum in the future goes, I know there's a risk of bringing misery upon myself and wife, but it's a risk we will take if the money is safe. I should point out that we would take her in even if she didn't have any money too. The problem we have is that our house is not old person friendly, so the out building is a necessity.
My mum is definitely not a person whose last years should be spent rotting in a care home, albeit I do appreciate sometimes the level of care just can't be at home. Both of my parents worked hard all their lives, paid their taxes and their NI. To give their hard earned to a care home is not something either of them would have been happy about. My mum in particular gets very angry that those who aspire to nice things in life and work hard for them are penalised at this stage, when the spongers who have done nothing get rewarded and looked after by the state. She's old school.
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