Find out how a law that’s almost a century old helped one self-funder avoid selling their home to pay for care.
Many people have a mental picture of a lawyer, as someone who is crouched over dusty legal books, sifting through the fine print of legislation which often dates back decades, in a bid to help them win a particular case.
Well, the dusty legal books may be a thing of the past – thanks to the wonders of computer technology everything is now online.
But, as for delving into legislation which would make most people’s eyes glaze over, deciphering dry legalese and understanding how it relates to our clients in the real world – yes, the team at Steene Law are guilty as charged!
Steene Law’s 70 plus years of combined expertise recently changed one client’s life.
We were asked to review a Financial Assessment, otherwise known as a local authority ‘means test’.
Our client was looking after his great uncle’s affairs and was concerned that the elderly gentleman was at risk of losing his home and savings which, quite rightly, the nephew felt was unfair.
After all, his great uncle had worked hard all his life and paid his taxes so why should he have to sell his home now that he had care needs?
When our client first got in touch with us, his relative had lost mental capacity and had already gone into residential care.
The local authority had conducted a Financial Assessment (means test) and, seeing the gentleman’s name on the Title at the Land Registry, they decided that the value of his home, which was now vacant, should be included in his Financial Assessment.
The elderly uncle was deemed to be a so-called self-funder because the value of his home – like almost every property these days – exceeded £23,250.
But the local authority hadn’t reckoned on Steene Law! As experts in Elder Law, we are regularly asked to help clients tackle paying for care issues.
We reviewed the case and spotted something a little odd – the way in which the great uncle’s name appeared on the Land Registry entry and some other unusual wording on the Title made us curious. In fact, it brought back memories (unpleasant ones!) of sitting in Law School back in the day.
Lo and behold, the great uncle had only occupied the property he lived in under a “strict settlement” created by the Settled Land Act 1925 – a law which, since 1997, has ceased to exist. Don’t worry, we don’t expect you to be up to speed on the nuances of this particular piece of legislation. In fairness, neither was the local authority until we brought it to their attention!
What happened? Well, we’re pleased to report that despite the Local Authority gnashing their teeth, the entire value of the house had to be excluded from his Financial Assessment.
This meant the Local Authority were legally obliged to pay for all his care, because, after excluding the home from his total assets, the gentleman had savings of less than £23,250 and was therefore not a self-funder.
The moral of this story is that local authorities do not always get it right.
If your relative has been classed as a self-funder, and they have been told they will need to sell their home to pay for their care, that may not necessarily be true – so call us now on 0203 653 0623.