House Ownership

If the possibility of your home having to be sold to pay for care fees concerns you, or the thought of your estate passing to someone other than your children through remarriage worries you, then you should consider creating Property Trust Wills. With people living longer, more and more people are going into residential or nursing care homes in their later years.

In order to pay for this care, the Local Authorities can sell your home and use the proceeds towards your care fees if your assets exceed £23,250. This may mean that your hard earned estate will pass to the government rather than to your family or loved ones. However, by preparing carefully worded Property Trust Wills, you can protect one half of the value of your home in the event that long term care should become necessary.

Finally, there is the issue of re-marriage. Should your spouse/partner remarry after your death, this could have a dramatic effect on where your property ends up. This is because that act of remarriage cancels any Will your partner made whilst you were both alive and the new husband/wife/civil partner would then become his/her next of kin.

Your children for example, would be no legal relative to this person and your estate could pass outside the family to someone you have never even met. However, if you have Property Trust Wills, your half of the house is protected by the trust and will not pass outside your immediate family.

By dealing with the way in which your property is owned and creating an appropriate Will, can significantly reduce potential liabilities and allow you to keep greater control on how your property is dealt with upon your death.