If I recall, if you rent the house, the rent is assessed as income indefinitely.
If the house is sold, the proceeds would be assessed as savings, even if transferred to other members of the family.
Trojan, my father was moved to a nursing home before the fair deal was in place. The hospital needed the bed, so they arranged the transfer. The application for fair deal was submitted around the time he moved, and was granted 3 months later. The family didn't pay anything, we understood that the hospital covered some costs in the interim. This wasn't the case, as we were billed for 3 months when the fair deal contribution was sorted (we paid the difference between FD and the full cost).