ReadySteady
New Member
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I believe this topic will apply to many families across the country, but there's not enough information / examples to understand the available options. Consider this situation, for which I am trying to gather as much advice as possible for a close friend of mine.
You have an 86-year-old in a nursing home for the past year, availing of the fair deal / nursing home loan. Her five-bedroom house is sitting empty, as it cannot be rented out (otherwise 80% of income will go to fair deal, aka not worthwhile to put it into rentable condition). It's becoming damp, mouldy and in need of repairs. I understand this is a widespread picture of thousands of homes under the fair deal scheme. Her son and daughter are both renting separately, but are both severely struggling with finances, having lost work over covid.
Worst case scenario, they can both move into the house with the mothers permission, and agree to take care of the house upkeep and bills. This sounds fine in theory - however, the problem is that there is a massive personality clash between the siblings (first world problems, I know!)
Best case scenario, the house is big enough to convert into two separate units. Planning permission aside, what is the most viable way to do this under fair deal?
The mother would be happy to transfer (gift) the house to her children. The children could then take a loan to convert the house into two units. As I understand, upon transfer of the house to the children, the nursing home loan will have to be repaid at 7.5% the value for three years. Are there any other caveats here? Is it OK to transfer the house before the three years, or is there any other clause?
A second possibility would be for the Mother to retain ownership, and the children to go ahead and convert the property - would this be against fair deal conditions?
Deeply concerning that there are so many vacant houses in the country in this exact same situation, amid our housing crisis.
You have an 86-year-old in a nursing home for the past year, availing of the fair deal / nursing home loan. Her five-bedroom house is sitting empty, as it cannot be rented out (otherwise 80% of income will go to fair deal, aka not worthwhile to put it into rentable condition). It's becoming damp, mouldy and in need of repairs. I understand this is a widespread picture of thousands of homes under the fair deal scheme. Her son and daughter are both renting separately, but are both severely struggling with finances, having lost work over covid.
Worst case scenario, they can both move into the house with the mothers permission, and agree to take care of the house upkeep and bills. This sounds fine in theory - however, the problem is that there is a massive personality clash between the siblings (first world problems, I know!)
Best case scenario, the house is big enough to convert into two separate units. Planning permission aside, what is the most viable way to do this under fair deal?
The mother would be happy to transfer (gift) the house to her children. The children could then take a loan to convert the house into two units. As I understand, upon transfer of the house to the children, the nursing home loan will have to be repaid at 7.5% the value for three years. Are there any other caveats here? Is it OK to transfer the house before the three years, or is there any other clause?
A second possibility would be for the Mother to retain ownership, and the children to go ahead and convert the property - would this be against fair deal conditions?
Deeply concerning that there are so many vacant houses in the country in this exact same situation, amid our housing crisis.