Hi All - has anyone had any experience of this - where you sell yr (parents) property to a retirement home so you can move in quickly without having to sell yr parents house first - assuming you would take a big hit on the price but much easier in terms of paperwork. Worthwhile ? Thanks - Costa
Do NOT do this!!!
Tell us more about your parents situation.
Need to move parents near me fairly rapidly as health declining and they are over 3 hrs away , current house becoming unsuitable. Looking at retirement flat type thing bringing in carers. Will.probably need to invoke POA to sort out their finances. Should be able to sell house but maybe not quickly hence looking at part exchange
Cheers
Anyone?
My sister in law developed dementia, my nephew and niece rented out the house to help pay the care home fees.
Why don’t you just rent a home down here, because sadly they may not live too much longer, is it worth the hassle of buying somewhere?
What care is available where they live? Have Social Services done a Needs Assessment for them both.
Would it be better to find a care home with a double room for them?
Just a few ideas to consider.
How old are they, and what exactly is wrong with them?
Hello Costa. I cannot give final advice on what you should do - that decision is up to you - but I can add some further ideas for for you to consider. Let me consider some points, one at a time.
Should your parents relocate?
You want your parents to move near you, but not actually live with you. I quite understand why you think that would be an attractive arrangement. Just one point of slight warning. Elderly people may sometimes be unsettled by moving into an unfamiliar area. However, if they are already familiar with the area where you live and are enthusiastic about the idea of moving there, there should not be a problem. I presume you cannot move to where they are because of your job.
What type of accommodation?
It sounds as though you favour the idea of a retirement home, and do not think they need a care home at present. You could also consider warden-monitored sheltered accommodation. A rented dwelling could be a stopgap solution to get them into your area quickly without waiting for their house to be sold, but other than that, it would not have any real advantage over an ordinary house. Round where I live, the rental for a small house would be around £800 per calendar month, possibly more depending on location. A care home could cost this much for a week. My own assessment of retirement homes is that they are very suitable accommodation but not particularly cheap. A two-bedroomed appartment would be roughly the same price as a three-bedroomed semi-detached house in the same area. There are charges on top of that; service and maintenance charges, and I expect ground rent because I imagine these properties are sold on a leasehold tenure.
Should you part-exchange?
There are expenses involved in selling a house - estate agent commission, legal fees, etc. If you part-exchange, these expenses are taken off your hands. Therefore you cannot expect to receive as much for the house as “expected market value”. However this would get your parents moved into a retirement home quickly and with little hassle, and would avoid the expenses of stopgap renting. Another warning: selling a house at a distance is more difficult and has more pitfalls than selling locally. I once moved 300 miles to start a new job, but it took quite a while to sell my house. At that distance it was difficult to keep control over surveyors and builders doing remedial work, and some fittings were stolen, so I felt I lost out a little.
Summing up
Overall, therefore you need to balance the costs and benefits of one option against another. It may not be a bad idea to approach a retirement home organisation and get an idea of costs of accommodation and how much part exchange you could expect, but don’t commit to anything until you have considered all options. The time is also ripe to start talking to a conveyancing solicitor, and discussing with them all these options and the legal position. If you have Power of Attorney, involve your parents as much as possible in all decisions. It is their house, after all.
Thankyou so much for the replies bball and Denis - I must apologise - I have only just seen them. Things have moved on since then - I have started a new thread on the financial section as there are some issues with the potential solution.
Best wishes
Costa
In my experience retirement homes are hard to sell on…my FIL was in a nice one with a lovely communal area and cafe. Activities arranged for the residents etc…it’s been on the market a year now as MIL moved into care home. The service charge is £500 per month which is still being paid and this retirement home is a not for profit charity! A friend of mine also had this same situation with her mum and the property took well over a year to sell and the home management company took a share of the sale price too.
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