When is a home not a home for the purpose of means testing?

The answer: when it’s a park home!

Find out how a 145-year-old law helped stop an unusual family home from being included in social services means-testing calculations.

Most clients who call the team at Steene Law, are seeking the same thing – they want to stop their relative’s savings and home, from being swallowed up in care home fees. And rightly so!

Their family member worked hard all their lives and paid their taxes. So, why should their financial affairs be put under the spotlight by the Local Authority?

A family recently got in touch with us because their mother had gone into residential care.

Social services had completed a financial assessment, also known as a means test, and had decided that mum was a self-funder, – meaning that she had assets totalling more than £23,250.

The family were understandably very upset because social services informed them that their mum’s home would have to be sold to fund her residential care fees.

During the course of the FREE telephone conversation with a member of the family, we discovered that mum’s home was not the typical terraced or semi-detached house that most of our clients own.

It was, in fact, a mobile home, otherwise known as a ‘park home’. Social services had decided that, since it was valued at over £200,000, it was subject to a financial assessment and the home would need to be sold to pay for care home fees.

We were able to advise the family that social services had got it wrong! Their financial assessment was incorrect.

As experts in adult social care law, our team knew that such a property could be excluded from a financial assessment. We asked for photos of the home before accepting instructions.

We reviewed the paperwork and advised that the local authority had got it wrong, based on our legal analysis it had to be ignored for the purpose of the Financial Assessment.

Our client was delighted that their mum’s home did not have to be sold – the local authority less so – and the Steene Law team were very pleased that they had stayed awake during land law lessons!

This case illustrates that local authorities do not always get it right. If your relative has been classed as a self-funder, and they have been told by social services that 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.