The Property Trust

It is a sad fact of life that we all need to plan more carefully for our future if we wish our beneficiaries to inherit what we feel is rightfully theirs. We all read too frequently of how Local Authorities have sold the homes of our elderly population to pay for long term care in old age, which in many cases has taken the biggest asset the majority of us will ever have. Families of this vulnerable sector of the community are also disheartened when everything their parents have ever worked for during a whole lifetime is wiped out in just a few years of Long Term Care.

The incentive to buy our homes is therefore under threat if our efforts to become homeowners result in a financial loss because of the Community Care Act.

The Property Trust is designed to protect the value of the share of the deceased partner in the property from being used to pay the care bills of the surviving partner if they require permanent residential care. The Property Trust also allows the surviving partner all the benefits of occupation or to move to a different property and will prevent the deceased partner's share in the property being inherited by a second husband or wife.

Whilst this is binding on the estate and the Trustees after death, it can be varied or cancelled at any time if circumstances change before death.

How The Property Trust Works
The majority of married couples own their homes as "joint tenants". The Property Trust changes this agreement to "tenants in common" where each owns half or a specific share in the house and can dispose of that share in their Will.

A Trust is created in each partner's Will so that, on the first death, the share of the deceased partner is left to their beneficiaries (usually their children) with the rights of occupation of the surviving partner secured by the terms of the Trust. The surviving partner can continue to live in the house as long as he or she wishes, move to another house or sell the property and receive an income but cannot spend the share of the deceased partner.

However, the share which is held in trust cannot be claimed by the local authority to pay for residential care for the surviving partner, nor can it pass by inheritance law to a new spouse or partner.