I realise this may be a bit "off subject" but I am grateful for any advice of you can give me.

I have a client in a residential home. She is paying for this through her teachers occc. pension. It is now evident that the costs are increasing as her state of health declines and her adult son is coming under pressure to sell her home to pay for the costs of care.

The son is no a great communicator so I don't know what form this pressure takes.

To complicate matters the adult son has difficulties coping on his own and has lived in my client's home all his life although he doesn't own it.

He hasn't got power of attourney although this will be a possibility in the future.

Can she be compelled to sell her home and can the son object to being thrown out in the process?

Thanks

Dan

If the son is either aged under 16, over 60 or 'Incapacitated' then the LA will ignore the value of the property for the purposes of assessing her capital for as long as he is living there and there will be no requirement for it to be sold.
If this is not the case and she has under £21,000 in capital, then Mother could enter into a 'deferred payment arrangement' with the LA. Any costs that have been met by the LA during her lifetime will be recovered from her estate after her death - probably proceeds from sale of house then. She can continue to claim AA whilst in a DPA.

In addition to the statutory disregards detailed above the local authority has powers of discretion to disregard a property that someone else continues to live.

Examples of reasonable grounds for discretion in CRAG (7.007) detail a carer or an elderly companion remaining in the property, but I have successfully supported applications for discretion for children continuing to reside in the property.