Care homes ‘selling residents’ possessions’

CARE homes are selling dead residents’ possessions and keeping the cash, the Competition and Markets Authority has warned.

The watchdog said some homes have contracts including a clause that allows them to sell a person’s things after they die and not to return the proceeds to their families or executors. It has launched a consultation over practices in the care home sector including charging residents fees for up to a month after their death.

In a document published yesterday it said it had seen terms in some contracts which allowed homes to “dispose” of a person’s possessions “without providing adequate notice to the estate of its intention to do so” and “without setting out that any monies received from the sale, minus reasonable expenses, should be returned to the resident’s estate or personal representatives, within a reasonable timeframe”.

The watchdog has come across numerous examples of contracts with this clause and is calling on families of those who have died to come forward if they have experienced the practice.

The announcement came as Maria Mallaband, a care home group, said it would scrap its policy requiring a month’s fees after a resident’s death.