£4,000 BILL TO REGAIN HOUSE

DAVE ROBSON’S late father, Ronald, was convinced to set up a trust in 2008 by The Will Writing Company, to protect his house from care home fees.

Mr Robson says his father, who was 78 at the time, saw posters in his local Newcastle Building Society branch advertising wills and trusts, and made an enquiry.

A salesman visited and charged him a £4,000 fee to put his home and about £100,000 of investments in a trust. But Mr Robson, 65, says the financial product was completely mis-sold.

‘He told us: “Put your house in a trust so if you go into a care home, they can’t take it off you.”

‘He then gave us a piece of paper with the company’s phone number on and told us to give it to the council if my father needed care. It happened very quickly.’

At the end of 2016, Mr Robson was alerted by a friend that the trust company was in trouble.

The firm that took over, Philips Trust Corporation, wanted a £275 fee to see him and explain the new set-up, but the former electrician sought legal advice instead. It then took two years and another £4,000 in solicitor’s fees to untangle the trust.

Mr Robson said: ‘My solicitor told me lots of other people were trying to get PTC to step down as trustees and it was refusing. It was also trying to charge clients 20pc of any assets once a person died, which we were never told about.

‘It is absolutely diabolical that companies can get away with this. The Government should really do something about it.’