You’ve put a lot into your home – why wouldn’t youprotectyour investment?
Why you’ll never regret taking legal steps now to safeguard your home
As a homeowner your job is never really done. It could be a new sofa, updating your kitchen or adding a patio to your garden. It might be touching up the paint in the hallway or cleaning out the gutters. Sometimes
it’s also fixing storm damage to the roof or emergency boiler call outs.
Add up all that daily maintenance and bigger one- off improvements or repairs, and you’ll discover that you’ve put a lot into looking after your home. But have you also done all you can to protect that investment of time and money? Is what’s likely to be one of your biggest assets, your home, safeguarded? Because unfortunately there are no guarantees about the future.
Should you end up having to go into a care home, your house could be taken to cover fees. That’s why, for the experts in Wills and Estate Planning at ILAWS Scotland, it’s
unfathomable to not take legal steps to protect your wishes and assets – particularly your home.
Tony Marchi, principal at ILAWS, explains: “Every time you spend money on a tin of paint, never mind the bigger things, it’s an investment into your home – imagine not having that protected? It would be like not having fire or building insurance, you just wouldn’t do it.
So why would you take the risk of losing your own home?”
The good news when it comes to care home fees is that there are legal, legitimate steps you can take to help protect your home,
including the likes of property trusts or title transfers. While not everyone can take advantage of these options, ILAWS’ experts find that eight or nine times out of 10 they can provide clients with different ways of preventing the sale of the house.
However, it is undeniably a complex area which is why seeking professional, legal advice is so important. After all, care home fees vary across Scotland and the amount you may have to pay is dependent on many different factors – which effects what legal options are open to you.
According to Tony, there are various factors which can impact your legal options ( like property trusts). He explains: “It depends on how the property is owned, if it’s single or joint ownership, as well as who you want the property going to, what age you are and what you’re comfortable with. Is there a mortgage, for example? All of these things can complicate matters, but don’t necessarily stop someone from legally protecting their home.”
There is lots to consider, but a good legal representative will be able to help you through all of this and identify the best plan of action for your specific circumstances. This is why ILAWS prefers to do face-to-face meetings, often in their clients’ homes, to make sure everyone is on
the same page and understands the process. That includes gathering the right information needed to organise legal documents. Tony adds:“we will do everything, so if you’re not sure what’s going on with say with your mortgage, we can look into all that for you. Basically, if you don’t know something we need to know, we’ll find out for you.”
As well as the likes of property trusts or title transfers, you can also help ensure that your wishes for your assets are followed in future through other legal documents. A Will, for example, lets you express what should happen to your estate after your passing. Meanwhile, a Power of Attorney lets you name who should make decisions on your behalf when you are unable to through illness or an accident – this includes decisions about your healthcare but also financial decisions, too.
While organising legal documents of this nature does involve a cost, Tony points out that, overall, it will cost a fraction of what you’ve already put into your home. And once it’s done, it’s done. Tony adds:“when we speak to most clients, they’re surprised as they thought it would cost more than it does.”
If you can take legal steps to protect your decades-long or even life-long investment in your home, why wouldn’t you? Visit ilawsscotland.co.uk or call 0800 0499688 to learn more about how ILAWS Scotland can help you with legal and financial matters.