We can enjoy the years we have together
Mrs Jean Margaret Scott, 82, and her husband Mr Charles Scott, also 82, turned to ILAWS when it came to organising their legal documents.
As well as Power of Attorney and Wills, they also sought ILAWS’ help to legally protect their home. “We were very lucky to get that done. It took about six months to get the protection of home done,” says Mrs Scott. “It means that if we go into a care home or anything, whoever it is can’t take the house away from us.”
The Scotts are pleased they started the process of legal protection when they did, as Mr Scott is now going into a care home. “We started working with ILAWS last year because he had Parkinson’s and sometimes his memory wasn’t very good, so we wanted all this in place both for him and myself,” explains Mrs Scott.
“I phoned and spoke to George, and we had a conference call with my two daughters. I wanted to include them as well in the conversation, in case they had any input they wanted to share. It was good. Any awkward questions I didn’t know about, they asked them.”
The family now know where the documents are kept, should the worst happen. Mrs Scott says: “I’ve got them all in the one drawer and both my daughters know if anything happens to anyone, they know where all the documentation is and they can attend to that.”
It took a long time to fix the protection of their home and the documents related to this as the result of a backlog, explains Mrs Scott. If anyone is thinking about protecting their home, she would recommend speaking to an expert about it sooner rather than later.
It can prove important, particularly for couples who – like the Scotts – have nothing in place. “It was the usual, you put it off and you put it off, and say ‘we’ll do it’ and before you know it, we’re both 80 and we haven’t done anything. Luckily enough we got all this done before anything happened to either of us,” says Mrs Scott.
Now Mrs Scott has peace of mind that everything is taken care of, with ILAWS providing “fantastic” service throughout the process.
She says: “They put my mind at ease, explained everything to us. I would highly recommend them to anybody,” explains Mrs Scott.
“Before this my husband and I weren’t too clear, and we’d heard about people whose home had to go to help them into a care home and all that business. So we wanted to find out what position we were in, and after that was done, then we could sit back and relax, and enjoy the years we have together.”