Lengthy home-moving times are creating additional pressure for families forced to sell property to fund residential care, Propertymark has warned.
The professional body says the gap between care-funding deadlines and the time it can take to complete a property transaction can leave families facing considerable financial and emotional strain.
Propertymark highlighted the experience of sisters Jennie Symons and Tracy Howard, who needed to sell their father Colin’s home (main picture) after his Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease progressed to the point where he required full-time specialist dementia care.
The case became complicated by an existing lifetime mortgage on the property, difficulties securing a care placement and the subsequent collapse of three separate property chains.
RACE TO SECURE CARE
Propertymark says people entering permanent residential care can, depending on their circumstances, benefit from a 12-week property disregard, during which the value of their former home may be excluded from a local authority financial assessment.
Deferred Payment Agreements can also allow eligible people to delay paying some care costs by having a council secure the amount owed against their property.
However, Jennie and Tracy say several care providers would not consider their father under arrangements involving a 12-week period because his property was subject to a lifetime mortgage.
They eventually found a provider prepared to offer a 12-month deferred payment arrangement and Colin entered the care home in August 2025.
His property was immediately placed on the market.
THREE CHAINS COLLAPSE
The difficulties did not end once a buyer was found.
The first chain collapsed on the planned day of exchange after a buyer further down the chain attempted to renegotiate their offer. Colin died days later, triggering the process for repayment of his lifetime mortgage.
A second chain subsequently collapsed for a similar reason, while a third failed when another seller withdrew from the market because of the stress of moving.
Contracts were finally exchanged during a fourth attempt, at which point the care home’s 12-month deferred payment was becoming due.
Jennie and Tracy say: “We kept coming up against these ‘12 week’ periods for the disregard, the deferred payment, and the deadline for repaying the lifetime mortgage. Those timeframes no longer fit with the time it takes to sell a house.
“So many families and individuals will be facing similar challenges, and it is heartbreaking and extremely stressful.”
AGENTS CAN PLAY KEY ROLE
The experience comes as the Government attempts to tackle delays in England’s home-moving system. Its Home Buying and Selling Reform proposals state that transactions now take around four months after an offer is accepted and approximately one in three fail.
Propertymark says circumstances involving care underline the importance of agents understanding why a client is selling rather than treating every transaction in the same way.
It advises families to choose a trusted agent, explain their circumstances from the outset and ensure the agent understands any financial or care-related deadlines surrounding the sale.
For agents, the case also highlights how progressing chains and maintaining communication between buyers, sellers, conveyancers and other parties can become particularly important where completing a transaction is linked to funding someone’s care.
