Guide · checked 2 October 2026
Should the house go into a trust?
Two very different things get called “putting the house in a trust”. One is a legitimate part of many couples’ wills. The other is the mis-selling scandal of this decade.
Run the free check for your house: will it have to be sold to pay for care?
The legitimate one: a trust written into the will
Most couples own the house as joint tenants, so when one dies the whole house passes automatically to the survivor. If the survivor later remarries, needs care, or simply changes the will, the children can lose out.
The alternative takes two steps:
- Own the house as tenants in common, so each of you owns a half.
- Each will leaves its half to a life-interest trust: the survivor can live in the house for life, then that half passes to the children.
Solicitors also call it a property protection trust or a protective property trust.
What it does
- Keeps the survivor housed.
- Gets the first half to the children, whatever the survivor later does.
- Usually keeps the residence nil-rate band for inheritance tax.
- If the survivor later needs care, only their own half is assessed, not the half in trust.
- The survivor’s own half is still theirs to use or leave as they choose.
What it does not do
- It does not shelter the survivor’s own half from care fees.
- It does nothing for the care fees of whoever needs care first.
- Nobody can honestly sell this trust as a way to avoid care fees.
It costs more than a simple will, and a couple need one each. Changing to tenants in common takes a short written notice (a notice of severance), and HM Land Registry charges no fee to record it.
The one to walk away from: a lifetime “asset protection” trust
Here the house goes into a trust now, while you are alive, usually for £3,000 to £5,000 (Association of Lifetime Lawyers). The promise is that it is then safe from care fees and inheritance tax: it is not.
- The council can treat you as still owning the house if avoiding care fees was a significant reason for the transfer.
- There is no time limit: the seven-year inheritance tax rule does not apply.
- Giving away the house and staying in it keeps it inside your estate for inheritance tax anyway.
- You lose control of your own home, and the firm often appoints itself as trustee.
- In a 2025 survey of over 100 specialist lawyers by the Association of Lifetime Lawyers, 95% had met clients who were mis-sold one, and 90% said unregulated firms were behind them.
Who it usually suits
- Couples who own jointly and have children, especially from a previous relationship.
- Couples who want the first half to reach the children whatever happens to the survivor.
Who it usually does not suit
- Single owners: there is no survivor to protect, and a will alone does the job.
- Anyone hoping it will make the house disappear from a care assessment or a tax bill.
Information, not legal advice. Sources: Care and Support Statutory Guidance Annex E; Age UK factsheet 40 (2026); Association of Lifetime Lawyers survey (Sep 2025); Which? guidance on deprivation of assets.