Guide · checked 19 September 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. Here is how to tell them apart.
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 is to own as tenants in common and for each of you to leave your half in your will to a life-interest trust: the survivor has the right to live in the house for life, and that half then passes to the children. Solicitors also call it a property protection trust or a protective property trust.
What it does: keeps the survivor housed; guarantees each half reaches the children; usually keeps the residence nil-rate band for inheritance tax; and, if the survivor later needs care, only the survivor’s own half is assessed, with the half already in trust generally valued at little or nothing.
What it does not do: it does not shelter the survivor’s own half from care fees; it cannot be sold as a way to avoid them; and it needs a solicitor to draft, typically £399 to £600 for the pair of wills, plus a notice of severance to change the ownership at the Land Registry.
The one to walk away from: a lifetime “asset protection” trust
Here the house is transferred now, while you are alive, into a trust, usually for £3,000 to £5,000, on a promise 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, 95% of specialist solicitors had met clients who were mis-sold one, and 89% of those sales were by unregulated firms.
Who it usually suits
- Couples who own jointly and have children, especially from a previous relationship.
- Couples who want certainty that the children inherit 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.