Lease the home. Fund the care. Keep the inheritance.
A step-by-step explanation of the Care and Home Inheritance Plan. Four steps, your independent solicitor at every stage, and a written plan you can read in full before anything is signed.
You grant a lease on the home.
The Plan starts with a long lease. You grant My Lifetime Care a lease on the family home, which is registered against the property at HM Land Registry. The lease is the legal foundation that lets us pay your parent’s care costs for as long as they are needed.
Two solicitors are involved at this stage and at every stage that follows. Your solicitor acts for your family. Our solicitor acts for My Lifetime Care. Neither acts for both sides. Your solicitor reviews every clause of the lease, explains it in plain language, and only proceeds when your family is fully informed.
The lease term is set to cover the longest plausible care journey for your parent. It does not require your parent to move out at this stage. It does not transfer ownership of the home. It establishes the right to let the property and the obligation on us to fund the care.
What you receive at step one
A complete draft of the lease, a written plan covering the agreed care costs, your solicitor’s independent assessment, and as much time as you need to decide. Nothing is signed under pressure.
We fund the agreed care costs.
Once the lease is in place, we begin paying the agreed monthly care costs. The Plan covers two equally common scenarios: care arranged at home (paid carers, district nursing, respite cover) or residential and nursing care in a care home of your family’s choice.
The monthly figure is agreed before the Plan starts, based on the care assessment carried out by qualified professionals. If care needs change (and they often do), the figure can be reviewed under terms set out in the Plan documentation.
Payments continue for as long as your parent needs care, with no time limit. This is a structural feature of the Plan, not a discretionary one, and it is one of the most important distinctions from short-term loans or fixed-value arrangements.
Not an FCA-regulated product
The Plan is not financial advice and is not a regulated financial product. It is a legal contract between you and us in the form of a lease. Independent legal advice is required for both sides, every time, without exception.
The home earns its keep.
If your parent has moved into residential care, the home is let to tenants. We manage the letting end-to-end: tenant selection, tenancy administration, maintenance, insurance, repairs. The family is not responsible for an empty property or a landlord’s obligations during what is already a difficult period.
If your parent receives their care in their own home, then we give them a tenancy and insure, repair and maintain their home.
The rental income and the property’s growth in value over the lifetime of the Plan offset the care costs we’ve paid. The home’s use and value cover the care it has been funding.
If your parent remains living at home, the lease still exists and the funding obligation still exists, but the property is occupied by your parent and not let. The property’s growth in value continues to operate throughout.
Property care standard
We maintain the property to a high standard. The home is the family’s asset; we manage it as if we will hand it back to your family at the end of the Plan, because we will.
The family inherits the home.
When the Plan ends, the home passes to the beneficiaries of your parent’s estate. The home is not sold to settle the Plan. The care costs the Plan paid are recouped from the lease arrangement over its lifetime, not from the equity of the home itself. Your family inherits the property, preserved.
This is the structural difference that families come to the Plan for. The standard route, selling the home to pay fees, transfers the family’s most significant asset to the care system. The Plan keeps the asset inside the family while paying the same care fees.
The end of the Plan is itself a process. The lease ends. The property reverts. Your family decides what happens next: keep, let, sell, or move into the home. None of those decisions are made by My Lifetime Care.
What if circumstances change?
If a family wishes to end the Plan early, the documentation sets out defined routes for doing so. Your solicitor walks you through these before the Plan starts. There is no point in the journey where the family loses control of the choice.
How the Plan sits next to the alternatives.
A structural comparison. Every option in this list is a legitimate route for some families; the Plan is one of several, not a replacement for any of them.
| Key feature | CHIP | Sell the home | Equity release | Deferred payment agreement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beneficiaries inherit the home on death of home owner | ✓ Yes | – No | – No | – No |
| Home renovated before letting | ✓ Yes | – No | – No | – No |
| Maximum value of funds released for care | 75% of house value | 95% of house value | Approx. 30% of house value | 95% of house value |
| Cash released can fund care at home or in a care home | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | Care at home only | Care home only |
| Home insured, let, managed and void costs covered by | My Lifetime Care | – No | Home owner | Home owner |
| Home owner advised by own solicitor | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | – No |
| All care costs repaid to beneficiaries’ estate | ✓ Yes | – No | – No | – No |
| Time taken to complete contract | 4–6 weeks | 14–24 weeks | 6–12 weeks | 8–12 weeks |
A factual comparison of structural features. This is not financial advice. CHIP is not an FCA-regulated product. Equity release and deferred payment agreements are regulated under their respective frameworks.
What protects your family at every stage.
Independent solicitor for your family
Your solicitor acts for you, not for us. They review every clause of the Plan, explain it in plain language, and only proceed when you’re fully informed. My Lifetime Care pays reasonable solicitor fees.
Charity ownership
My Lifetime Care Ltd is wholly owned by the registered charity My Respite Care (no. 1152941). The governance structure is designed to put family interests above commercial return.
Annual reporting
You receive a written annual report on tenancy status, property maintenance, and the running Plan position. You can request more detail at any time, and you can request a meeting at any time.
Built-in failsafe
The lease gives your family a further protection. If My Lifetime Care were to fail to perform its obligations for any reason, the lease is cancelled and you recover your property free of the lease — subject only to the care costs paid to that point.
A ten-minute conversation. No commitment.
The first step is a free call. You describe the situation, we describe the Plan in detail, and you decide whether to take the next step. No pressure, no pitch.
