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Deferred payments – paying for care costs from the value of your house

You can use the value of your house or property to pay for your care.  And you don't need to sell your house during your lifetime.

If you have to pay the full cost of your care, and you own your house, we can lend you the money.

You then repay us when you choose to sell your house, or after you pass away.

This means you're not forced to sell your house before you're ready.

• Who can get deferred payments?
• How to apply
• The deferred payments agreement
• Get independent advice about paying for your care

Who can get deferred payments?

You can apply if:

• you own your house or property
• you have less than £23,250, excluding the value of your house or property
• we have agreed that you could move to a care home permanently.  That's after we've talked to you about your needs (we call that an 'assessment').
  
  

How to apply

Once we agree the care you can get from us, we'll talk to you about the money side of things. We call this a 'financial assessment'. Tell us you're interested in the deferred payments scheme then.

Or you can contact us:

We will send you a deferred payment application form to complete and return to us.

The deferred payments agreement

If your application is successful, we'll send your Solicitor a Deferred Payment Agreement for to you sign and return.

You will still need to make assessed payments from your other income or assets, if you have any. We will write to tell you about the contribution you have to make. The care costs you do not pay will be the debt that is deferred and interest will be charged.

Care costs generally increase each year in April and can change if your care and support needs change. We will write to you to let you know the new amount when the cost of your care changes.

You'll need to pay some costs for the agreement:

• legal costs – £260
• Land Registry charge – £40
• Land search fee – £3
• Admin charge – £175.

The agreement covers the things we're responsible for.

It also includes the things you're responsible for, including making sure your home is insured and maintained.

You will need to pay interest on the loan, just like if you borrow money from a bank.  The amount of interest is fixed by the government.  We'll send you a statement every 6 months to show the interest and loan amount.

Ending the agreement

You can end the agreement any time but you'd need to repay the loan straightaway.

If you sell the property, the loan will need to be repaid then.

If you die the loan must be repaid 90 days after your death.

We can't cancel your agreement without your consent.

Get independent advice about paying for your care

You can call our free advice service, HertsHelp:

Find more details in our deferred payments factsheet.