Farmers advised to transfer homes earlier to avoid losing assets to State

Farmers advised to transfer homes earlier to avoid losing assets to State

Farmers concerned about losing their homes to the Fair Deal scheme have sought legal advice on transferring them to their heirs at a younger age, the Irish Independent reports.

Aisling Meehan, 35, an agricultural solicitor from Newmarket-on-Fergus, Co Clare, said that farmers in their 50s and older have been calling her to find a way to stop the State from claiming assets if they require nursing home care in the future.

Ms Meehan is advising farmers to transfer their homes to their heirs but said this needs to be done five years before they go into a nursing home.

She said there is less she is able to do for older farmers in nursing homes or about to go into them because the State looks for assets as far back as five years.

She told the newspaper: “Some people can be very distressed.

“Especially if they hear from friends or relatives affected by this (the scheme).

“If a person is in their 60s or 70s and if they have the mental capacity and want to transfer their farm, you can act on that instruction, but if the person is in need of nursing home care already or within the next five years, there’s less that can be done.”

She added that the Fair Deal scheme was unfair, saying farmers should protect themselves by doing their research well before their senior years.

“It goes back to the fact that farmers are asset rich and cash poor,” she said.

“The farm can potentially be sold to pay (for care) and to avoid that, a lot of farmers transfer their farms to the younger generation, so if they need care, their assets aren’t taken into account, but they (the State) can look at assets from the previous five years so you need a clean five years.

“It’s the only real alternative – farmers don’t want to work all their lives, pay tax and lose their farms, which also often provide not only a home but an occupation to the next generation.”

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