Care Home Back Fees

[Andy7807]

Not sure if I'm posting in the right place, but here goes.

 

My Mother in Law has been in a residential care home for 13 years since having a stroke. She sold her house to pay the fees. Every year the fee has gone by a hundred pounds a month. They inform us by letter and we amend the standing order. 3 years ago we moved house. We never received any further requests for increases in payments. My wife visits her mum every week and has had many dealings with the staff and management at the home, especially with regard to her care due to her immobility and use of hoists etc. She had informed them of our new address and phone number. Earlier this year we received a call from the finance department to say that they were owed over £4000, the reason being that they had been sending the increase letters to our old address! They didn't think to contact the home for our new contact details for over two years! The home has since asked us to move Mum in law to a nursing home because they can't cope with hoisting arrangements. They now want the remaining £2500 grand or so payment.

 

The question is, if they failed to tell us of the increase in payments, do we still have to pay? It was their incompetence that they didn't inform us, why wait 2 years to chase up the home for a contact address. Thanks for any advice in advance.

[AndyOrch]

Thread moved to General Legal Issues.

[unclebulgaria67]

They should have informed you per the contract about the increased charges. You gave them your new address, so there is no excuse.

 

If this ended up in court, you would be expected to come to a compromise. If the Care Home can evidence from their schedule of fees which they publish that the fees are the correct ones that are due, then they would be due the relevant amount. But they may have to deduct an amount to reflect the non performance of not notifying you of the increase.

 

Suggest that you ask for full proof of the increased fees. The care home may send details of their fees to the local authority each year, so the authority are aware of them should they place anyone there. Advise the care home that you will be looking to negotiate a relevant settlement with them to take into account they they failed to send notification of fee changes to the correct address. If there were any issues about the home you could mention about making a report to the CQC who monitor care homes.

[steampowered]

The first thing is to look very carefully at your contract and the terms and conditions (if any) to see what it says about payment increases and what the notice provision says.

 

For example, if there is a provision about advance notice of payment increases, and if there is a standard notice clause providing that all notices should be sent to the address notified to the care home from time to time .... this would be excellent ammunition.

[Andy7807]

Thanks all, I'll write to them and see where it goes.

[maroondevo52]

My sister was placed in a care home after two years in a NHS facility, no fees were ever mentioned, after some time they wanted my mum to pay backdated fees of around £2,500.

There was no way this would be possible and as it was their mistake in not billing for fees don't think there's much they can do about it.