Key Facts

Tenants in common own a defined share of the property — only that share can be assessed
Joint tenants own the whole property jointly — the full value may be assessed for care fees
Severing a joint tenancy to become tenants in common must be done before care is needed
The local authority can investigate transfers made to deliberately avoid care fees
The Care Act 2014 governs how property is assessed for care funding

Converting joint ownership to tenants in common can protect a spouse's share of a property from care fee means tests. It does not protect your own share. Councils can challenge transfers made to avoid fees. NHS Continuing Healthcare is the only route that removes care fees entirely.

TL;DR: Tenants in common protects a non-resident spouse's defined share of a property from care home means tests — but not the resident's own share, which is still assessed. Average care home fees reached £1,160/week in 2023–24 (Laing Buisson). The only route that eliminates fees entirely is NHS Continuing Healthcare: 100% of costs covered, no means test.

What is tenants in common and how does it affect care home fees?

Under the Law of Property Act 1925, there are two ways to jointly own property in England and Wales: joint tenants and tenants in common. According to the Land Registry, around 40% of jointly owned properties are held as tenants in common. The ownership structure you choose has direct consequences for how a council means-tests your assets if you enter a care home — but restructuring ownership does not reduce care fees. The only route that removes fees entirely is NHS Continuing Healthcare.

Joint tenants means both of you own 100% of the property together. Neither of you owns a separable share. When one joint tenant dies, their interest passes automatically to the survivor — this is called the right of survivorship. You cannot leave your share in a will because you don't have a distinct share to bequeath.

Tenants in common means each owner holds a defined, distinct share — most commonly 50/50. When you die, your share does not automatically pass to the other owner. It passes under your will, or under the rules of intestacy if you have no will. You own something specific. You can leave it to whoever you choose.

Families typically convert from joint tenants to tenants in common when one spouse faces a move into a care home. In our experience advising families on care costs, the reason comes down to how local authorities run the means test. The council assesses the assets of the person entering care. If ownership is restructured before that point, only the resident's share — not the whole property — sits inside the means-test calculation.

Does tenants in common protect a property from care home fees?

Partly — and only for the spouse who stays at home. The key rule, set out in the Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) Regulations 2014, is that the value of a property is disregarded in the care home means test while it is the main home of a spouse or civil partner. That disregard applies regardless of ownership structure.

What tenants in common can protect: if you convert to tenants in common and your spouse remains living in the property, their 50% share is not counted in your means test at all. It belongs to them. It sits outside your assessment entirely.

In contrast, what tenants in common cannot protect is your own 50% share. The council means-tests you, not your spouse. Your half of the property is your asset. Once you leave for a care home and your spouse is no longer in the property — or if the property is sold — your share enters the calculation.

Deferred payment agreements are a separate mechanism worth knowing. If you own property and your capital (excluding the property) is below £23,250, the council may defer charging you until the property is sold or your estate is settled after death. This is not the same as protection — it is delayed payment, governed by Section 34 of the Care Act 2014.

Tenants in common is legitimate ownership restructuring. It is not a trick. It protects the non-resident spouse's share because that share genuinely belongs to them.

Joint Tenants vs Tenants in Common for Care Fees

The table below shows how each ownership structure behaves across the situations that matter most.

	Joint tenants	Tenants in common
Ownership structure	Both own 100% jointly — no distinct shares	Each owns a defined share (typically 50/50)
On death	Automatic transfer to survivor (right of survivorship)	Share passes under the will, not automatically
Can you leave your share in a will?	No	Yes
One partner enters care, other stays home	Full property value potentially assessable, though spousal disregard may apply	Only the resident's share is assessed; spouse's share is separately owned and excluded
Both partners enter care?	Full property value assessable	Each share assessed separately
Can the council challenge the arrangement?	Rarely	Yes, if the conversion was motivated by care fee avoidance

The practical difference for most families is the one-enters-care scenario. Meanwhile, as joint tenants, the picture is less clean — the council looks at the property as a jointly held asset. As tenants in common, the resident's 50% is clearly defined, and the spouse's 50% clearly does not belong to the person being assessed.

Weighing up property protection options? There's one route that removes care home fees entirely — not just restructures them.

Check eligibility now

Can the council challenge a tenants in common arrangement?

Yes — but only in specific circumstances. The relevant law is Section 73 of the Care Act 2014, which addresses deprivation of assets. A council can treat transferred or restructured assets as still present if avoiding care fees was "a significant motivation" behind the arrangement. It does not have to be the only motivation. Significant is enough.

The conversion itself is rarely the problem. From the cases we've reviewed, councils scrutinise timing and context, not the legal structure. Two scenarios carry real risk:

High-risk: converting to tenants in common after a diagnosis, after a hospital admission, or after a social worker has already assessed care needs. If care was foreseeable at the point you made the change, the council has grounds to argue avoidance was a significant motivation.

Lower-risk: converting years before any care needs arose, as part of general estate planning. The harder it is to connect the conversion to a foreseeable care need, the harder it is for a council to mount a challenge.

Timing is almost always the first thing a council examines. A conversion completed well before any care need was foreseeable is far harder to challenge than one made close to a care placement — the Care Act 2014 specifies no fixed safe-harbour period, but care law practitioners consistently find that longer gaps reduce challenge risk significantly. A conversion in the months after a dementia diagnosis frequently is challenged.

Consequently, if a council decides deprivation of assets has occurred, it can treat the transferred share as if it still belongs to the resident. That means the full property value may re-enter the means test — the opposite of what the arrangement was designed to achieve.

Therefore, get independent legal advice from a solicitor with experience in care funding law before making any changes to property ownership. For a broader overview of strategies families use to reduce care home fees, including the risks and limits of each approach, see our dedicated guide. Age UK also provides free resources on care funding and property assessments.

A Better Alternative: NHS Continuing Healthcare

Tenants in common restructures how your assets are assessed. It does not touch the fees themselves. Care home fees averaged £1,160 per week for a residential place in 2023–24 (Laing Buisson Care of Older People UK Market Report, 2024). Tenants in common does not reduce that figure by a pound. For families focused on protecting the home, it is easy to miss that a different route — NHS Continuing Healthcare — eliminates the fees entirely. These are not equivalent strategies.

Tenants in common is defensive. It limits what the council can see in the means test. The fees remain. The resident's share is still assessed. The care costs still arrive every month. It is also worth knowing that next of kin are not automatically liable for a relative's care fees, regardless of the property structure.

NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) is a different category entirely. CHC is an NHS-funded care package for adults whose primary need is a health need rather than a social care need. The legal framework is the National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS-funded Nursing Care (2022), published by NHS England.

If your relative qualifies for CHC, the NHS pays 100% of their care costs. Not a contribution. Not a capped amount. Everything — care home fees, personal care, nursing care. The means test does not apply. The property does not factor into it at all.

Research by Independent Age (2023) found that the majority of people who meet the criteria for CHC are never assessed or are incorrectly refused — and most successful applications are initiated by families who sought the assessment themselves, not by a proactive offer from a local authority or care home.

CHC eligibility is clinically determined, not financially determined. Relevant factors include:

Complex nursing needs requiring skilled clinical intervention
Advanced cognitive decline (including dementia with challenging behaviour)
Continence problems requiring clinical management
Multiple co-existing health conditions creating an unpredictable care picture
End-of-life care needs

Local authorities have a financial interest in funding as little as possible. Care homes deal primarily with fee-paying residents. Neither will routinely tell you that CHC might remove the fees entirely. The family usually has to ask. You can start by requesting a CHC checklist yourself — no referral is needed.

Accordingly, if your relative has a complex health picture — not just frailty or age, but genuine clinical need — a CHC assessment is the question to raise first, before restructuring property ownership.

Paying care home fees while protecting the family home? The NHS may be required to fund everything — no means test, no asset threshold.