Putting Your House in a Trust: A Guide

Putting your house in a trust means transferring legal ownership of your home to trustees, who hold it for the people you name as beneficiaries. You may keep the right to live there, but the trustees become the legal owners, and the property is dealt with under the terms of the trust rather than by you alone.

People consider this for several reasons: to pass a share of a home to children, to provide for a vulnerable relative, or in the hope of limiting the impact of care fees. Some of those aims work well; others often do not. This guide sits within our wider estate planning guide and our Trusts Explained hub. Figures are current as at July 2026 and are subject to change.

What does putting your house in a trust mean?

It means the legal title to your home moves to trustees, who hold and manage it for the beneficiaries under a trust deed. A trust is a way of managing assets such as land or buildings for people (gov.uk, trusts and taxes, as at July 2026). The person setting it up is the settlor, the trustees are the legal owners, and the beneficiaries are those who benefit. You can often be a trustee and a beneficiary yourself.

The main types of trust for a home

Different trusts do different jobs, and the right one depends on your aim. Some take effect only on death through your will, while others are lifetime trusts set up while you are alive. The table below compares the arrangements people most often ask about when a home is involved. None of them suits every family, and the labels used by providers can vary.

Type	When it starts	Common aim
Property protection trust (will trust)	On the first death, via a will	Pass a share of the home to children while a survivor lives there
Life interest trust	Usually on death, via a will	Give someone the right to live in or benefit from the home for life
Discretionary trust	Lifetime or on death	Let trustees decide how a vulnerable or changing group benefits
Lifetime (inter vivos) trust	While you are alive	Move assets during your lifetime, often marketed for care fees

General descriptions based on gov.uk/trusts-taxes, as at July 2026, subject to change. Types overlap and names differ between providers.

Why people put a house in a trust

The genuine reasons tend to be about control and provision rather than saving tax. A trust can ring-fence a share of a home for children from an earlier relationship, provide a home for a partner without giving them the property outright, or hold a share for a beneficiary who cannot manage money themselves. It can also make the passing of a share simpler on a later death.

Protecting a share for children. A property protection trust in a will can pass one half-share to children while the survivor stays in the home.
Providing for a partner or spouse. A life interest can let someone live in the home for life, with the property passing on afterwards to others.
Supporting a vulnerable beneficiary. A discretionary trust lets trustees manage a share for someone who cannot manage it alone.
Keeping some control. Trustees, not a single beneficiary, decide how the property is dealt with under the trust terms.

Can a trust help with care fees?

This is the most common reason people ask, and it is the one that most often disappoints. Moving your home into a lifetime trust to reduce care costs carries a real risk of being treated as deliberate deprivation of assets, in which case a council can assess you as if you still owned the home. There is no fixed time limit on how far back a council may look, so the timing of any transfer matters a great deal.

Deliberate deprivation, in plain terms. If a council decides you gave away or transferred your home mainly to avoid care fees, it can carry out its financial assessment as though you still held that asset. Age UK notes there is no equivalent of the inheritance tax seven-year rule here, and councils can look at past transfers (Age UK, deprivation of assets, as at July 2026). Which? reaches a similar view, warning that lifetime trusts used this way are unlikely to secure council funding (Which?, as at July 2026).

Because of this, the honest position is that a trust may help with orderly succession, but it is not a reliable way to keep a home out of a care assessment, and it cannot guarantee any care outcome. Many people find it more useful to look at care fees and your home as a planning question in its own right, and to take advice before acting. This language matters: the aim is limiting or mitigating the impact of care fees, not eliminating it.

Tax and probate points to weigh

A home in trust can change the inheritance tax, capital gains tax and probate picture, sometimes in ways people do not expect. Trusts can face their own inheritance tax charges, and moving your main home into a lifetime trust can also affect the private residence relief that normally applies to your home for capital gains tax. These are not always savings, and can add cost.

Inheritance tax. Some lifetime trusts have their own inheritance tax charges on entry and at intervals, and a home you still benefit from may still count in your estate. The standard rate is 40% on the part of an estate above the tax-free thresholds (gov.uk/inheritance-tax, as at July 2026, subject to change). How how trusts are taxed is a topic in its own right.
The residence nil-rate band. An extra allowance of up to £175,000 can apply where a home passes to children or grandchildren, on top of the £325,000 nil-rate band, but how a trust is structured can affect whether it is available (gov.uk/inheritance-tax, as at July 2026, subject to change).
Probate. A property already held in trust may not need to pass through probate on a death, though a trust does not remove the wider administration of an estate.

Nil-rate band £325,000 and residence nil-rate band up to £175,000, frozen until the end of the 2030-31 tax year (5 April 2031) (gov.uk), as at July 2026, subject to change.

The downsides people underestimate

Putting a home in trust is not free, not always reversible on the terms you want, and not without ongoing obligations. Trustees take on legal duties, the trust may need to register with HMRC, and if the arrangement is later challenged as deliberate deprivation, the intended benefit can fall away while the costs remain. A trust set up mainly to chase a care outcome can leave a family worse off than doing nothing.

Set-up and ongoing costs, and possible trustee or professional fees

Loss of sole control once trustees are the legal owners

Registration and reporting duties for many trusts

Risk that a care-fees motive is treated as deliberate deprivation

A worked example

Illustration only. Say a married couple own a home worth £360,000 as tenants in common, each holding half. Each writes a will leaving their half-share into a property protection trust for their two children, with the survivor given the right to live in the home for life. On the first death, that half-share sits in trust; the survivor stays put, and the children are protected against, for example, the home later being left entirely to a new partner. This is about protecting a share and not about care fees: if the couple had instead moved the whole home into a lifetime trust hoping to avoid a future care assessment, a council could still treat it as theirs (Age UK, as at July 2026). Every estate is different, so this is general information rather than a plan for any particular family.

Putting a house in trust in Scotland and Northern Ireland

This guide describes the law of England and Wales. Scotland has its own trust and succession law, including legal rights that can entitle a spouse and children to a share of an estate, and its social care funding rules differ. Northern Ireland has a broadly similar but separate system to England and Wales, with its own care funding arrangements. If your home or family touches more than one UK nation, it can be worth taking advice in each.

Frequently asked questions

Can putting my house in a trust avoid care fees?

Generally no, not reliably. Moving a home into a lifetime trust to reduce care costs risks being treated as deliberate deprivation of assets, so a council can assess you as if you still owned it, and there is no fixed look-back period (Age UK, as at July 2026). It cannot guarantee any care outcome, so many people take advice first.

Do I still own my home if it is in a trust?

Not in the usual sense. Once a home is in trust, the trustees become the legal owners and hold it for the beneficiaries under the trust deed (gov.uk, as at July 2026). You may keep a right to live there and can often be a trustee yourself, but you no longer hold it outright, which is a trade-off some people find they had underestimated.

Does putting a house in trust avoid inheritance tax?

Not by itself. A trust does not create extra allowances, and some lifetime trusts have their own inheritance tax charges, while a home you still benefit from can remain in your estate. The standard rate is 40% above the tax-free thresholds (gov.uk, as at July 2026, subject to change). Any tax effect depends on circumstances and is worth checking with a professional.

Does a house in trust avoid probate?

It can, for that asset. A property already held in trust may pass under the trust terms rather than through probate on a death. That does not remove the wider administration of an estate, and a trust brings its own duties and possible costs. Whether it helps depends on how the trust and the rest of the estate are arranged.

What is deliberate deprivation of assets?

It is where a council decides someone gave away or transferred assets, such as a home into trust, mainly to avoid paying for care. If it applies, the council can assess you as though you still held the asset, and unlike the inheritance tax seven-year rule there is no set time limit (Which?, as at July 2026).

Is putting a house in trust worth it?

It depends on the aim. For protecting a share for children, providing for a partner, or supporting a vulnerable beneficiary, a trust can work well. As a way to sidestep care fees, it often does not, and can add cost and complexity. Because the tax and care rules are detailed, one option some consider is discussing it with a qualified professional first.

About Fairchild Oldfield

The Fairchild Oldfield team brings together estate planning, tax, independent financial advice and client care, working with families across England and Wales.

Fairchild Oldfield are estate planning specialists and will writers, not a firm of solicitors. This article is general information based on practical experience, not legal, tax or financial advice.

Important: This article is general information only and is not legal, tax or financial advice. Reading it does not create a professional relationship. It is based on the law of England and Wales, and other UK jurisdictions may differ. Figures and rules are current as at July 2026 and are subject to change. Before acting, many people choose to seek advice from a suitably qualified professional, such as a solicitor, a STEP practitioner, an accountant, or an FCA-authorised financial adviser, who can consider your individual circumstances.

Putting Your House in a Trust: What to Know