Retirement home nightmare: Who can a full time worker trust with their elderly relatives' wellbeing?

Dutiful son issues stark warning about the 'realities' of trusting retirement community giant McCarthy Stone (formerly McCarthy & Stone) with an elderly relative's physical and financial wellbeing

Clive and Lilian

In 2019 Clive Drysdale 63, a chartered accountant of well above average intelligence and reasoning, found himself at a point of life that we all dread and few of us have dependable plans in place for. His widowed mother Lilian's health and cognitive skills were failing her to the point that the family agreed Lilian, 84 at the time, was becoming a danger to herself.

Clive was working full time and running several businesses but spending increasing amounts of time travelling to support Lilian. Clive has POA for Lilian and is also trustee of trusts created to support her during her life.

"There was a progression of medical issues, and episodes like leaving a gas hob on overnight," says Clive. "Mum was becoming increasingly isolated and depressed. She had falls resulting in broken bones. After discussion with her, family and friends, she agreed that it was in everybody's best interest she relocate closer to where I live."

New living situation

Given the seriousness of Lilian's situation Clive and his wife began searching in earnest for suitable, sheltered accommodation. "We became aware of Swift House (a McCarthy Stone over 70s Retirement Living Plus property) and visited several times. We met with their sales consultant, Sally-Anne Randall with whom we spoke on numerous occasions," Clive says.

Clive did his research. The website indicated that the service charges (for property upkeep and support for residents) were generally increased below the level of inflation. It gave the example of the previous year, when service charges had increased by 1.0%. The service charges for a two bed apartment, in 2019 the year that Clive and Lilian were enquiring, were £8839 a year or £737 per month.

Resale values were also important to Clive and Lilian, for such time in the future as they may need to realise Lilian's capital to support enhanced care costs. The McCarthy Stone website was encouraging in this regard too, boasting: "Since launching McCarthy Stone Resales in 2017 our expert team have sold more than 500 managed properties, seeing a 4% net price increase per sale for an average resale, with the majority of all McCarthy Stone's managed developments typically increasing in value on resale."

Ed note: As the McCarthy Stone Resale websites have changed over time, Clive used the Wayback Machine website to confirm the facts:

Sally-Anne offered incentives, such as covering the stamp duty and Lilian's move costs as well as a £20,000 discount on the £553,950 list price. Clive, his wife and Lilian all agreed. Swift House was the best option for Lilian and a safe investment of her capital. Lilian and Clive 's solicitor completed the purchase on August 30th 2019 and Lilian moved in shortly afterwards.

The reality

Annual service charges increased dramatically. By 2026 the annual cost was £13,148 which was a 7% increase on the previous year and a staggering 57% increase since Lilian moved in. Broadly double the rate of inflation over the same period and certainly not in line with the expectations set by McCarthy Stone when the apartment was purchased.

Clive discovered that other homeowners regularly complained about the service charge increases and he himself raised specific concerns. "McCarthy Stone always dismissed my concerns, citing rising living costs, the fact that they manage costs closely and do not profit from the service charges. The feeling of the homeowners is the McCarthy Stone do not really care because they pass on all costs (from the third party service provider) regardless and homeowners have no real right of recourse."

In 2024 Lilian's health deteriorated, eventually necessitating a permanent move to a nursing home in Maidenhead. The Swift House apartment was kept on for a while despite being empty, in the hope that Lilian's health would improve. The service charge of well over £1000 a month still had to be paid and when it became clear Lilian could no longer live at Swift House, Clive spoke to seven different estate agents about selling or renting the unit. He recorded the names of the individual agents he spoke with and detailed notes of their professional advice. They all described an incredibly difficult market due to the out of control service charge increases.

Without exception the agents advised Clive that Lilian would lose a significant amount of the money she had spent on the apartment. The McCarthy Stone resales agent even described Swift House as being one of three properties internally referred to as the 'Triangle of Death' as they take years to sell even at massively reduced prices. The seven external agents gave selling price estimates between £200,000 and £350,000. And rental estimates between £1550 and £2000 pcm.

"I had not realised the scale of capital loss being incurred," says Clive. "On the basis that losses on individual apartments at that time could amount to £200-250,000 and there were 60 apartments in Swift House, the estimated combined losses could be £12-15 million, which astounded me.

"To make it worse I have just been told of a two bedroom apartment being sold for £200,000, likely to be around a 60% loss for the original purchaser. A far cry from 4% growth. This may mean a combined capital loss well in excess of my £15 million estmate."

McCarthy & Stone reaction

Clive eventually managed to get in touch with a McCarthy Stone operations manager to see if the company could do anything to alleviate the service charge situation. He had three Microsoft Teams meetings with the manager and kept a file note of those conversations.

Clive recalls: "Despite my demonstrating that service charges had risen by twice the rate of inflation, the horrific impact on apartment values, making suggestions as to how service charges could be reduced, and even offering to manage the development myself, I'm afraid that the operations manager did not accept any of my comments, engage in any constructive dialogue, or offer to consider alternative options."

Clive reports that the operations manager refused to accept any link between service charge rises and the extended time it now takes apartments to sell plus the significant drop in market value. "She suggested that the property market had fallen and McCarthy Stone property had just followed market trends, which I demonstrated was blatantly wrong."

Clive asked for further comments from the sales and rental agents who all gave far more pessimistic responses than even their initial assessments. One agent told Clive that some homeowners were even selling for just tens of thousands in order to achieve a sale and that"at some point in the future he expects people may be just giving them away to avoid paying service charges."

A new rental tenant was secured in May 2025, at a monthly rate just enough to cover the service charges. Clive knows he was very lucky to find this tenant and that if and when the apartment sells, the family is likely to suffer a significant loss on the original price.

Clive's summary

"When we bought my mother's apartment we were given clear assurances about likely growth in service charge costs and investment values by McCarthy Stone. These have proven to be completely worthless and misleading with the result being that we have incurred significant growth in service charge costs and loss of capital value of the apartment.

"I have been made aware that there are a number of McCarthy Stone developments that pre-date Swift House which had suffered similar experiences prior to our purchase. On this basis, it would appear McCarthy Stone knew, or should have known, that their statements which led us to take comfort in purchasing the apartment were misleading.

"Finally, had we known all of this at the time of purchase, we would not have dreamt of going through with the purchase."

Expert comment

Consumer specialist Greg Wilson, CEO of European Consumer Claims (ECC) commented: "In the ten years we at ECC have been challenging illegal and unfair corporate behaviour our team has, as you might expect, encountered shocking examples of greed and profiteering at the expense of disadvantaged members of society.

"Retirement community developers are in a position of elevated responsibility as people place their trust in those companies for the safety, security and wellbeing of beloved elderly relatives. People know that level of care is going to be expensive and those who need this kind of outside help accept that they will have to pay for it.

"What people expect in return is honesty and integrity regarding the costs involved and the likely future status of the often life changing amounts of capital required to protect their loved ones.

"It is totally unacceptable to exploit a family member's love and the elderly person's diminishing ability to protect themself.

"We at European Consumer Claims take this form of 'elderly abuse' very seriously indeed.

"Anyone who has had a similar negative experience with a retirement community developer should not take it lying down. Please document your experiences as best you can, and seek expert advice at your earliest opportunity."