CARE HOME residents are being duped into signing unfair and unclear contracts which can charge fees for a month after their deaths, a new investigation has found.

Consumer rights group Which? said care homes could be breaking the law by failing to inform residents and their families about dodgy clauses, such as a right to terminate a contract with just 24 hours’ notice for undefined “detrimental behaviour.”

In one case reported to the consumer watchdog, a manager placed a resident with dementia on round-the-clock one-to-one care at £15 per hour, causing their monthly bills to skyrocket from £4,000 to more than £15,000. The family were told that they had signed an agreement that this could be done.

Another reported their mother being served an eviction notice without explanation and the home manager refusing to discuss it. The family was eventually forced to concede that the contract allowed for residents to be evicted with no reason being given.

National Pensioners Convention national officer Neil Duncan-Jordan said that “very few people go into care in a planned way” and that most residents move into a home “in some form of crisis.”

That means neither residents nor their loved ones have time to properly check the home’s terms, he said, adding: “Contracts are written in language that particularly frail, older people may find difficult to understand.”

Above all, he pointed out that “over 80 per cent of all our care homes are privately run,” meaning that they are “not about care – this is about business.”

Until this situation changes, Mr Duncan-Jordan said, “we are not going to see proper standards of care to both those who need it and those who provide it.”

Which? also received widespread reports of grieving families being charged after-death fees to cover income lost while rooms are cleared and cleaned before another resident can move in.

One respondent, who was told that they would not get any of the £3,500 monthly fee back after their father died, said that their grief had meant they were “not in a fit state to challenge [the care home] on this.”

They added that they did not remember signing a contract with such a clause in it “as the time of crisis that had led to us finding him a place in a home he could afford was so stressful and we were so desperate.”

Only four of the 50 care homes that Which? asked for a sample contract were willing to provide one, while the others either advised the investigators to visit the home or directed them to websites that did not provide the information.

Three of the four contracts that were provided included unfair terms such as after-death fees and the right to terminate the contract with just 24 hours’ notice.

Which? managing director of public markets Alex Hayman said it was “unacceptable that care homes are making it difficult for people to get hold of contracts,” adding that “far too many care home residents are hit with unexpected fees or contract terms.”

He said the government, which has just days to respond to a damning study of the sector by the Competition and Markets Authority, “must now ensure the rules governing care homes are fit for purpose and adequately protect residents and their families.”