Granny annexe

Just to clarify by bits and bobs I meant the detail - hey ho. No-one knows what people have personally been through and what they've seen work in their own families or not. With the right advice which is very important agreed. Won't use 'bits and bobs' again!

I have seen successful granny bungalows built, and it can be wonderful for you all, but the success may well also depend on being sure about legal position. Sorry to sound negative on what sounds like a really loving family situation, but please ask yourself ( I don't need the answers, but you may):
Is she buying the whole property, with you as guests or as tenants? Are you going to be dependant relatives? This may affect her ability to mortgage, or get benefits in the event of her redundancy/ illness.
Are you actually splitting the property into 2, with separate utility bills/ rates etc? This may help with a lower valuation for inheritance purposes (if, in fact, your estate including this would have an tax liability)
If you split the property, how would separate access be sorted if, in the event of your passing, it would need to be sold separately?
Do you have other children to consider? Arrangements you make now must be clarified in your will.
Divorce, bankruptcy ( A friend lost her home because her new husband's business went under and creditors went after the property).
You do need to be clear about ownership of your space - in the event of care home, the first of you will be OK, but if both of you need care, and it is sold separately, it is possible that Social Services may cause her some trouble.
What would happen if life changes and she needs to move away? Would you be willing to go too/could you buy something local/ would the main house be saleable separately?
Other thing to consider are her (potential) parents-in-law's needs

Sounds like a recipe for disaster. I believe it is very important to maintain one's freedom and independence. I live 10 minutes walk away from my family in my own property which works very well. I can sell up should I want to move ot raise funds for a care home.

Would the granny annexe be regarded as a "separate household" if it had its own access from the street? In that case there may be council tax to pay on it and single households get ripped off very badly. Yet another minus.

Im with GSM on this - go see a specialist lawyer.

I think the OP was expecting people to say ‘How lovely!’. Instead she’s heard of the many pitfalls in the idea. I hope the scales have fallen from her eyes.

OP, please listen to what GSM says;
she knows whereof she speaks.

Thanks welbeck.

My neighbour two doors down has a granny bungalow built at the bottom of their large garden where both grandparents live. The couple living in the main house are in their late fifties - he is a builder so presuming he built it.
I’ve no idea of the ins and outs but seems to work for them but as others say you’d need to proceed with caution.

My experience is from the other side. When I married a farmer the very large farmhouse was divided up - which resulted in mother-in-law in one half and us in the other. It seemed like a perfect solution for all of us but became a huge mistake. To be brief - there were many issues to do with lack of privacy - resulting in difficulties whenever we made changes to the house or had any visitors. The biggest problem though was that mother-in-law lived much longer than anticipated! We reached the point when we wanted to retire and sell up to be near our own children - and mother-in-law refused to move. I won't go into details but it took years to negotiate an arrangement whereby we could move away. We now live close to our children - but far enough away to be totally independent of each other unless we want to see each other.

BlueBelle

Have you read a thread on here very recently from a gran who moved into a granny flat with her son and ended up owning nothing and being unhappy but tied into an abusive relationship with all her money and assets gone
She never thought it could happen

I wonder how she is did the thread finish ?

That poster had moved with her son and DiL to France, hadn’t she? And was very unhappy, poor thing.

MySiL is one of 3 boys. One has a large house with plenty of land and he decided that their widowed mother should return to the UK from Portugal and they would have an annex built attached to their house for her from the proceeds . The other two brothers I think didn’t argue but sadly she only spent 3 months in it before dying from late diagnosis cancer.
Now of course there is no inheritance to have one brother has a big house with a nice annex. He is not prepared to move ( understandably) or let the annex out to allow them all to profit from the property ( also understandable) and it has caused quite a rift. I have to say he could benefit from some inheritance to help finish all the work he is doing to their small country house. I would advise that if there is more than one child to inherit think very carefully.

And no Pennylucky come back after 6 days maybe very disappointed with the practical answers she’s been given
I think we are talking to ourselves folks

Don't do it. I had a lovely Childminder years ago who sold her house and bought a 3 story house with her daughter and son-in-law. They were named on the mortgage but she wasn't to avoid inheritance tax. 2 years later he was having an affair and they were divorcing. She lived in the basement flat and SIL wanted half the sale price. Told her daughter that he wanted exactly half and as Childminder's contribution was signed as a gift she had no legal right to any money. She ended up in a council flatlet, as DD didn't have enough money from the sale for anything except a small flat for her and the children.
Apart from that she told me it was horrendous living with DD and SIL as she heard them rowing and shouting all the time before the divorce.
Definitely not a good idea.

The practical issues have been highlighted for OP to see. I would add one more point. I spent most of my career working for property developers. Often on a very large site several developers would enter into a joint venture agreement for its purchase and development. Of course they all had to be separately represented. When they were in the throes of optimism about the project and so delighted to have found the site and agreed terms with the landowner they were the best of buddies and any snags highlighted by lawyers were no problem, they would deal with things as they went along. The ink was hardly dry before they started to disagree on these things that wouldn’t be a problem. Families are no different. Rose tinted specs.