Have you made a will ?

Just reading back through some of these posts and noticed maryeliza54 saying she did not want her house to be sold to a landlord but to a young couple etc.

My mum and dad did exactly this. They moved from their ex council home (3 bedroom etc) to a specially adapted rented bungalow when my mum was very ill and in a wheelchair.
Her express wishes were that no matter what, her house could not be sold to a landlord (buy to let) and if it had not sold before her death it was something that she was going to put into a will. My parents turned down 2 much better offers before selling to a young couple with a small child for as much as the mortgage they could raise (a lot less than they could have got). The couple visited my mum after they moved in and brought post themselves etc. they were so grateful and my mum and dad knew that they had made the right decision. I pass regularly when I take my 2 youngest DGC to school and they still live there and seem to have done quite a bit of improvement work. It makes me happy to think my mum would be smiling down.

What a very noble thought gilly.
I admire your parents for their generosity.
Sadly not many would be able to do that as they will need to buy something else or need the profit to eke out pensions when downsizing in retiremen
I am so pleased the young couple appreciated what was done for them.

I should have made it clear that my parents sold their home for just less than £65,000 almost every penny now gone on rent to the LA ( which is £120 per week) . My mum has since died and my dad still says they did the right thing .

No huge profit for them then.
That is actually very sad gilly your dad sounds a lovely man.

Much as I'd like to take the credit for that, it was my similar namesake I think

Yes he has mellowed so much now he is older annsixty and probably since my mum became ill. He and I were almost enemies when I was young though .

Oops sorry maryeliza54 and Marieeliz got you two a bit mixed up .

Luckylegs 9 - yes my brother is fully and legally adopted. So he will get the money by intestacy if he survives me - he may well not. We can never tell.

However, something drew me up very short today at work concerning leaving legacies as some suggest here.

I was listening to a conversation in the staff rest area where it was being said that someone who had once been an employee had left a legacy to the firm . There was some excitement and then it was said that her legacy was only around £20K some were then laughing at this amount as being not worth the bother.

Now I do not know about the deceased but she may well have not been wealthy but the attitude of some staff was discouraging to say the least. If people feel that small legacies are not welcome then I am sure the government would be just as grateful - and you wouldnt be laughed at either I doubt.

Sad that when someone thinks of you so little of you when you have thought of them.

It is not legally possible to control someone after you die so you cannot insist on being buried or cremated or that your beneficiaries do things you want.

I echo what others have said that you need to make a new will if you remarry as the old one is no longer valid. Periodically I remind DH of this and also DSs so they can make sure their father makes a new will when someone sees what a great catch he is!

Our DS made a simple will leaving everything to his brother. We are so glad he did because he was recently found dead and his estranged wife is under the misapprehension that he left a huge sum. She says she is next of kin and thinks that means she is entitled to everything but didn't claim next of kin when the funeral had to be arranged and paid for nor has she offered to dispose of his flat or pay any of his bills!

I have just received a leaflet from Cancer Research about free wills month.
The website is
www.cruc.org/freewillservice

gilly altruism is still alive your post made me smile and feel good.

My parents actually sold their rather large house to a housing association so it could be made into bedsits for youngsters coming out of care. Their neighbour did the same.
They then went into flats run by the housing association, and paid them rent, so the housing association got all its money back in the end, but my parents could not have continued in that house, and neither could their neighbour.
My parents never made a will, but they died within three months of each other, leaving roughly two thousand, which the bank just shared out between the four of us.
The government must only be involved if there is enough money to incur inheritance tax, and there is no next of kin.
I know when my father died, first, we had to go to the bank and sign forms for all his money to be given to my mother.

Re house being sold to a landlord vs. young owner occupiers, made me think of a dd's recent house purchase. It was a probate sale, and priced somewhat lower than similar in the area. Since it was easily the nicest she'd seen, dd offered slightly over the asking price, never thinking she'd get it.

But she did, and the EA later told her that a LL had offered a bit more, more, but the former owner's daughter wanted a first time buyer to have what had been a happy family home.
She left a lovely card for dd, too.
It was so nice and heart-warming, esp. . in what so often feels like a money-grabbing era, though being realistic, I don't suppose the world has ever been much different.