Wills - Right to live in house for lifetime?

OH and I have that arrangement. It didn’t need a trust. Just written into our respective wills. We told our beneficiaries when we did it so it won’t come as a surprise.

It was quite simple. The remaining partner is responsible for upkeep and expenses.

Same here Peasblossom.

The two wills, 6 years ago, cost us £150 through a solicitor. Did our POA at the same time. They cost more.

We did it some years ago, POAs done at the same time. Our Wills are quite complicated so it made sense to get a Solicitor to do it all at the same time.
However, we have made it a condition that if the surviving partner remarries and then dies, their spouse doesn’t get to stay in the house. Our Wills also specify Blood relatives only, so if one of our ACs predecease us (god forbid) it goes to their children and not their husbands, of course if that happened we hope to be in a position to alter our Wills.
Of course things might change but if they don’t our Wills are pretty well set in stone so anyone would have a fight on their hands if they tried to get around it.
Both DDs are aware of our Wills etc. and it’s all a bit more complex than sounds on here.
The best thing to do is to go to your Solicitors with a list of what you want to happen and then they will do it in a way that it all goes through smoothly when it needs to.
My Mum had a DIY will and it was a nightmare and expensive (for us in Solicitors bills) to get sorted.

Oopsadaisy1, yes I'll definitely have a professional making my will! But I have yet to completely make up my mind what I want to ask for them to put in it until I know more about what it can lead to down the line. One thing that worries me is it imposes obligations on the surviving resident to maintain the property and therefore its value for the people who will inherit afterwards. What if my husband becomes disabled or something, or falls on hard times financially and it becomes a real worry and burden to him?

We considered this (the solicitor who drew up our wills suggested that we should think about it), but we decided against.

The deciding factor was that the surviving spouse might live long enough to have run out of cash. If this happened they would be unable to sell the house to pay for social care if needed, which would result in having to rely on council care, and probably being given the cheapest possible care available.

It could also mean that even without the need for care, the house wouldn't be properly maintained, thus reducing its value as inheritance for the children.

In the end, we decided that keeping control over our assets, jointly until one of us dies, then singly for the survivor, was the best way forward.

readymeals he would still be able to sell, with the agreement of whoever partly owns the house.

I doubt that they would be eligible for Council Care as they part own a property.

So anyone actually living with this situation after the will's been executed?

My mother and father did this. After dad died, mother moved to a small sheltered apartment, which was only half the price of the house. She totally refused to pay out the trust to the beneficiaries, instead banking the money for herself. Six years on, she’s still not paid out the trust.

We have made this provision in our wills - the solicitor drew them up and we've just updated them when we moved house earlier this year.

We will need to think about POE in the next year or so - I had this for my parents and was eternally grateful to my husband for suggesting it when they both ended up with dementia and I had to take care of their affairs.

For most people it is truly a good idea, but things go wrong if someone has a parent like mine. I have POA only over her financial affairs, but she refuses to allow it to be activated, even though she is in a care home now, her memory is poor (no dementia) and she rarely gets out of bed. She also flatly refused to allow a POA for health to be set up.

ReadyMeals I am. Only just though. Taken 11 months to get the Trust sorted. I can still move if I want to but if the new property costs more I have to find the difference. If it costs less half the profit goes into the trust. No one can touch the Trust until I die. If I go into a residential home they can only use my half of the house for my care plus any residue monies from savings or investments in my name. When one spouse dies its always advisable to check if the remaining spouse's will needs to be changed.

PM sent ReadyMeals

You can only do this if you are tenants in common with your house. If you have joint ownership, this is not an option so you may have to change this.
We have discussed this endlessly and are no nearer to deciding what to do. I want to protect our children's inheritance from losing out if my husband were to remarry but also want my husband to have some autonomy. We have delayed the decision until we have downsized.
His mother was given the right to live in her house until she died but only if she didn't remarry. My husband would never have denied her the right to live in her home no matter what she did so it was pretty moot anyway.
maddyone, I have things the other way round. I have my mother's POA over her health and financial affairs so, as far as she was concerned, that meant I could do everything from that moment onwards. Now she has dementia, I worry about making sure that I am acting within my remit and I am beginning to think it is quite a burden especially when other family members become involved!

I am in that situation made more complicated by stepchildren! I love living in my house which has been my home for forty years but when I die there will be IHT implications for my stepchildren so they want me to give it to them now and pay them rent - but I can't afford to do that! It has to be market rent. Solicitors tell me just to stay put but it is causing some bad blood.

Why would a trust be needed if all is recorded in a Will. DB died and he left home to children from previous marriage. Wanting to ensure his widow had a home he stipulated in his Will she was to be allowed to remain in the house for life. Also, that if she wanted to move the property could be sold and the funds used to purchase another. Expenses for moving were to be included in cost of new property. His widow did move to an apartment in her home town. Small amount of funds left from sale of first property were given to DB children. Costs for maintenance of property are met by widow. This is quite a common procedure and doesn't need a trust to be set up usually.

At the time we made our wills, my DH and I weren't married and living in MY house. The will was made that he could stay in the house if I went first. Then once the house was no longer occupied it was to be sold and all proceeds split between my son and step children.

My parents arranged Tenants In Common with a solicitor some 20 years ago. Fast forward some 19 years and they decided to, with solicitor advice, to put their property into a family trust with my husband and the solicitor as executors. They also did POAs at the same time. My father allowed me to have immediate access with the POA, my mother didn’t. This wasn’t a real problem as they had joint accounts and my father allowed me access. I have to say that I was an only child, so there wasn’t a problem with siblings or extended family. My parents both died the following year, within three months of each other and I was allowed to sell the property, with permission of my husband and solicitor. No probate was required as everything was in the family trust. We did have a minor problem as we underestimated the value of their property and their solicitor needed confirmation of its value before everything could go through.

We are tenants-in-common already so that bit works. An alternative I was thinking about is to leave a proportion of the home directly to my children, but instead of forcing sale of the house, have my husband raise the value of what is left to my kids by equity release, which then takes care of preserving his rights to live in the house without any hassle to the family, and they get their money straight off. What do you all think of this idea?

We were told that a Trust can only be a maximum of four. So, no good for us as we have five adult children.

DaisyL

I am in that situation made more complicated by stepchildren! I love living in my house which has been my home for forty years but when I die there will be IHT implications for my stepchildren so they want me to give it to them now and pay them rent - but I can't afford to do that! It has to be market rent. Solicitors tell me just to stay put but it is causing some bad blood.

Terrible situation. And wanting rent? Just ignore them.

As you are aware you need to see a solicitor for advice on this but the creation of a will trust can be done as part of will making. I have a friend who has done this in full discussion with her ' step' children. She is 8 years younger than her partner. Originally she thought she would have enough of her own savings to ' buy' out the step children to enable them to have their inheritance earlier as she is aware that one could do with the money, but property prices have rocketed and this is no longer an option. As her adult partner know about their dad's will she thinks it should not be a problem unless she needs to sell, as inevitably the question of settling the inheritance early could be raised. The life tenant of the other half interest usually has the power of substitution in case they wish to move and the trust is transferred over to the substitute property. This can come as a surprise to the inheritors but in my friends case, the inherited know this .

The main disadvantage is that the inheritors have to wait for potentially many years for their inheritance as early settlement is usually entirely at life tenants discretion.

A care charge can be put on either owners share in the property. This can make it difficult to sort out a substitute property if the survivor wishes to move to something closer to their relatives or more suited to their needs, it to release part of their equity to live on, as the charge with accruing interest will need to be paid on sale.

Same as Peasblossom and Muse. Must think about what others have said.

Do you mean buy them out readymeals as in he would own the whole house?