Wills - Right to live in house for lifetime?

We aren’t married but own our horse as tenants in common! In our separate wills it us stipulated that the surviving partner will remain in the home! However, if they co-habit or marry then they have to ensure that they pay our surviving children their half ! We hope this will work ??

When my father died my mother remarried and she and her new husband drew up wills where everything was left to their respective children. He was wealthy and had his own property but moved into my mother’s house which she had bought after my father died. My stepfather was given the right to remain in my mother’s house. She died just 6 years later and on her deathbed told me that her husband had said he would not stay there as there were too many memories and that her children would receive their inheritance. After the funeral he instructed my brother and I to remove her clothing and he changed the locks. He remained in the house for the next 8 years till he died
, without spending any money on its maintenance. He and his family enjoyed the use of the house and my family’s heirlooms for all those years. Of course he still had his own house which he and his family used for holidays and which they of course inherited. It was an extremely painful time for my brother and me so be careful.

Franbern.
That is wrong advice. There is a limit on number of appointed trustees to maximum of 4, but you can have any number of beneficiaries of the trust . Often the trustee of the deceased spouse will be their executors.

My neighbour always lived at home with her mum, never married or moved away.

Her mum left the house proceeds to be divided equally between the children - but my neighbour is allowed to live there as long as she wishes.

It has caused her untold misery - as there's great pressure from impatient siblings to sell the house right now - or very soon. She keeps her mum's several dogs, and won't be able to afford more than a small flat in future. Aren't people cruel?

Daisy L.
Your solicitor has given you good advice. Don't do it. Inheritance tax is not your direct problem. Any one who transfers property directly to adult children must also be mindful of those transferees own risk of death, divorce and debt, since the happening of those events can force the sale of the property to realise the value of the asset. Only transfer property that you no longer want or need as once it has gone you have no control over it.

Peasblossom

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.

We had this arrangement, the purpose being to protect half the house in the event of care home fees being needed. On OH's death I had to set up a trust in the names of our daughters as they technically own half the house. I'm not 'being allowed' to live here, it is my right to live here until I don't for whatever reason. If I move the arrangement will still remain the same, they own 50% of whatever property I own.

We considered this but fear that if either of our daughters want to move house in the future then they would have to pay the higher rate of stamp duty.
When we move to this house, a shared property with my mother in law, then we had to pay the higher rate on the whole property even though MIL had already sold her house. We were able to reclaim the extra later when we sold our old propery.

I know someone in the position of the adult children in this case. The parter of his mum for the past 8yrs [only lived with her for the past 2] is allowed to remain in the house until he dies.

It's been a nightmare from the very beginning - he fought them about the kind of funeral she would have wanted. He has refused the adult DC from entering the property at all so they are unable even to take any of their mothers things they may have wanted to remind themselves of her. He's said her car is his even though their mum paid for it and had it before he was on the scene. He's written letter after letter of complaint accusing them of numerous things they have not done - all this is being dealt with via their solicitor which is costly and likely to mean that there won't be any money at all left by the end.

hereshopping If your daughters are selling their main residence and moving to another main residence they don’t have to pay the higher rate, even if they own part of another property.

It’s buying a second property that is not your main residence that is liable to the higher rate.

Additionally - there was an executor of the will however once they'd read it they declined to be the executor.

I believe that you could try applying to the Court of Protection to activate the POA

We had a solicitor write our wills. My aunt and uncle had a trust and my cousin had an awful and expensive time sorting it out. She reckoned the only people benefitting from the trust were the solicitor and the bank.

We each have two daughters who will inherit part of the house but the surviving one of us can live in the house and maintain it. I don't think you can cover every possibility but we have made our views clear in an email to all four of them and I'm as sure as I can be that they will all co-operate.

Lots of good advice here but as everyone has different circumstances I’d take on board the comments and use them as a starting point with your solicitor. If you are married remember everything goes to the spouse tax free ….

Peasblossom

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

Yep, I guess that's what it amounts to. I wasn't planning to leave them my entire share of the property anyway, so it wouldn't be a scary amount of money to raise.

DaisyL.

Sounds like their being greedy to me. I agree ignore them. Tell them it’s not possible to afford the rent. Suggest what you could afford and ask if they could make up the shortfall that might deter them.

When I was a girl in Scotland (Scottish law)I was left a sum of money by three old ladies who must have had some private arrangement. I was not to get the money until their brother died and he had what was called a 'liferent' use of the money.

These old ladies were not rich, they were only mill girls.

I have been thinking of this for some time, I want to a) Ensure that all my hard earned doesn’t go into care home fees but to give my children and grandchildren a financial leg up b) Ensure my husband has enough to see him through to his end c) Ensure no new partner can benefit from my earnings. From what I can make out if there is no formal legal trust and I require residential care once husband has shuffled off, and there is no qualifying dependent living in my home then it is included in my assets and once my savings have gone the house would have to be sold to pay the fees - leaving next to nothing for the family. A friend was allowed to remain in her husband's house following his demise for as long as she wished but her stepchildren put her under such pressure to go it made her ill; it shows how important getting the minutest detail exactly as you want it. As they say - where there’s a will there’s a family and promises made to the dying are often not fulfilled, once money raises it’s head greed works its nasty ways. Definitely not a DIY job!

I am about to re-marry a man whose wife died 3 years ago and left a will with their house in a Trust for their four children. He sold this and bought a house for him and me to live in but upon his death the house belongs to them and I may have to move. We asked a Solicitor for advice and the best we can do is to put a Letter of Wishes with his Will saying that he wants me to stay in the house for as long as I want to or am able to. Then they can sell it. Being married will give me some security but I am aware of the situation and cannot do any more about it.

Same as seaway. We are tenants in common both of us leaving our share of the property to our son. It’s all been done through a solicitor.

Lots of pitfalls illustrated here are due to poor legal advice. Engage a solicitor who specialises in this field - you can look them up on sfe.legal
Be clear about what you want to achieve. Solicitors will tell you that even the apparently nicest families fall out over property and wills. Make it absolutely clear what is going to happen.
Powers of Attorney for both Property and Affairs and Health and Welfare make life so much simpler. Register (activate) them immediately - you never know what the future holds eg. a stroke or an accident. Your Attorneys (the people you appoint) MUST act in YOUR best interests, and while you are still mentally competent, YOU have control. If you don't have POAs in place, the Office of the Public Guardian will administer your affairs if you become mentally incompetent, and that costs a huge amount of money!

DH and I also set this up. Sadly, DH died a year ago. The estate isn’t quite settled yet, but my two AC will now own his half of the house. I’m glad, because his assets are sorely depleted due to care home fees and if the same should happen to me, at least his half of the house won’t be used for my care, only my own share, which I think is fairer.

ReadyMeals

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?

Taking out equity release to pay early inheritance is a really bad idea. The equity companies generally don’t value your home at the full market value and if the surviving partner lives long enough, the remaining equity can be eaten up and exhausted, leaving them to pay rent to the equity company. In addition, if the surviving partner needs to go into full time care, the full value of the house would still be taken into account. Local authorities have the power to investigate any financial transactions and could potentially demand the funds back from the recipients if they decide that the equity release was to avoid care home fees. The funds would then be paid back to the equity release company along with interest accrued and the rest of the home’s value would be used for care fees. I think you would be well advised to take independent financial advice before making a move like this.

On no account should you give them the house now! And pay them rent??? You'd be entirely unprotected. They could chuck you out whenever they wanted. Pure greed.

Didn't Lord Linley throw princess Margaret out of her place in the Caribbean after she agreed to give it to home in advance of inheritance

Janetashbolt

Didn't Lord Linley throw princess Margaret out of her place in the Caribbean after she agreed to give it to home in advance of inheritance

I expect she had one or two other grand houses to live in!