tenants in common

thistleboon

We are tenants in common for the property we own.
If we marry should we change to joint tenants?

reddevilled

thistleboon wrote:

We are tenants in common for the property we own.
If we marry should we change to joint tenants?

It depends. If you are joint tenants then if one of you dies then the property automatically passes to the other, if you are tenants in common it passes according to your will. This can be useful for inheritance tax planning or if you wish to leave your half of the house to someone other than your spouse.

HTH

Robert_Sterling_3

After you are married you should each make a will.
If you have already made a will it will ceased to be valid after you are married.
If you leave everything to each other after the wedding it will not make much difference at first whether you are TIC of JT.
Later you may wish to change from JT to TIC for inheritance tax purposes.
You should update your wills following "Life Events" e.g. Births marriages and deaths etc.

Bossyboots

The advantage of being joint tenants after marriage is that on the first death of a spouse, the property passes automatically to the surviving spouse without falling as part of the estate.

black-saturn

Good luck for the future if you do decide to marry :beer:

reddevilled

Robert_Sterling wrote:

After you are married you should each make a will.
If you have already made a will it will ceased to be valid after you are married.
.

Unless you have made a will "in contemplation of marriage" which will cease this being an issue.

sweetjamster

making a will is totally separate to the issue of the property. are your names both on the mortgage/ title deeds? (i'll explain the reason for asking later)

thistleboon

yes both names are on the title deeds

Bossyboots

thistleboon wrote:

yes both names are on the title deeds

What about the mortgage?

thistleboon

yes on that too

Judi101

While its true that the advantage of being joint tenants after marriage is that on the first death of a spouse, the property passes automatically to the surviving spouse without falling as part of the estate inheritance tax isnt payable between spouse's both resident and domiciled in this country anyway. But it may pay you to leave it as tenants in common if you want to do inheritance tax planning later on if your estate is going to exceed £275,000. If you change it now it will cost you and then cost you again if you want to change it back later. Make a will (a good idea anyway - doesnt half speed things up) and leave each other your part of the house.