what's the best way to buy a house

scchin

hi,
i'm not sure if i've got the right board, so feel free to tell me off if i've got it wrong. my partner and i are going to buy a house for ourselves to live in. I was told by a financial advisor that buying it as joint is not a good idea, but has not had any more advice. We would like to reduce any inheritance tax later on in life. we are not married (yet), and have no children (yet).
i rad somewhere on teh board about deed of variation. unfortunately, i have no idea of what it is!!
help!!

thanks

Robert_Sterling_3

Being joint tenants is nice because if one partner dies  the other gets the house and if you have life insurance they get it unencumbered by a mortgage.  This is a situation to die for.

On the other hand each partner may wish to use the £263,000 Nil Rate Band for Inheritance Tax purposes.
To do this you need to be Tenants in Common which means that you each own 50% of the house.  

Any will can be varied i. e.  Altered.

Unlike a dog which is for life and not just for Christmas a WILL is for the time being and can be altered at any time and particularly when a "life event" occurs.
Typical life events:-  Marriage, birth of babies, divorce, death, New Inheritance Tax rules, win Who Wants to be a Millionaire etc etc.

scchin

well, the FA refuses to tell me, hence why I'm askign experts like yourselves.
thanks for clearing up the confusion though.

Rafter

Could be any number of reasons but tax doesn't seem to be one of them. I think your advisor is just protecting you if your relationship breaks down at some point in the future - particularly if you are the main earner or if you are putting in the lions share of the deposit.

R.