passing over a property

jonnym

I have looked around the forum and have not been able to see a directly related topic (or there could be and i just don't understand the terminology! )

My wife and I currently live in a property that is owned by her Mother. It was originally one of two properties owned by her late husband who died six years ago. Between us, after he passed, we decided that instead of us picking up a mortgage which we looking to do at the time, we would pay a supplement each month to her to help her income and when she passed on, the property we live in would be passed to us.

Now I realise that this might not have been the smartest move on our part, but it seemed a convenient solution at the time. Now my wife's mother wants to hand the property over to us and put it into our name.

I am a complete novice when it comes to this kind of thing, but are there any fellow MSE'ers that could prep me up with any information on where to go from here and what kind of tax we are looking to pay when the property goes over?

Thanks for any help in advance

HGLTsuperstar

Is she "passing it to you" free of charge so to speak. Then if she dies within the next 7 years, it's classed as part of her estate for inheritance tax purposes. Also, and someone more experienced will hopefully elaborate on this, if she needs to go into residential care, this could be viewed as a way of reducing her liability to pay for such care. Simply changing the deeds etc will, as bizarre as it sounds, make you liable for stamp duty at the market rate of the property.
Sorry, but you are in a bit of a mess, and suggest you seek professional advice ASAP

jonnym

yes, she is passing it over somewhat free of charge. Although this clearly is going to cost me for going about it this way.

Thanks for the reply though, I appreciate it.