House deeds in deceased Father's name

2001lb

My Father died last year and my Mother is still living in the house they have lived in for 40 years but the deeds are in his name.

He did leave a will (with everything left to my Mother). We are unsure how she gets the house deeds changed to her name now and she is worried about having to pay capital gains tax or inheritance tax.

Can anyone help please?
thanks

dzug1

2001lb wrote: »

My Father died last year and my Mother is still living in the house they have lived in for 40 years but the deeds are in his name.

He did leave a will (with everything left to my Mother). We are unsure how she gets the house deeds changed to her name now and she is worried about having to pay capital gains tax or inheritance tax.

Can anyone help please?
thanks

She needn't worry about tax - bequest to spouses are free of IHT and as the house is hers and she is living in it there's no CGT.

System

When my father died we never got the deeds changed. A copy of his will was lodged with the deeds held by my mother's solicitor.
When my mother died we had no problems with the house sale.

sagalout1954

You should contact Land Registry to get the Public Guide No. 9 "What to do when a land owner dies".

Can read/print it from here http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/ look under Forms & Publications: Public Guides: PG009 Section 3.2 of that seems to be the relevant bit.

maggiem

Hi,
One thing to think about might be a Deed of Variation. You can change a will I think if all agree so that instead of the house being in your mothers name only it could be halved with half being in children's names thereby reducing her estate and possible inheritance tax. Although this IHT has risen so this is now less likely - probably depending on where the house is.
However this would involve a solicitor I think and a fee for changing over.

sloughflint

maggiem wrote: »

Hi,
One thing to think about might be a Deed of Variation. You can change a will I think if all agree

No only the mother would need to agree to signing it as she would be losing out.

2001lb wrote: »

He did leave a will (with everything left to my Mother).

maggiem wrote: »

so that instead of the house being in your mothers name only it could be halved with half being in children's names thereby reducing her estate and possible inheritance tax. Although this IHT has risen so this is now less likely - probably depending on where the house is.
However this would involve a solicitor I think and a fee for changing over.

It would not reduce IHT. At the moment she can uplift 100% of her husband's allowance. If half the house was redirected to offspring, some of the unused allowance would be used up and therefore reduce her overall IHT allowance.