Family home ownership

FCBtetra

I will start by offering my thanks to any help given!

This involves a feud between brothers, which has been going on for a while and those concerned are not on speaking terms. it concerns the family home where both the house and my father are based in the UK.

Basically there are 3 brothers A, B and C, all of which are named on the deed to the house in question. Brothers B & C are both living in the USA now.

Brother A is my father, he is not on speaking terms with either brother B or C. Brother B has tried to convince my father through sisters and letters to give over his share of the house to him, for nothing.
Brother B did send a letter requesting, 'transfer of whole subject to mortgage'; these requests have been ignored. However, it maybe possible that brother C has signed over his share to brother B, this is unconfirmed.

My father who did not live there at the time, paid towards the mortgage and up keep of the house. It seems that Brother B has been renting the house since about 1986ish till the present day - without permission from my father or without my father seeing any of the money.

I have found out that the joint tenancy has been severed.

My questions are,

Can Brother B legally rent the house without my father’s permission?

Can my father claim for his share of the money which Brother B has obtained since he started renting the house? Is he entitled to any money being made at the moment?

Can my father get Brother B to buy him out - or sell it on to anyone else?

What is the best thing to do if Brother B does not want to play ball?

What should be the next step a letter from my father or a solicitor?

Thanks a lot for any advice you can give! :beer:

Dora_the_Explorer_5

I have found out that the joint tenancy has been severed.

This couldn't have been done without your father's knowledge. However a change from joint tenancy to tenants in common puts him in a stronger position. As this appears to be a contentious and complex situation involving a large financial asset, probably the best way forward is to seek advice from a family law solicitor.

Bossyboots

Dora_the_Explorer wrote:

This couldn't have been done without your father's knowledge. However a change from joint tenancy to tenants in common puts him in a stronger position. As this appears to be a contentious and complex situation involving a large financial asset, probably the best way forward is to seek advice from a family law solicitor.

It can have been done without his knowledge. While it is recommended now that you send the notice recorded delivery and obtain a signature to the notice, just the sending of it is enough. If you are dealing with someone a bit suspect, then it is obviously very easy for them to say they posted a notice when they never did. Without proof of that posting the brother would have difficult proving the severance (hence the advice now to send it recorded and request return of a copy signed). There are two ways of looking at this. With the tenancy severed, if Brother A was to die, Brother B will not get his share of the property by survivourship. Without it severed, he will. This works in reverse if Brother B was to die first.

I would suggest that in fact it is a property issue, not a family law issue and it should be a property specialist that is consulted. The fact that the tenants are brother is neither here nor there.

margaretclare

It can have been done without his knowledge.

Yes, it can. My DH'S last ex-wife did it without his knowledge or consent. He only discovered it when a letter from her solicitor came into his hands in error. It was part of a sneaky strategy of hers.

Margaret Clare

FCBtetra

Thanks for the info.

My father was the one who initiated the severance, after some advice he was given.

Due to the history between my father and brother A its been difficult to get my father to do anything. What I can't understand is how brother A rented the house out, without the consent of my father - don't agencies need consent from all owners?

miaxmia

Am I being thick here? Your father is the only one of the brothers here in the UK and the house has been rented since 1986. Who has supposedly been checking on the house since 1986? Who has the keys to the house? Sorry, maybe I am just a bit niaive, but certainly curious.

FCBtetra

miaxmia wrote:

Am I being thick here? Your father is the only one of the brothers here in the UK and the house has been rented since 1986. Who has supposedly been checking on the house since 1986? Who has the keys to the house? Sorry, maybe I am just a bit niaive, but certainly curious.

Info from sisters has it he's been renting it through an agency and due to my grandmother's wishes things were never sorted, so when she died things got worse and my father just left it and didn't speak to him.

As a result he took control and has had it ever since. My father has just recently agreed to do something about it after me trying to convince him for a while. So, I want to get an idea of what his options are and how much it will cost.

miaxmia

Thanks that has made things a bit clearer - I forgot you mentioned sisters.