Putting title deeds in child's name

Daledavis17

Hi all,

My mother is purchasing a property with 100% cash, so no mortgage. We are buying a property in london, which we are thinking of putting in my name to avoid the stamp duty and take advantage of the new first time buyers s.d threshold of £250,000 - also to take advantage of future CGT. I am over 18

Only problem is that i have been out of work for a year, and consequently have a couple of maxed out credit cards and overdraft to the sum of about £7k. I have been offered a new job in london, and so will aim to bring the credit score back into order over the next few months.

Will the credit cards and overdraft affect my ability to be put on the deeds and will it throw up any causes for concern?

Any input would be much appreciated.

Kind regards

p00hsticks

Will you be living in the property ? Will your mother ?

'Putting the title deeds' in your name isn't just some vague administrative detail. It means that YOU OWN THE HOUSE. So if any debtors that you had decided that they wanted to get a charge on the property and then force you to sell it, then they could - your can't argue that 'it's really my mothers, it's only in my name to get round paying stamp duty'.

Is your mother really happy to give you a property outright ? Because that's effectively what she's doing if she puts the deeds in your name.

Daledavis17

Yes i will be living in it and she is happy to put the property in my name. In fact it was her idea. I understand what you are saying, regarding potential charges on the property, and the idea is to allow me to live in a property in which i won;t pay rent to repay the debts down i owe.

My concern was that if we go to the solicitors and put the property in my name. They may suddenly go, 'well hold on, we can't do this as you owe £x'. My mother knows about the situation

00ec25

to be on the safe side your mother should gift you the money and then you buy the property paying from your own bank account.
This will avoid any suggestion of tax evasion by your mother, since the money will have come from you only and you will be the only named owner and it will be your only residence, ie the main tests applied to the FTB SDLT exemption

your debt status is absolutely irrelevant when no mortgage is involved, the fact you can buy a property whilst being in debt is of no concern to your creditors, other than, as said, the (remote) possibility that they may apply a charge if they discover that, at one point in time, you had enough cash to clear your debts but spent it on buying a house instead.

are you on some sort of repayment agreement for your debts? Does it stipulate what you must do if you have a lump sum, if not then your creditors have no say in your affairs

Daledavis17

Many thanks for your response. I just repay the minimum amount, but must be honest i have missed a couple in the past. There are no agreements or anything regarding lump sum amounts. Before i lost my job last year i was repaying it perfectly and in excess, but due to a limited income now its been a lot tougher.

Of course i do not want to throw up any concerns of tax evasion, so perhaps this might be the way to go in regards to my mother gifting me the money, and then everything becomes above board.

Thanks once again

JQ.

Will your mum be living in the house?

Daledavis17

No, just me. My mother lives in Bournemouth

p00hsticks

Another possible consideration - presumably your mother is not in a position where she is going to need to claim state benefits or be going into care any time soon ?

Daledavis17

No, she is very active and healthy and only 51

JQ.

Daledavis17 wrote: »

No, just me. My mother lives in Bournemouth

If that's the case there's no problem at all. If the value of the house is, for example, £200,000, then so long as your mother understands that she is basically giving you £200,000 cash then that's fine. Because once she puts the house in your name it belongs to you, irrelevant of what her intentions are. You could sell it the next day and move to Tailand or mortgage yourself to the hilt and party, party, party for the next 2 years.:beer:

clutton_2

i think you both need independent solicitors to advise you of the consequences of this.....

you could both become "tenants" in the legal ownership sense - ie you both could jointly own the property.. this would give your mother security over her asset and would stop you selling it and spending all her money...

but you do need legal advice to do this properly as there are 2 different forms of "tenants" - and one is better than the other dependent on what your aims are....