House deeds to son - please help

ems2111

Hi all.

myself and my husband are planning to move to my father-in-laws. we will be building him a separate 'granny flat' but this will still be attached to original house. can anyone advise on what we need to do here?? there seems to be so much information which we dont really understand.

there is still in the region of £3000 - £6000 owing on my father-in-laws mortgage. do we give him the money so he can pay off his mortgage and then transfer the house to his sons name (my husband). or do we set it up so that the house is 'sold' to my hsband For a nominal value? we also need some kind of contract in place to say that we cannot put him out of the house for rest of his life.

please help as we dont know all the implications involved. also what costs would be involved. and who do we see next?

CloudCuckooLand

Minefield.

Get professional advice. Solicitor/Accountant. Preferably a specialist in the wills/probate/tax fields. Whichever you trust most with the full financial position of the whole family.

You will have to navigate Inheritance tax rules in case F-i-L dies within 7 years; CGT if your husband already owns a house; deprivation of asset rules in relation to potential council care and/or Pension Credits; and decide the best method of protecting "life interest" for F-i-L in combination with the optimum IHT/CGT stance.

Some version of; http://www.findonlegal.co.uk/cms/our-services/trusts/flexible-life-interest-trust/ might be approprate, for example.

An initial half-hour consultation may well be free. It might be worth paying for a couple of hours detailed consultation, in view of the likely saving in tax you will make.

churchrat

There is such scope for things to go wrong--what if your fil becomes very ill? My friend did this, even tho she was advised not to. Her relationship with her father has completly broken down, (not his fault) but they are stuck. Get proper advice.

NASA_2

Is the FIL on benefits?

bitsandpieces

churchrat wrote: »

There is such scope for things to go wrong--what if your fil becomes very ill? My friend did this, even tho she was advised not to. Her relationship with her father has completly broken down, (not his fault) but they are stuck. Get proper advice.

Depending on the son's situation, it might also be worth a trial period of living together before transferring deeds etc - even if it's just a few months. Son and father likely haven't lived together for a long time - even with the best will in the world, sometimes people just don't get on when they're back in the same home.

If you're looking to transfer ownership ASAP, though, definitely get proper advice.

ems2111

fil is not on any benefits.

at moment we are living in rented accomodation. as husband is only son all land will eventually be his anyway. so we are only looking to take out small mortgage to bild on flat. so in a way its almost as if he's living in semi detached.

this is really only option for us so its just figuring out best way of going about it - and the cheapest way. we've already got planning passed and are in process of putting in foundations. would like to sort this asap before filtering in any more of our own money!

bitsandpieces

Then get professional advice before going ahead further. As has been said, you can likely get 30 minutes of free advice. This is a situation, though, where paying for more advice now might be moneysaving in the medium-term.

There are always other options. Make sure you know what they are and that everyone is happy that you are going down the best route. I hope the move and extension do work well, assuming that this goes ahead.

Cannon_Fodder

Needing a mortgage is going to be more problematic that without, as a Lender will think twice about giving a mortgage to you and hubbie, while the In-Law has a life interest - they would never be able to repossess.