Inheritance/wills

gelato_cat

Hi there

Quick question.

I've been reading about what happens when someone dies, having left no will but is survived by a spouse and kids:

The husband or wife gets:
* the "personal chattels" (jewellery, furniture, cars etc but not including property and money)
* the first £125,000 and
* a life interest in half of what is left (for example, the income or interest if the money is invested). The capital (the original amount) passes to their children when the surviving husband or wife dies.

The children share between them:
* half what is left straight away, if they are 18 or over and
* the other half when the surviving parent dies.

My question is, does this apply if all the money, property etc was in joint names with the spouse when they died? The sites I've been reading aren't clear on this point.

TIA

Suze

Mrs_pbradley936

I believe that if assets are jointly owned the surviving spouse gets them i.e. house, bank account. If they are registered joint owners with the land registry there should not be a problem. Likewise with a bank account just produce a death certificate and they will be OK with it. If assets are not jointly owned I think you need a grant of probate to access any funds or to sell property.

WestonDave

Be careful on property - when you bought the house etc, the solicitor should have asked you whether you wanted to hold it as joint tenants or tenants in common. Joint tenants means that you both share ownership and if one of you dies the other automatically takes over ownership of the whole. However you can also opt to be tenants in common which means that if one of you dies their share does not pass to the other. Joint tenancy is the most common but it needs checking. People often sever the joint tenancy when they are separating but have yet to sell the house etc.

gelato_cat

Thanks for the info. So the rules in my OP only apply to property, money etc if they were owned entirely by the deceased, it looks like. Would be nice if that were made a bit clearer!

Suze

erewyn

hi, my dad died 4 ys ago and did not leave a will, he had opened some joint accounts with his and my brothers name. when dad died brother took advantage and cleared out the accounts, mum has not seen a penny of this money. is this legal? is there anything that can be done now if its not legal??

Mrs_pbradley936

erewyn wrote:

hi, my dad died 4 ys ago and did not leave a will, he had opened some joint accounts with his and my brothers name. when dad died brother took advantage and cleared out the accounts, mum has not seen a penny of this money. is this legal? is there anything that can be done now if its not legal??

It may be better if you put this on a new thread you would get more response. Anyway if you have a joint account I think the money belongs to both people so your uncle may not have done anything illegal - he might just be a sh!!