Inherited a mortgage free house - what to do with it?

lynsco

It certainly gives me options to think about thanks

googler

Depending on your attitude to risk and gambling, you could consider putting £59k of the £60k to reducing your current mortgage and have a flutter with £1k - £500 worth of premium bonds, a few lottery tickets?

If you strike it lucky...

Perhaps put £400 into stocks and shares, perhaps put the maximum permitted into an ISA or other high-interest savings product.....

ClootiesMum

Sorry for you loss lynsco

I was in the same position 2 years ago & we decided to sell. Even if we'd moved into the house & re-decorated it still would have been Mum's house and that would have too hard to live with daily. Also didn't want to rent it out because I didn't want people making a mess of Mum's house.

Listejn to all the practical advice you are given but you also have to take the emotional into consideration as well.

I wish you well whatever you do

harz99

lynsco wrote: »

I understand the advice to clear off the mortgage but I am really worried about ending up with properties I cant sell, or a major repair arising that we cant afford to repair - we only earn 31k as a couple so do not have the capacity to save a huge amount to replace the inheritance. I hope that makes sense?

In that case another fairly simple option will be to do as you wish and retain the funds you inherit in the best easy access account you can find, at the same time advertise BOTH houses for sale with a view to selling one or the other and see what happens.

If and when you sell one (or even both), you are then free to both live where you wish and/or invest how you wish.

Letting can be very frought, as evidenced by the many threads from relatively newbie landlords that have appeared on these forums. I have been a landlord with 2 properties let, and whilst I was fortunate enough to never have had a really bad tenant or long void, I did have a constant stream of small problems and broken fixtures/fittings to sort. All of which costs money, especially if you are a part time landlord, who is out working and end up paying others to sort the problems. It is a fact of life that tenants will never look after your house as well as you would.

Whatever you decide to do I am sorry for your recent loss and wish you well for the future.

paddy's_mum

You might be well advised to take solid legal advice as to what the picture would be if after all this juggling with mortgages and houses, you and your partner split up.

BitterAndTwisted

Yep, the mention of a "partner" rang alarm-bells with me as well. The OP could find themselves in a tricky position if, at some point in the future, the relationship failed. At the moment, with only one property in joint names, things could become rather more complicated once the inherited cash was used to pay down the joint-mortgage. I agree that the OP should get some professional advice before they decide to do anything.

molit

other thing thing to say is that you may not need to convert your current mortgage to a buy to let - you might be able to get consent to let which works out much cheaper - you can rent out on a residential mortgage

lynsco

Thanks guys for all the advice! Yes we are partners not married, I am keen to protect my inheritance as much as we want to be together we both know stuff happens!

Murtle

Sorry to hear of your loss.

Can I just ask, wouldn't the joint mortgage move to the mums house and then lynsco would own the rented house which would be paid off?