Tenants in common problems

Ashley208

Dear all,

In 2008 my father sold 50% of his property to his cousin and her husband. This was because the property has a 106 agreement on it (agricultural property) and my father wished to release some of the asset tied up in the property and further develop it, plus they would all co-habit and look after one another in their latter years. In the original conversations (that I was privvy to) it all seemed amicle enough and would benefit everyone involved. The cousins sold their property for £620,000 in June 2008 and moved into the main house on our property in July - my father was still building the granny annex for him to reside in at the time and moved into it before it was finished so that they could move their belongings into the main house. The deeds weren't signed up untill the November and upon that they paid £230,00 for the 50% share.
However, there has not been a Tenants in Common agreement signed up - (beacuse they (the cousins) didn't think it was necessary. They refuse to sign one now. The original agreement was that they owned 50% share of the property and would reside in the main house and look after the gardens.
However, my father passed away suddenly in March 2009. Since then, as an executor, have tried to make sure that the estate is passed onto myself and my 2 brothers and is managed properly. The problem is that (because they are supposed to leave the property back to my family upon their deaths) they are now stating that "they own the hosue and gardens and 1/2 of everything else" and whenever a problem arises thay try to blackmail us with the "you want to be careful because we may change our wills".
While we have been sorting this out my elder brother and myself have been living and working abroad and no-one is residing in our part of the property, and to our continued dismay the cousins continue to make changes to the property without our consent - eg destroying trees and making alterations - with the proviso "its our garden and we can do what we want".
This situation is now becoming untenable - especially as they have offered to buy out our shares for £30,000 apiece.
I have done a lot of research on this and (apart from finding out we can only have 4 names on the deeds and there's now 5 owners!) and it would appear that in one aspect the sale has not been fully completed (even though their names are on the Title deeds) and on the other they are causing damage/making alterations to the property without notifying the other owners, so are therefore in breach of contract.
Can we terminate the agreement made between my father and the cousins and just pay back their money minus "rent and reparation"? If so, does it have to be at current market value (bearing in mind the property has had an additional £130,000 invested in it since the idea/agreement was mooted) or what is written on the conveyance/title deeds?
I look forward to everyones thoughts on this complicated matter....

DVardysShadow

First thing is to take legal advice.

Now, is the house actually currently Tenants in Common or is it Joint Tenants? I am assuming that all that is missing is an underpinning Tenants in Common agreement? If it is not Tenants in Common already, you can issue a simple notice to make it Tenants in Common.

If it is Tenants in Common, you can also force a sale through the courts, I believe. If you have any documentation that they are offering £90,000 for the property, it could be useful. Perhaps you should appear to roll over and ask them to make the offer in writing to your solicitor?

It sounds to me like Dad ploughed his £230,000 into building his annex - you may have lost 50% of that - but equally, the lack of an underpinning agreement may work to your advantage if you can show the money spent.

Beware that with the cousins offering £90,000 for your share, that it appears that they are preparing for a long legal fight - they have a lot of capital behind them. Take it very slowly - the only winners in this could be lawyers - and work out exactly what you can be sure a court would award you [and on what basis] rather than going into this as a gamble over what you might get.

Ashley208

Thanks for that. AFAIK it is on the deeds as tenants in common (however their solicitor is holding the deeds at the moment and we've been unable to get a hold of them). They have also indicated that they would sell their share for £300,000 plus whatever they have had to pay out on the property. All of these figures have just been verbal and nothing is in writing. There is no deed of trust or TIC agreement and when I suggested that there should be one the answer was very agressive in the negative. It would appear to all intents and purposes that they wish to retain the whole freehold on the property without spending any money. We do not have access to the main house, even though there are household contents inside that belong to my late father's estate which, again, is in breach of any agreement.
We are taking legal advice at the moment in regards to getting the deeds changed, but if they are unwilling to sign a new TIC how can it proceed?

DVardysShadow

£1000 on legal advice could be well spent. You are doing the right thing in thinking through this first. I would suggest that the absence of a TIC agreement is actually in your favour at the moment, but you really need to get your ducks in a line at first. If there is not TIC agreement, equally with the dark threat about being left out of their wills, you could be threatening to force a sale. But maybe they are acting out of fear that you might do this.

As regards access to the main house, in the absence of the TIC agreement, I would say that as executor, you have not only the right but something of a duty to gain access and collect and account for the assets of your father's estate. Do this with the executor hat on - ie not as inheritor, but using the rights an executor would have even without inheritance.

Ashley208

That's again another area of contention.......when my brother noted that the silver candle holders were on the dining table (he hadn't been to the house in a year and the understanding was that the William IV dining suite was ours but left in the house as it was too big for the annex) he was told "your father gave us those" - totally untrue! My father left items in the house as he still owned 50% of it! In truth the cousins occupy more than 50% of property. They're also not impressed that (because of their recent behavior, more than anything else) we have now separated the rates on the annex and the house so they now have to pay their own rates and their own electricity usage - which as none of us occupy the residence isn't unfair.