Need advice please

dfons

My wife just passed away. She owned a house and didn't make a will. She wanted this house to go to her two sons and I am happy with that, but she wanted them not to be able to sell the house until they are 30.
There is a mortgage and a mortgage life insurance that hopefully will pay for it.
Anyone could advise me how to go about this? I suppose I need to go and see a solicitor, which I am planning to do, but I have the feeling the sons will not agree with having to wait until they are 30. One is 23 and the other 19.
I just want to respect my wife's wishes. I am not interested about the house and if I could I wouldn't even have anything to do with it but I can see this becoming a problem.
Thanks

Seanymph

you will inherit everything as her next of kin. What you do with it is up to you.

Personally I wouldn't give them anything substantial at these ages - and I would hope should anything happen to me the OH would ensure that my girls would make good life choices and would still parent them to achieve that.

Being a parent is difficult, denying our kids things is difficult, but we do that for their own good in the long run - they have lost a parent, as as her husband over this issue you unfortunately now have to do that for her.

I'm sorry for your loss.

Tinkaf1

I might be wrong here... but if she didn't make a will the house is yours. YOU can then draw up a legal document I guess leaving it to them when they are 30, carrying out her wishes.
Her sons will probably be more worried that they are not going to get anything than worry about waiting until they are 30. I can understand her concerns too, if someone had left me a chunk of money at 19 I would have blown it on holidays and a new car. lol.

I would firstly find out if the house does actually pass to you. Did she ever share her wishes with her sons?
If so I would sit them down and explain it all, and that you intend to follow her wishes, which by the way is lovely and considerate of you.

I am also sorry for your loss.

Gorgeous_George

Legally, the house will be yours (with everything else).

However, you know that your wife wanted her sons to inherit the property so morally, you should respect her wishes. You could change the house to 'Tenants in Common' and gift half of it her sons. This would also protect you form having to sell if you need long term care in the future 9you cannot sell half a house). You could pay rent fpr the half that you don't own. Alternatively, you could give them some cash in lieu of half of the house.

Finally, you could ignore your late wife's wishes and keep the lot.

GG

987654

Do you live in the house?

Do they live in the house?

Or is it empty/ rented?

dfons

Thank you for your advice and support.
One of the sons lives in the house with his partner. Up to now we were paying for the mortgage. I will keep paying the mortgage until this gets sorted.
As I said, I don't want to have anything to do with the house. I know that the intentancy law means that the house will be mine. Morally I'm 100% sure of what I am going to do. I've got another house so my late wife's wishes will be respected.
My question was more of a technical one. Is there a way of me giving the house to my wife's sons, can I just change the name on the deeds etc etc? And then, for the issue with not selling the house until a certain age, is there a legal way of doing that?
Also, I am interested in knowing the legal costs of doing all this.
I wish we had sorted all this out before this happened. I really don't want to do all these things now. I just want to be left alone, to think about my wife, to grieve..
thanks again

*miaomiao*

I'm really sorry to hear of your loss.

Perhaps a friend or someone at the funeral services can recommend a housing solicitor to you. This might make things clearer and, if you can afford it, you might be able to pass the work for this onto them so that you can grieve. Many good solicitors will give you a free first meeting so that you can ask about costs and the practices. You will need a solicitor in any case to pass the house on to your wife's sons.

All the best.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

dfons wrote: »

Thank you for your advice and support.
One of the sons lives in the house with his partner. Up to now we were paying for the mortgage. I will keep paying the mortgage until this gets sorted.
As I said, I don't want to have anything to do with the house. I know that the intentancy law means that the house will be mine. Morally I'm 100% sure of what I am going to do. I've got another house so my late wife's wishes will be respected.
My question was more of a technical one. Is there a way of me giving the house to my wife's sons, can I just change the name on the deeds etc etc? And then, for the issue with not selling the house until a certain age, is there a legal way of doing that?
Also, I am interested in knowing the legal costs of doing all this.
I wish we had sorted all this out before this happened. I really don't want to do all these things now. I just want to be left alone, to think about my wife, to grieve..
thanks again

I'm very sorry to hear of your loss.

There are really only a couple of ways that I know of.

As the inheritor, transfer the title to all three of your names for now (this should demonstrate good faith on your part to the sons), and have your solicitor draw up an agreement that you'll transfer the title to the sole ownership of the two sons when they both reach 30, as per their mothers wishes. I'd estimate this would cost somewhere between £500 and £1000.

Or ask your solicitor about putting the house into trust until the sons reach the age of 30. Although this is probably a significantly more expensive solution.... I have no idea what it costs.

poppysarah

You could complain to the company selling it that the agent has been obstructive.

Seanymph

If you 'gift' it to them, and, god forbid, die within 7 years I think there are inheritance taxation issues to be considered.

Really you need to take legal, sound, financial advice.