I want to buy my Aunts House at a discount, but...

danofthedead

My Aunt lives in Malta, where she has gone to retire and live out her days. Up until recently, I along with my sister(+her family) were renting her house in London. My sister and her family have now moved out and are now living in Derby. I am left there, paying rent (reduced from what i was) and the bills. My Aunt decided a little while ago that she would like to sell the house and live off the sale. My sister came up with an idea for me to buy the house at a price that I can afford myself (i am single) which will be £80k on the proviso that i sell on the house after 3 years and pay my aunt the difference of the market value from what I bought it for. I know my aunt will not gain anything from this, but she wants to give me a leg up on the property market

e.g (i havent had the house valued yet)

- house is worth £200k

- i buy for £80k (she is down £120k)

- i sell the house in 3 years time (i plan to spend on improvements off of rent money accrued) for lets say £250k

- i will pay back to my aunt the £120k i payed less and i keep the rest (£130k, 80k back to the bank, £50k to help me get another property)

She is happy to do this. This will give her a lump sum of £40k* to live on for 3 years. Then the rest after.

i will earn off renting out the rooms which will pay for the mortgage + roughly £300 extra a month. i can use that money to add value to the house for when i sell up.

*all will be explained below

Sounds great!!! but there is a but....

My aunt signed a 'Tenants in Common' deed with her ex partner. i am led to believe on a 50/50 basis. This partner died unexpectedly about 7 years ago WITH NO WILL!! by rights his share of the house has now transfered to his wife who never gave him the divorce he wanted. As far as my aunt is aware, this other woman doesnt even know she has inherited his share of the house. But I wish to do things legally and above board.

My question is:

Can she block the house being sold to me at a discount price?
In doing so this would leave her short changed from getting her share of the market value of the house.
I have a feeling the answer is obvious, but my aunt reckons she has no rights in how much the house is sold for as long as its not a ridiculously low amount.

if anyone knows a link or website that can confirm the answer to this specific question. it would be gratefully appreciated. i have looked but can find nothing that gives me the specific answer.

I know seeing a lawyer is the best thing to do, but i would rather find out for free on here before having to pay a lawyer to find out.

hcb42

you need a lawyer..

she has inherited half the house, so she can not only block you getting it cheap, it likely blocks you getting it at all...

Annisele

Your aunt is the one who needs to see a lawyer, not you!

First your aunt needs to work out who owns the house. It's probably jointly owned between your aunt and her partner's wife, but it's worth running that by a solicitor to be sure.

The property can't be sold without the agreement of all owners or a court order. So, assuming the partner's wife does own half of it, your aunt isn't going to be able to sell it to you at an undervalue.

I can see all sorts of other problems with your plan (eg what will you do if the value falls, what will you do if you don't want to sell in three years), but the partner's wife's ownership seems to be the immediate one.

Mojisola

Annisele wrote: »

I can see all sorts of other problems with your plan (eg what will you do if the value falls, what will you do if you don't want to sell in three years), but the partner's wife's ownership seems to be the immediate one.

That's spot on!

danofthedead - I can't see this getting any further than telling your aunt's ex-partner's widow that she owns half a house. Why on earth wasn't the house declared as part of his estate?

I can't imagine she'll let the house be sold at less than the value. She will also be wanting her share of the rent that has been paid since his death.

Thrugelmir

danofthedead wrote: »

Can she block the house being sold to me at a discount price? [/FONT][/COLOR]
In doing so this would leave her short changed from getting her share of the market value of the house.
I have a feeling the answer is obvious, but my aunt reckons she has no rights in how much the house is sold for as long as its not a ridiculously low amount.

Seek professional advice. The other 50% share of the property will be dealt with under the rules of intestacy. So its your Aunt who appears to have no rights.

danofthedead

I’d like to thank everyone for their advice on this subject. I have relayed all this info to my Aunt.

Regards

Dan