mortgages

Rosem_2

I know this is not strictly debt but could someone give us advice about filling in a form for a new mortgage. What is the difference between being joint tenants and tenants in common? We now have no children at home. Thank you for looking.

CLAPTON

tenant in common means who each own half the house and so in principle each person could sell their half or could leave it to someone in their will

joint tenant means that you jointly own it and so could you could not sell half the house . if you die the house automatically become the property of the other 'tenant' and you won't need probate to deal with the issue.

if you want your partner to own the house in the event of your death (and vice versa ) then joint tenants would suit, if you wanted to leave your half of the house to (say) your children for inherence tax purposes then tenant in common might suit you better

Bogof_Babe

I believe joint tenants automatically own the whole property on the death of the first partner, whereas tenants in common own half each, so that on the first death the deceased's half becomes part of their estate and can be left directly to a third party.

I understand this is a useful tool for avoiding inheritance tax so that part of the estate bypasses the IHT rules, and can be left directly to offspring or other family (or whoever it is bequeated to in the Will).

Be careful about using this route though - it could get tricky if one of the tenants in common leaves their share to a distant relative for example, or the child of a previous relationship, who then wants to call in their share of the property while the surviving partner is still living in it.

Bogof_Babe

Lol - wot Clapton said :beer: .