loan against inherited house.

jt2k13

Hi all,

I have a problem that hopefully you can help me with, read through the forums and nothing really answers my questions.

My wife inherited a house from her grandmother 3 months ago, there was also a small insurance policy to cover the funeral costs (although this went no where near covering it all) and money left in the bank and pension covered any of the outstanding bills, (phone / elec / gas etc..) the house has no finance outstanding on it, the mortgage having been cleared around 10 years ago.

currently outstanding are
funeral costs - £1300
inheritance to grandson - £1000
solicitors fees ~£1000

the funeral directors are starting to send regular letters asking for payment which we have NO way of paying ourselves, and the grandson (under pressure from his mother - there is a lot of family history) is threatening action to get his piece of the pie.

My wife was practically raised by her grandmother so grew up in the house and we want to do all we can to secure the property.

we are looking to secure £3,300 to pay of the costs but have no method of doing it. our credit rating is poor and cannot secure against our current home. untill the £1000 is payed to the grandson he (guided by his mother again) he will not allow us to transfer the property into my wives name so that we have a better chance of securing funding.

the other option is to sell the house but as stated above my wife would like to keep the property and it seems overkill for £1000 of costs

we can afford repayments of about £150 a month, and have already tried all the friends and family we can for loans

hope you can help

Crabapple

Unless the grandson getting the legacy is an Executor he has no say in the house being transferred.

The Executor is responsible for paying the legacy. Who is it? If the death was only 3 months ago then there are no grounds for a claim for the £1k at this stage. There's no legal timescale for payment of a legacy as it can take time to administer an Estate. There is something referred to as the Executor's Year after which interest should be added to any legacy.

Are you in a position to sell your own home and move into the inherited one? Or indeed move and rent your own out for the moment to realise some funds?

jt2k13

Crabapple wrote: »

Unless the grandson getting the legacy is an Executor he has no say in the house being transferred.

The Executor is responsible for paying the legacy. Who is it? If the death was only 3 months ago then there are no grounds for a claim for the £1k at this stage. There's no legal timescale for payment of a legacy as it can take time to administer an Estate. There is something referred to as the Executor's Year after which interest should be added to any legacy.

Are you in a position to sell your own home and move into the inherited one? Or indeed move and rent your own out for the moment to realise some funds?

The executor of the estate is the solicitor, we are in the process of selling our house but there will not be anything left over after the sale has completed, and NRAM are not interested in changing our mortgage to a B2L mortgage.

Once we have the property we need to do some work to it to make it safe for a family (the electrics are in a very bad state, she smoked 40 a day so the whole house needs a real good clean top to bottom so could not move in till then.

I'd like to just give the keys back to NRAM and move in with family for a couple of months then the saved mortgage payments could go to clearing some of the estate.

when we suggested transferring the property into my wives name the grandson had no problems, as soon as his mum found out however she threatened take action to repossess to get the £1k
(the mother was left nothing in the will and has made no offer to help pay funeral costs, in fact she didn't see her mum for the last 5 years of her life despite living 5 minutes away)

It's making my wife ill so I just want to help her get it sorted.

Ta

Carfal

Did your wife inherit literally just the house, or was it the house and contents? If the latter, is there anything of value which could be sold, or might her grandmother have kept any money in the house? (Not impossibly far-fetched: after my great-grandmother died, my nan found over £1000 hidden in a jar - in addition to the money under the mattress that everyone in the family knew about.)

jt2k13

Carfal wrote: »

Did your wife inherit literally just the house, or was it the house and contents? If the latter, is there anything of value which could be sold, or might her grandmother have kept any money in the house? (Not impossibly far-fetched: after my great-grandmother died, my nan found over £1000 hidden in a jar - in addition to the money under the mattress that everyone in the family knew about.)

was the house and all contents, there was not much left, she wasn't interested in "stuff" as long as her and her dog had food she was happy.

Crabapple

jt2k13 wrote: »

when we suggested transferring the property into my wives name the grandson had no problems, as soon as his mum found out however she threatened take action to repossess to get the £1k

She's not going to get anywhere with a court claim for repossession on the basis of £1k from an Estate that isn't even due to her! Even starting a small claim would be pointless and cost them money.

Ignore, tell the son you will pay as soon as possible, and get the house transferred - they really don't need to consent to it or even be told. Then you can get it in a position to live in and take a small mortgage out to cover settling the Estate.

g6jns_2

jt2k13 wrote: »

Hi all,

I have a problem that hopefully you can help me with, read through the forums and nothing really answers my questions.

My wife inherited a house from her grandmother 3 months ago, there was also a small insurance policy to cover the funeral costs (although this went no where near covering it all) and money left in the bank and pension covered any of the outstanding bills, (phone / elec / gas etc..) the house has no finance outstanding on it, the mortgage having been cleared around 10 years ago.

currently outstanding are
funeral costs - £1300
inheritance to grandson - £1000
solicitors fees ~£1000

the funeral directors are starting to send regular letters asking for payment which we have NO way of paying ourselves, and the grandson (under pressure from his mother - there is a lot of family history) is threatening action to get his piece of the pie.

My wife was practically raised by her grandmother so grew up in the house and we want to do all we can to secure the property.

we are looking to secure £3,300 to pay of the costs but have no method of doing it. our credit rating is poor and cannot secure against our current home. untill the £1000 is payed to the grandson he (guided by his mother again) he will not allow us to transfer the property into my wives name so that we have a better chance of securing funding.

the other option is to sell the house but as stated above my wife would like to keep the property and it seems overkill for £1000 of costs

we can afford repayments of about £150 a month, and have already tried all the friends and family we can for loans

hope you can help

Sound advice. It is amazing how people will try it on in the way the son is.

jt2k13

g6jns wrote: »

Sound advice. It is amazing how people will try it on in the way the son is.

The son is not to blame, its his mother, she is a horrible woman, though to the outside she is the perfect mother.., and her daughter (my wife) would agree

not going to make this personal, however just want to help my wife.

Thanks all

jt2k13

Crabapple wrote: »

Ignore, tell the son you will pay as soon as possible, and get the house transferred - they really don't need to consent to it or even be told. Then you can get it in a position to live in and take a small mortgage out to cover settling the Estate.

It was the solicitor who said they would need to consent.

Ta

Crabapple

I can't see any reason why they would need to consent. Get the Solicitors to explain their thinking. They are probably protecting themselves as Executors rather than anything else, there is certainly no requirement in law for a legatee to agree to transfer of assets.,

He needs to be guaranteed the legacy will be paid, since there are sufficient assets in the Estate to pay it even if they are tied up in bricks and mortar. You can't guarantee that unless the house is transferred to you (or the worse case of sold), so they need to transfer. Once it's in your wife's name then finance can be obtained.

For protection perhaps offer to sign some sort of guarantee/indemnity to the Solicitors that once the house is transferred within x timescale you will pay the outstanding debts and legacies of the Estate. I'd hold that kind of offer in reserve for now.

If living with family is a possibility short term, presumably you will be saving mortgage and utility costs that you are currently paying so some of that money could maybe be used? Just trying to think of ways for you to get this settled as soon as possible so it's all done and dusted and you can go forward.

Crabapple

From the sounds of things, this is your wife's mother and brother?! Does she have a reasonable relationship with her brother such that they can get things sorted without their mum knowing?