Ex died and has apparently had a lodger in our jointly owned house

jackieblack

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

As a property is involved then probate is required. If there is no will then the intestacy rules apply.

Mojisola wrote: »

We didn't need probate when Mum died. She and Dad owned the house as joint tenants.

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

Which is totally different with tenants in common. In the case of a JT ownership passes by survivorship alone.

:huh: but isn't that what OP has said :huh:

J20BABY wrote: »

we were joint tenants rather than tenants in common. (I know this as I checked with the Land Registry people)

dancingfairy

Before making any decisions I would consider:
A) how much the house is worth
how much is outstanding on the mortgage
C) whether you can afford to pay the mortgage for possibly 6 to 12 months
D) how much work is required to bring the property and whether it's worth funding thus ( and whether you can afford to).
My concern is that there will be little or no equity in the house (based on mortgage being missed, endowment being cadhed, upkeep probably not done etc) and that it might not be quick, eay or cheap to remove the person in there and you end up with a mess with nothing to gain from sorting it out.
It's also worth contacting women's aid due to the domestic violence issues ( and to make sure you are getting decent advice and not being unduly influenced/misled by your ex husbands parents.
Please let us know how you get on.
I actually would like to be wrong and to hear that there is a decent amount of equity, that you've got the lodger/ tenant out and made a decent profit at the end.
Df

J20BABY

Land_Registry_representative wrote: »

Just to clarify on a point that antrobus made earlier today, the information we hold is not necessarily definitive on whether a property is held as joint tenants or tenants in common. Lots of things can happen to 'sever' a joint tenancy that we won't necessarily hear about. Should stress that this doesn't affect any of the advice and information given previously, and it probably has no relevance for the original question, but thought I should mention that the register is not necessarily definitive on this.

Thanks for the clarification. Are you able to say what could 'sever' a JT please?

J20BABY

Thanks everyone. I must say I am not interested in making any profit. Foolish perhaps but true. I would happily offload it to the first buyer as it is if it would cover the Mortgage and costs. The Mortgage company have received the death certificate so will write to me to let me know what will happen next.
Bankruptcy is an option but as the Mortgage is the only thing I have ever had credit for it would be a sad step for me to take.

Keep_pedalling

J20BABY wrote: »

Thanks everyone. I must say I am not interested in making any profit. Foolish perhaps but true. I would happily offload it to the first buyer as it is if it would cover the Mortgage and costs. The Mortgage company have received the death certificate so will write to me to let me know what will happen next.
Bankruptcy is an option but as the Mortgage is the only thing I have ever had credit for it would be a sad step for me to take.

Peace of mind has a greater value than a bit of profit. I wish you well in getting a speedy closure on this.

Mojisola

J20BABY wrote: »

Thanks for the clarification. Are you able to say what could 'sever' a JT please?

One of the joint owners has to serve a 'severance of joint tenancy' on the other. This could happen without a copy being sent to the LR.

dancingfairy

It's a horrid situation to be in. I imagine your emotions are all over the place right now.
Do keep in mind the option of counselling/ help from someone like womens aid now and in the future. The mind works in odd ways and you may be fine now and find things difficult later on (or vice versa), for yourself but also for your daughter.
Wishing you all the best.
df

Land_Registry

J20BABY wrote: »

Thanks for the clarification. Are you able to say what could 'sever' a JT please?

Severance by way of a notice will usually end in an application also being made to register a form A restriction on the title.
If one of joint proprietors is declared bankrupt then this too can sever the joint tenancy
Other ways include joint owners entering into a trust deed or legal document covering their joint ownership but they may not register the form A restriction to protect those details.

The Introduction to our Practice Guide 24 may be of interest in explaining more around private trusts and why such details may not appear on the registered title simply because they do not need to in order to take effect.

J20BABY

Land_Registry_representative wrote: »

Severance by way of a notice will usually end in an application also being made to register a form A restriction on the title.
If one of joint proprietors is declared bankrupt then this too can sever the joint tenancy
Other ways include joint owners entering into a trust deed or legal document covering their joint ownership but they may not register the form A restriction to protect those details.

The Introduction to our Practice Guide 24 may be of interest in explaining more around private trusts and why such details may not appear on the registered title simply because they do not need to in order to take effect.

Thanks for that, as far as I know, none of that has happened.

dancingfairy wrote: »

It's a horrid situation to be in. I imagine your emotions are all over the place right now.
Do keep in mind the option of counselling/ help from someone like womens aid now and in the future. The mind works in odd ways and you may be fine now and find things difficult later on (or vice versa), for yourself but also for your daughter.
Wishing you all the best.
df

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

Peace of mind has a greater value than a bit of profit. I wish you well in getting a speedy closure on this.

Thank you so much. My daughter has not been too great and has finally got some external support in place. The funeral is tomorrow so hopefully once she is through that she can start to look forward.

J20BABY

Update on this in case anyone is interested. The house has been put in my name and the lodger has said he will move out when I ask. I'm not getting any rent but I understand that he is paying the exes parents. They've told him they're keeping it to pay for the funeral costs.

Additionally I had the house 'valued' by a property developer, he offered me 10k less than the mortgage redemption cost. I am pretty much screwed.