Declaration of trust advice

getmore4less

When you said small debts I was thinking you really meant small not 1/2 the house value.
(that throws out some alternative ideas)

But there is the obvious one which may not be feasable due to finances.

If the transfer had not happened you would have been entitled to 1/2 the net estate.

So asuming the mortgage was exclusivly to cover the debts the estate would have had then for the SIL to buy out the debts and the share left to hubby she would have needed around a 75% mortgage or the house would have been sold.


A remortgage to release the equity due would restore the situation.

That should be the starting point then look at alternatives.

Fred.Hedgehog

Sorry for delay and thanks for help so far

Also I haven't sussed multi quotes yet, so bear with me

I said small mortgage, not small debts, and it is small in comparison to house value (290k / 140k mortgage)

My father in law is dead.

The mortgage was taken out over a year ago (when MiL was well) and I'm not sure what debts the SiLs mortgage paid for.. Selection of debts from both SiL and MiL, although I've not pushed as this is the part we are not debating and are only pursuing what's left of the house / equity now. SiL told us that MiL was in danger of losing house which is why this all happened. SiL (and young son) lived with MiL in house for years and she wants to move once son has left education. There was no mortgage on the property previously AFAIK.

She won't be able to get a further mortgage to buy us out now.

We don't want to be in a position of before the transfer happened from a financial perspective, we accept that this was a choice between SiL and MiL in life, we just want what would be half here and now as per the will if that makes sense.

We are happy to wait the few years to help accommodate SiL as she is doing the right thing by my husband by agreeing to sell / split.

getmore4less

If you are happy to pay the SIL debts(if any) from your share of what would have come to you.

You only have SIL word that it was not her with the big debt problem.

Was husbands relationship with his mother so bad she could not confide in him.

As this happened a year ago the actual level of gift needs to be declared on the IHT forms so you need to know what the net gift was after MIL debt.

Fred.Hedgehog

getmore4less wrote: »

If you are happy to pay the SIL debts(if any) from your share of what would have come to you.

You only have SIL word that it was not her with the big debt problem.

Was husbands relationship with his mother so bad she could not confide in him.

As this happened a year ago the actual level of gift needs to be declared on the IHT forms so you need to know what the net gift was after MIL debt.

Are you saying we could contest everything?! Even though they did it willingly together in sound mind etc. etc. I'm just assuming he has a tiny / moral right to what would be the estate if she hadn't have signed house to SiL solely.

And no, he had a good relationship, or so he thought! That's the awful awful thing about this, it's knocked him for six, and the fact that SiL blurted it out within a few hours of them being at her bedside when she passed shows it was a big deal that she needed to offload.

getmore4less

What I am saying is you have no idea what happened just what you have been told.

Were there any previous signs of living beyond their means to build up £140k of debt detween them, or a bit of affluence in the last year.

What if the real deal was she gifts the house, SIL mortgages enough to pay hubby his share?

TBagpuss

Fred.Hedgehog wrote: »

Are you saying we could contest everything?! Even though they did it willingly together in sound mind etc. etc. I'm just assuming he has a tiny / moral right to what would be the estate if she hadn't have signed house to SiL solely.

Your MIL was under no obligation to treat her children equally. She was perfectly free to transfer the house to your SIL and to leave your husband nothing, and while she may not have intended that, it sounds as though in practice, that's exactly what she has done.

In order to challenge it, you would have to be able to prove that you MIL was misled or defrauded. Even if you could show that the loan was to pay off your SIL debt, not your MILs debt, that would not in itself give you grounds to challenge the transfer of the property - it would have been open to your MIl, after all, to decide to give the house to your SIL, or to pay off her debt for her.

I think trying to challenge the transfer would result in opening an enourmous can of worms