Tenants in Common orJoint Tenacy

leana77

Hi
My parents hold their house as tenants in common and their wills leave everything to each other. Given this is the case I think the administration of my father's estate (he is unfortunately likely to die earlier than my mother) would be simplified if they held the house as joint tenants so my mother simply inherited automatically.

Can anybody advise on how much simpler the estate administration would be and if it is worth getting the ownership transferred to a joint tenacy.

Many thanks

Yorkshireman99

There are potential pitfalls of both kinds of tenure not just with the estate administration. They should get paid for professional advice.

Newly_retired

If there are no specific inheritance reasons why they are tenants in common, I wonder if it is for other reasons during their lifetime, eg if one needs to go into a care home, will it affect fees maybe?

Mojisola

Newly_retired wrote: »

If there are no specific inheritance reasons why they are tenants in common, I wonder if it is for other reasons during their lifetime, eg if one needs to go into a care home, will it affect fees maybe?

This is the usual reason for a couple being tenants in common but it only works if the first to die leaves their share of the house to someone other than their spouse.

getmore4less

The house is only one asset.

Administration is relatively simple in most cases the house often is not the complication the other bits are.

Who is the executor?

If a family member/lay person
One advantage of going through the process is that it is good practice for the inevitable second time and a chance to gen up on IHT/CGT transferable nil rate band etc.

leana77

Thank you. The intention is for my mother to inherit everything. The solicitor has said it does not matter that the house is TIC and not joint tenants as my mother will still inherit everything under my father's will. This is correct.

However I know from my job dealing with stock portfolios that there is a whole lot more paperwork, signing things, waiting for probate, and general messing around when dealing with a stock portfolio held TIC as opposed to one that is joint tenants (a name change and that's it, done and dusted within a day of seeing the death cert).

I presume the same will hold true when dealing with a house held TIC as opposed to joint tenants but I don't know very much about dealing with real estate so I am trying to work out if it will save a lot of hassle in the long run to arrange for the house to be changed to joint tenants now, or if it not worth bothering with. It is expected that my father will die next year and I want things to be as simple as possible for my mother.

Mojisola

leana77 wrote: »

I am trying to work out if it will save a lot of hassle in the long run to arrange for the house to be changed to joint tenants now

Yes, it will be easier to get it done now.

Yorkshireman99

What your parents should really be doing is getting advice from a tax planning specialist rather than a high street solicitor. Do you have a rough idea of how much the estate value is likely to be?

leana77

The estate will be above the IHT threashold. The house itself would be all on it's own. But this doesn't matter as it is all going spouse to spouse. They are not interested in any further IHT planning as the idea is my mother will spend the estate in lieu of a pension.

74jax

Newly_retired wrote: »

If there are no specific inheritance reasons why they are tenants in common, I wonder if it is for other reasons during their lifetime, eg if one needs to go into a care home, will it affect fees maybe?

My mum and dad held their home as tenents in common from 2007 as they wanted the house to remain in the family, dad died very recently and his share is on its way to me and my brother. However mum is in a bad way and looks like on her way to a home within weeks. If it wasn't held in seperate names it would be so much easier as mum would own it all. As it stands we are in the middle of registering it in our names, for us to either then transfer all to mum's name or sell and give mum our money from our half for care.

I'd really think of the hassle in the future, had we known the extra stress so soon after dad died, we would have just left it in joint names.

EDIT - sorry I posted without reading the next post from the op, so my reply doesn't apply as it would pass to partner regardless. I've left my reply, above in, should it help anyone in my situation, not the ops.

Sorry I should have read all replies first.

Yorkshireman99

leana77 wrote: »

The estate will be above the IHT threashold. The house itself would be all on it's own. But this doesn't matter as it is all going spouse to spouse. They are not interested in any further IHT planning as the idea is my mother will spend the estate in lieu of a pension.

In which case it makes no difference as far as administration is concerned. However, there are opportunities to significantly reduce the IHT on the two estates by careful use of the rules. The advice they have had may not be correct.