Transfer of ownership of our house.

producer

I don't know if this has been asked before, but here goes. My partner and I have joint ownership of our house, where we both live with our nearly grown-up children. we are not married or in any formal civil partnership - although a long standing relationship.

I am of an age where I could fall ill and die unexpectedly. I am considering tranfering my 50% ownership of our property to my younger partner. This is to save any problems with wills etc. If I were to pop off - then I would like to save her the troubles of paperwork (at a time when she is probably knocking back the champaign! :rotfl:)

The property is 100% owned by us - no mortgage or any charges on the house

What are implications for tax for my partner should I proceed. We have no savings, shares, ISAs etc The property is our only asset and would continue to be our shared home. In the 15 years we have owned the property it's value has not risen or fallen.

I would welcome any advice.

Mojisola

If you are "joint tenants" then you both own all the house.

When one owner dies, the other automatically becomes the sole owner. The paperwork to change the ownership is very simple.

esmy

I am in a similar situation to you (longterm cohabiting relationship, adult children) and would urge you both to make wills. As your house is jointly owned ownership on the death of a partner isn't an issue but any other assets may be. If your children were born before 2003 it is possible that you do/did not have parental responsibility for them so without a will they would have no right to inherit from you without a will and neither would your partner.

gettingtheresometime

But if you transferred your 50% then what's to stop her kicking you out?

Or remortgaging it, putting it on all red and then defaulting?

Barmy idea in my opinion

McKneff

'for goodness sake, stop panicing.......

one step at a time.....

producer

If I thought that would be a possibility, we wouldn't be together.

If things went sour, there's not enough equity in the property for us to split it down the middle and to do anything meaningful with it in terms of new homes. I would just leave and donate my 50% to the family home where our children grew up.

getmore4less

How much is the house worth?
What are your total assets?

Depending on the numbers there may be better options.
There are potential IHT issues as not married you can't make use of the transferable nil rate band

A will would be the simple solution to get to where you need to be without changing things today.

If you transfer the house and then she dies, what happens then?

pollypenny

Just make wills - simples!

Kynthia

If you are joint tenants then you both own tge whole property, not half each. That means when one of you does the other automatically gets tge whole property in their name. Get advice if you try and do anything else as you may actually make things worse. Giving away your ownership of the property pits you at risk should anything happen to your partner, they kick you out or get into debt. You may get caught out with deprivation of assets or IHT should you die within 7 years and your estate exceed the allowance.

PoorCharleyBear

simpler still- get married!

Pop_Up_Pirate

Just get married.
Makes everything much simpler.