deed of gift and rent

timmeroo

Hi – if I may, instead of opening a new thread, I would like to piggy-back off this one as it mirrors some of my own concerns.
My mother also made a Deed of Gift of her property 20 years ago this coming July. An old farmhouse that was bought in 1982 for £40K – has now been valued at £450K. There are other surrounding properties of barns, field and paddocks in seperate and joint ownerships. The DoG my mother made of the farm house shows us (her and me) as Beneficial Joint Tenants, with the following sub-points:
a) They are Joint Tenants in law and equity
b) Trustees for sale of the property shall have powers to deal with it equal to those of a sole beneficiary
c) The survivor of the Grantees shall become the sole legal and beneficial owner of the property and any person dealing with the survivor may assume this unless a notice to the contrary appears on this deed.
This was a document mother drew up herself, was independently witnessed and officially date stamped 3 July 1997: Inland Revenue Finance Act 1931: Worthing.

My mother estate is now rather ‘substantial’ (round figure 1.5M) and will not avoid IHT and we are looking at ways of legally reducing the load now that she is in her mid-80’s suffering dementia – especially as we took a huge hit when my father died 18 months ago (they were divorced – so no spouses relief on IHT). My brother and I have Power of Attorney and want to ‘balance the books’ so to speak and the time has clearly come to take control of matters while mother still has some semblance of cognisance. I have been aware of the DoG but not in any detail and don’t really understand the particular wording regarding Beneficiary Ownership and what that entails regarding what I need to do to ensure my holding on the property. Several questions arise, such as:
1) Will my ownership be outright when the time comes? 2) will there be CGT or IHT, or both, to pay? 3) I do have my own property, but have not always lived there and have always kept the farmhouse as my primary mailing address. These past two years I have lived with mother full time while continuing to pay Council Tax on my own unused abode and remain on the electoral register there. Should I re-register at my mothers? - If so, she will probably lose the reduced CT benefit she currently enjoys as the farmhouse CT bill is much higher than for my own timber framed effort of a dwelling. 4) Am I supposed to have charged my mother rent (or vice versa) for a share of the farmhouse, if so that has never happened? Any inputs, advice and directions will all be gratefully received.