Why Can't You Gift a House?

anotheruser

I've never understood this. It's a huge amount of money, but why can't you gift someone property?

You can gift cash, jewellery, a bunch of classic cars... but why not property?



EDIT: To clarify - why do you have to pay some sort of tax on property, but nothing else? See Post 14

G_M

What gives you the idea that you can't gift a property? Of course you can.

There are potential implications of course, to both donor and recipient, in terms of tax, future care costs etc, but none of that prevents the gifting of a property.

booksurr

what???????

people gift property every day, they gift equity as a deposit, they gift entire houses to their children or those they have reason to want to help.

davidmcn

Other than them being a pain to wrap up, I'm not sure why you have the idea that you can't gift property?

G_M

davidmcn wrote: »

Other than them being a pain to wrap up, I'm not sure why you have the idea that you can't gift property?

You use the helecopter you were gifted to drop the wrapping paper over the house.

AnotherJoe

anotheruser wrote: »

I've never understood this. It's a huge amount of money, but why can't you gift someone property?

You can gift cash, jewellery, a bunch of classic cars... but why not property?

How long have you had this complete misconception for?

knightstyle

Because the Government wants the money from the house to pay for your care in old age!
You can gift a house but there are rules. Ask any politician how to circumvent these rules before you gift the house!

eddddy

As others have said, in general you can gift property.

If you've been told that a specific property cannot be gifted, it's probably due to obstacles that apply to that specific property.

For example...

• It's mortgaged
• It's held in trust
• It was recently bought under 'Right to Buy'
• It's 'Part Ownership'
• The person wanting to gift it isn't the sole owner
• There's a 'Deprivation of Assets' issue

Or perhaps the owner doesn't really want to gift it, so is making up fibs to avoid doing so.

da_rule

If none of the examples mentioned by edddy apply then of course you can gift property.

All you need to be mindful of, as has been said, is the deprivation of assets rules. You also need to consider gifts made with reservation of benefit (i.e. you either need to move out of the property or pay a market level of rent). There can also be implications in relation to inheritance tax should you die within 7 years of making the gift.

getmore4less

add potential CGT bill to the list

teddysmum

The abovementioned deprivation of assets applies not just to property , but money and anything of substantial value (eg car artwork ) that appears to have been disposed of in order to gain something like residential are or benefits that are means tested.