Can my auntie transfer her house to us?

mum1964

Good afternoon.

My husbands auntie wants to transfer her property to us, but wants to continue living in the property. We are the main beneficeries of her estate.
The property is valued at £650k. At the moment her estate, with cash etc stands at £830k including the house.
We are home owners, and have no mortgage. Husbands auntie is of very sound mind, but is mid 90's so time is not on her side.
What are the financial implications of her transferi g the house to is.

Keep_pedalling

Why would she want to do such an idiotic thing?

Yorkshireman99

I can only assume that she thinks this would avoid IHT which of course it won't. Perhaps you can persuade her to take some professional advice.

Keep_pedalling

Nothing has really changed from when you asked about this back in 2015.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5367471

mum1964

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

Why would she want to do such an idiotic thing?

Because the house is left to us, in her will, it needs some tlc, we are more than willing to fund the repairs and modernisation, which would be very expensive, if we fund the repairs etc, we will be contributing to the increase in the value of the house with regards to it.

Mojisola

mum1964 wrote: »

Because the house is left to us, in her will, it needs some tlc, we are more than willing to fund the repairs and modernisation, which would be very expensive, if we fund the repairs etc, we will be contributing to the increase in the value of the house with regards to it.

Why not loan them the money to do the repairs?

You will get that money back when they die or they need to go into residential care.

Eric_the_half_a_bee

mum1964 wrote: »

Because the house is left to us, in her will, it needs some tlc, we are more than willing to fund the repairs and modernisation, which would be very expensive, if we fund the repairs etc, we will be contributing to the increase in the value of the house with regards to it.

You want to increase your IHT bill by adding value to the house before you inherit it?

Keep_pedalling

mum1964 wrote: »

Because the house is left to us, in her will, it needs some tlc, we are more than willing to fund the repairs and modernisation, which would be very expensive, if we fund the repairs etc, we will be contributing to the increase in the value of the house with regards to it.

And if she lives to 100+ you may find you have a capital gains liability you otherwise would not have had had you let things take there natural course.

No reason why you cannot fund any refurb yourselves while still owns the house unless you secretly fear she has really left it to the cats home.

From her point of view she will lose the security of owning her own home, leaving her vunarabke in the event you pre decease her or run into financial difficulty, which is why I said it would be idiotic for her to do this.

Jenniefour

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

Why would she want to do such an idiotic thing?

I too am wondering about that - as far as I can see the only possible benefits here are to the OP in being able to get on with the plans in the earlier thread, and not the aunt. If repairs are needed now to make aunt's house better for her to live in, then Mojisola has made a good suggestion. Otherwise, I would suggest you wait until aunt passes away when you are free to do what you want with the house. And enjoy being with her while she's still here.

If I were really very sceptical about this, I might say this looks like a plan to either move aunt out of the house she would no longer legally own to proceed with your plan to renovate it. Or to persuade/impose carrying out renovations which have no benefit for aunt, and she just has to put up with it because she lives there but is no longer the owner.

Keep_pedalling

Jenniefour wrote: »

I too am wondering about that - as far as I can see the only possible benefits here are to the OP in being able to get on with the plans in the earlier thread, and not the aunt. If repairs are needed now to make aunt's house better for her to live in, then Mojisola has made a good suggestion. Otherwise, I would suggest you wait until aunt passes away when you are free to do what you want with the house. And enjoy being with her while she's still here.

If I were really very sceptical about this, I might say this looks like a plan to move aunt out of the house she would no longer legally own to proceed with your plan to renovate it.

If the plan was to keep the house in good order until the OP could move in and stay in the family home long term I could understand the reasoning, but the original thread shows the motive to be purely one of profit, and as the elderly lady seems in current good health, the plan to me sounds premature and somewhat mercenary.

Mojisola

Jenniefour wrote: »

Or to persuade/impose carrying out renovations which have no benefit for aunt, and she just has to put up with it because she lives there but is no longer the owner.

According to the other thread, the renovations are so extensive that they will take five years to do - could build a house faster than that! - and then the house will be sold at, they hope, a massive profit.