Removing dead spouse name on deed and adding beneficiaries

cherry76

Couple own house as tenants in common. On the death of first spouse does the surviving spouse need to update the registry or can the two beneficiaries wait till the surviving spouse pass and then update? Share of dead spouse goes to two beneficiaries in equal parts. I have been looking in the Land Registry website and it seems that form IDI need to be filled. It can be a hassle if you need to get solicitor to certify and also will be difficult to get the two beneficiaries together for identification as they live far from each other and surviving spouse is elderly. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

Yorkshireman99

cherry76 wrote: »

Couple own house as tenants in common. On the death of first spouse does the surviving spouse need to update the registry or can the two beneficiaries wait till the surviving spouse pass and then update? Share of dead spouse goes to two beneficiaries in equal parts. I have been looking in the Land Registry website and it seems that form IDI need to be filled. It can be a hassle if you need to get solicitor to certify and also will be difficult to get the two beneficiaries together for identification as they live far from each other and surviving spouse is elderly. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

It should be updated ASAP. Until the survivor dies they can choose to leave the property to anyone else.

poppystar

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

It should be updated ASAP. Until the survivor dies they can choose to leave the property to anyone else.

They can surely only choose to leave their half to someone else? And they can still do that even after the dead spouse's name is removed and replaced by beneficiaries.

They can't sell without the agreement of the beneficiaries as the property was held as tenants in common so the trail would be dead spouse > will > beneficiaries to get other party agreement to sell.

Not sure it is particularly urgent on that basis. Or am i missing something?

Yorkshireman99

poppystar wrote: »

They can surely only choose to leave their half to someone else? And they can still do that even after the dead spouse's name is removed and replaced by beneficiaries.

They can't sell without the agreement of the beneficiaries as the property was held as tenants in common so the trail would be dead spouse > will > beneficiaries to get other party agreement to sell.

Not sure it is particularly urgent on that basis. Or am i missing something?

I probably am! I wrongly assumed that the deceased had left their half to their spouse. Reading it again it seems there is a three way split. IMHO it would still be best if the LR entry was amended to correctly reflect the ownership. The other thing is that all three parties need to arrange for the insurance to be in their joint names and who is responsible for maintenance.

FreeBear

cherry76 wrote: »

I have been looking in the Land Registry website and it seems that form IDI need to be filled. It can be a hassle if you need to get solicitor to certify and also will be difficult to get the two beneficiaries together for identification as they live far from each other and surviving spouse is elderly. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

If probate has been granted, the Land Registry will accept the letter of representation as proof of identity and the executor does not need to jump through hoops to complete an ID1. If you need further advice, the LR help line is pretty good as to which forms are needed and how to fill them in, but they can not offer legal advice.

Land_Registry

it's not so much question of need but more a question of how best to deal with any changes to the legal and beneficial ownership. I'd recommend both the surviving owner and beneficiaries get legal/financial advice and consider the options.

If it's decided that the property should be transferred into joint names then it's the surviving owner who would transfer it. They are in effect the legal owner now. Forms AP1, TR1 and ID1 are needed along with an official copy of the death certificate

As it's a TR1 then all parties would need their IDs verified. If it were an Assent, AS1, then we would not need the executor's ID verified as probate achieves this

The TIC aspect relates to the beneficial ownership. If that has been protected on the register with a form A restriction then this restricts the surviving owner when it comes to say selling. They don't, as suggested, necessarily need the agreement of the beneficiaries to sell but they will need to consider them re any division of the sale monies re the TIC split.

In effect the surviving owner could appoint someone else, anyone, to act with them on the sale. But cooperation/agreement with all affected parties is the best option naturally.

You don't have to use a solicitor but they are familiar with the forms, process and can assist with ID and providing the advice mentioned

getmore4less

If the survivor gets life interest then the beneficiary interest only transfers on second death and you typically make the trustees the legal owners.

cherry76

Land_Registry wrote: »

it's not so much question of need but more a question of how best to deal with any changes to the legal and beneficial ownership. I'd recommend both the surviving owner and beneficiaries get legal/financial advice and consider the options.

If it's decided that the property should be transferred into joint names then it's the surviving owner who would transfer it. They are in effect the legal owner now. Forms AP1, TR1 and ID1 are needed along with an official copy of the death certificate

As it's a TR1 then all parties would need their IDs verified. If it were an Assent, AS1, then we would not need the executor's ID verified as probate achieves this

The TIC aspect relates to the beneficial ownership. If that has been protected on the register with a form A restriction then this restricts the surviving owner when it comes to say selling. They don't, as suggested, necessarily need the agreement of the beneficiaries to sell but they will need to consider them re any division of the sale monies re the TIC split.

In effect the surviving owner could appoint someone else, anyone, to act with them on the sale. But cooperation/agreement with all affected parties is the best option naturally.

You don't have to use a solicitor but they are familiar with the forms, process and can assist with ID and providing the advice mentioned

The forms could be filled by surviving spouse but providing id will be quite a hassle to get all three together for identification. The only option is to use a solicitor which will be costly. Can the registry be left unchanged with dead spouse name still on the deed or does it have to be update as soon as possible? On death of second spouse the trust ends and the property goes to the two beneficiaries in equal shares as tenants in common. Thanks for your advice.

cherry76

getmore4less wrote: »

If the survivor gets life interest then the beneficiary interest only transfers on second death and you typically make the trustees the legal owners.

Yes that's right.

cherry76

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

I probably am! I wrongly assumed that the deceased had left their half to their spouse. Reading it again it seems there is a three way split. IMHO it would still be best if the LR entry was amended to correctly reflect the ownership. The other thing is that all three parties need to arrange for the insurance to be in their joint names and who is responsible for maintenance.

The deceased left his half share of property in trust to two beneficiaries with life interest for the surviving spouse. On the death of surviving spouse the beneficiaries become the legal owner of the property and the trust end. They have set an immediate life interest trusts in their will. It is the responsibility of the surviving spouse to pay insurance,maintenance as documented in the will. Hope this clarifies the query. I did not make it clear that the trustees will be the beneficiary on death of both spouses. Hope I have not caused more confusion.

Brighty

cherry76 wrote: »

The forms could be filled by surviving spouse but providing id will be quite a hassle to get all three together for identification. The only option is to use a solicitor which will be costly. Can the registry be left unchanged with dead spouse name still on the deed or does it have to be update as soon as possible? On death of second spouse the trust ends and the property goes to the two beneficiaries in equal shares as tenants in common. Thanks for your advice.

You don't need to get everyone together to confirm ID. Each of the beneficiaries fill in their own ID1 and get it confirmed by a solicitor local to them. They can then post them to the Widow and she can send it all off to land registry