Joint Tenants or Tenants in common?

Lulu0110

My husband and I are buying our umpteenth house but with the contract this time is a form asking whether we wish to be joint tenants or tenants in common. We have been married 23 years and have 2 children. Our wills state the other to get all, then to the kids then to our siblings if we all predecease. I seem to have read something about care fees not being able to include your house if you are tenants in common. If we choose tenants in common would we have to change our current will or set up a trust?

00ec25

if you are joint tenants you CANNOT leave a "share" of the property to anyone at all.
By definition JT means each person owns 100% of the property and therefore on the death of an owner the remaining owner carries on as 100% owner. The will does not, and cannot, alter that legal position

Only if you are TIC can you leave a specified share to a person named in a will

I very much hope you have misunderstood what was done in the past as this is about the most basic thing you do for property ownership.
Read:
https://www.gov.uk/joint-property-ownership

Lulu0110

Thank you. In the past we have always been JT it is only this purchase we have had to fill out this form to choose. I wondered if TIC had any benefits to us.

xylophone

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/care/paying-for-care/paying-for-a-care-home/do-i-have-to-sell-my-home-to-pay-for-care/


https://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/aug/28/tenancy-common-care-home-fee-solution

If you own your home as TiC, you each own a specific interest in the property which you can bequeath to eg your children.

Let's suppose Mr X dies and leaves his share to his children - Mrs X later has to go into care - only her share can be taken into account in the assessment.

If Mr X had been a joint tenant, his widow would have owned the whole of the property so that the whole value would have been taken into account in the means test.

fernando_andre

Hi, back in 2015 me and my partner done a mortgage and bought a house together, she has a daughter (which she is 20 years old now) of which I’m not the father! We weren’t married back in 2015, but we got married in 2017 (registar office). In the case of one of us die (me or my partner) , who will own 100% of the house? Or do we have to make a will to make sure that if i die she will own 100% of the house or the other way round? We bought the house as joint tenants.Thank you

Keep_pedalling

If the only reason to chose TIC is to avoid care home fees then I would argue that it provides you with no benefits whatsoever. Yes it would protect half the house if a surviving spouse later needed care, but that could be at a cost of lack of choice in care provision.

Your children might benefit financially in the long run, but you will not.

Keep_pedalling

fernando_andre wrote: »

Hi, back in 2015 me and my partner done a mortgage and bought a house together, she has a daughter (which she is 20 years old now) of which I’m not the father! We weren’t married back in 2015, but we got married in 2017 (registar office). In the case of one of us die (me or my partner) , who will own 100% of the house? Or do we have to make a will to make sure that if i die she will own 100% of the house or the other way round? We bought the house as joint tenants.Thank you

Thiis is where onwning property as TIC along with property drawn up wills in place is essential. You should get this sorted ASAP, phone and make an appointment with a local solisitor today.

-taff

If you are joint tenants and married the house will pass in it's entirety to the other joint tenant if one of you dies..

SmashedAvacado

how much is the house worth?
Are you likely together to have over £1m in assets
The issue with JT's for the very wealthy is that one person ends up owning the house on the death of the other and when they die, they have a large estate that incurs tax liability
that's why some people who have valuable houses go for TIC providing for a life interest in the property to go to the partner and then the property to go to the children on death of the other (to enable the use of the other's tax allowance). If you have moderate wealth then JTs is likely to be fine for you - but if you are rich, then get advice on how to properly structure your holding

getmore4less

SmashedAvacado wrote: »

how much is the house worth?
Are you likely together to have over £1m in assets
The issue with JT's for the very wealthy is that one person ends up owning the house on the death of the other and when they die, they have a large estate that incurs tax liability
that's why some people who have valuable houses go for TIC providing for a life interest in the property to go to the partner and then the property to go to the children on death of the other (to enable the use of the other's tax allowance). If you have moderate wealth then JTs is likely to be fine for you - but if you are rich, then get advice on how to properly structure your holding

They are equivalent for IHT.
The beneficial interest of the trust property stays with the life tenant.

fernando_andre

The house been bought as joint tenants