Mother Passed Away. Father wants to share House

Babycakes

My mother passed away and we are in the process of getting probate.

The house was in my mother's name only and her will has requested that all assets go to my father.

Can my father gift shares of the house to each of his adult grandchildren, with one share for himself? This would be as tenants-in-common when he applies for assent?

The house is the only asset and is worth £900k. If the estate remains less than £1m then am I correct in saying that no IHT will be payable upon his death?

lisyloo

How many granchildren does he have i.e. how much share is he leaving himself.
He should leave himself enough for long term residential care, otherwise he may face claims later for deliberate deprivation or possibly end up in an awful care home away from his family.

Babycakes

He has three grandchildren. So he would have 1/4 share,so about £220k

Tom99

What is he hoping to achieve? The grandchildren will not be able to sell their share until he moves out and may well be liable to CGT when he does.
If he has to move into a residential care home at some point a £900k house will get him into a decent care home for some time.

Babycakes

To avoid the sale of the family home as two grandchildren live there and are both unable to afford to buy their own home.

Keep_pedalling

How do you think this will prevent the sale of the house if he needs residential care? As none of the joint owners are likely to be over 60 the house would still need to be sold to fund his care costs, and the gift is likely to be seen as deliberate deprivation of assets.

I would also worry about what happens if the 2 GC decide they want to stay put after he dies. These sort of things can lead to serious family rifts.

His big problem is being asset rich and cash poor, the sensible thing would be some serious downsizing, freeing up some cash to be able to live a little bit more comfortable and perhaps gift some cash to the GC to give them a helping hand on the housing ladder.

SeniorSam

It may be better to consider changing your Mothers' Will by deed of variation. In that way it is She who makes the gift.? Consult with a good solicitor

Babycakes

This isn't to stop the sale of the home if he needs care. This is to prevent my sister, his daughter, who has mental issues and cannot hold down a job from being made homeless if the house gets sold on his death to distribute assets.

My sister has a daughter who is working and lives with her and my dad and looks after them. My sister's daughter cannot afford her own home.

So this is the fairest way of ensuring that my sister isn't made homeless, and hopefully prevent the need to sell the house to pay IHT (providing my dad lives 7 years).

Question is, can he simply fill in the assent forms with the LR, to give one share to each of three grandchildren?

Mojisola

Babycakes wrote: »

Can my father gift shares of the house to each of his adult grandchildren, with one share for himself?

If he goes ahead with this, they should have lots of discussions about 'what ifs' and set down an agreement about what should happen in a range of circumstances or the good deed is likely to cause more problems than it solves.

All the other owners should make wills so that their share of the house goes where they want it to.

Babycakes

Is it possible once probate is granted to assent the property to my dad and his grandchildren, even though the will says that the house should go to my dad?

Linton

Yes the will can be changed by Deed of Variation if all beneficiaries adversely affected by the change agree. This route is often used to pass property directly to grandchildren to avoid IHT problems for the children.