Added son to house title.

MovingForwards

Even up here they are cheap to do via a solicitor, but can also be personally done:

https://www.publicguardian-scotland.gov.uk/power-of-attorney/faqs#draft

GP would probably charge a fee, but small price to pay.

Keep_pedalling

AdrianC wrote: »

Furry muff - I'd forgotten that. But I think in Scotland it's slightly cheaper.
You need a doc to sign off capacity for an LPA in England/Wales, too.

You do not need a doctor to sign off an LPA, the certificate provider can be a professional or someone who has known you personally for some time.

My mother’s CP was a neighbour who just happened to be a medical doctor, our CP is our IFA.

FTBAngst

https://www.gov.uk/tax-sell-home/absence-from-home

Is the son exempt from GCT for this reason?
‘You get relief if you were away from it for:

any reason for periods adding up to 3 years
up to 4 years if you had to live away from home in the UK for work
any period if you were working outside the UK
You must have lived in the home before and afterwards, unless your work prevented you.’

I think lots of people here, myself included, are not understanding how adding your son would help. What was your thinking behind that?

Ownerofawreck

Keep pedalling - My only experience of an LPA was when my mother visited her solicitor (in England) and mentioned her health problems, solicitor advised that although her GP does speak to me, it might be better to have an LPA for the future, he dealt with it at my mothers request and along with the initial appointment cost iro £700 I already hold the older POA for finance. I think I shall get one done to enable my son to step in but, until this blew up all I cared about was making sure my son got the house in what appeared to be the easiest way possible.

MovingForwards - It seemed easier at the time to make him joint tenant as I have nothing else and it would guarantee he gets the house. Thought it would save on making a will and had not even thought of an LPA for me at all. Definitely going to once this is all dealt with.:money:

xylophone - Joint tenants so no matter what he gets the house.
The 1st house bought in England and the current in Scotland. FTB is gone and he is aware but not concerned as cannot change that.
As for adding him to the deeds, it just seemed so simple having heard a colleague had done the same.
Will read the article link you sent in a few minutes.

davidmcn - As I have confirmable neurological problems following the 2nd stroke I should have no problems there. If any, I would show them the mess I have made of this to confirm poor mental ability!

csgohan4 - I know and am hopefully getting good advice next week from a financial advisor and get this all sorted out or, I might just bite the bullet and find the nearest tax office and just ask them.

Thank you all for your comments.

MovingForwards

£700 is expensive in England if it was just for one!

My old firm used to charge £300 + registration fee, but not everyone registered it at the time and would wait. They would have a package of will and LPA think that was £450 + the registration fee.

The firm down the road used to charge £1k.

In Scotland the firm I was at also charged around the same as my old English firm.

Wills were £190 for a basic everything to X, or Y if X predeceased.

None of the firm's I have ever worked in suggested putting a child on the deeds and if a client ever came in with that request would be quickly set right as to why not to! Those with large estates would be given the details of an independent financial adviser.

Even without a will, up here your estate would have gone to your son, assuming you have no husband / other children.

Hopefully you can now get everything unraveled, but don't ring the tax office about it until you know exactly what needs to be done as all you will do is put yourself on their radar and potentially have them dig deeper when you do resolve this.

Ownerofawreck

FTBAngst wrote: »

https://www.gov.uk/tax-sell-home/absence-from-home

Is the son exempt from GCT for this reason?
‘You get relief if you were away from it for:

any reason for periods adding up to 3 years
up to 4 years if you had to live away from home in the UK for work
any period if you were working outside the UK
You must have lived in the home before and afterwards, unless your work prevented you.’

I think lots of people here, myself included, are not understanding how adding your son would help. What was your thinking behind that?

That may help and have added it to my list of questions to ask the advisor. My thinking was pretty simple. My son gave me some of an inheritence so that I could buy the house. I offered to pay him back in time but he wouldn't accept so, I mentioned this to a colleague who had added her son to her deeds. I thought it was a good idea and would make life easier for my son when the time came. The conveyancing solicitor talked about people who had been ripped off by their offspring but no other concerns so I went ahead. Son cannot borrow against the house unless I agree and vice versa. I just wanted to make sure he got his money back and
hopefully a bit more to show for the years I have worked.
When his father passed away I had to sell our home and rent privately moving far too many times, and it was hard on a young boy. At 15 years of age he took over everything temporarily when I had a stroke even looking after his grandmother for me. My son has no one else to step in and help him so I wanted to try and make life a bit easier for him. When my previous house came along at a price I could almost afford, he was at uni and offered to help. with his help it was easier to buy the house and I had hoped make him some money for his future as well. I never thought it could turn into such a nightmare but I'll get advice, find out all of the details and then scare the living daylights out of him.
Thank you for your comment.

AdrianC

Ownerofawreck wrote: »

My thinking was pretty simple. My son gave me some of an inheritence so that I could buy the house. I offered to pay him back in time but he wouldn't accept so,

A better solution would have been for him to have a charge against the property - protecting his investment, in the event of the property needing to be sold. If you had a mortgage, it'd have needed to be a second charge, and the lender would have needed to be consulted - but if you had a mortgage, there'd have been issues signing part of it over anyway.

Ownerofawreck

MovingForwards wrote: »

£700 is expensive in England if it was just for one!

My old firm used to charge £300 + registration fee, but not everyone registered it at the time and would wait. They would have a package of will and LPA think that was £450 + the registration fee.

The firm down the road used to charge £1k.

In Scotland the firm I was at also charged around the same as my old English firm.

Wills were £190 for a basic everything to X, or Y if X predeceased.

None of the firm's I have ever worked in suggested putting a child on the deeds and if a client ever came in with that request would be quickly set right as to why not to! Those with large estates would be given the details of an independent financial adviser.

Even without a will, up here your estate would have gone to your son, assuming you have no husband / other children.

Hopefully you can now get everything unraveled, but don't ring the tax office about it until you know exactly what needs to be done as all you will do is put yourself on their radar and potentially have them dig deeper when you do resolve this.

The solicitors are one of the more expensive but mother has used them for many years and trusts them.
My son was 19 at the time of purchase. I think you are right about the taxman, that thought came to mind when I re-read what I had posted.
Have to say though, I am so impressed at the way things are done in Scotland so far. The house buying was a breeze, medical stuff easy due to helpful staff, great place. Thank you.

Ownerofawreck

AdrianC wrote: »

A better solution would have been for him to have a charge against the property - protecting his investment, in the event of the property needing to be sold. If you had a mortgage, it'd have needed to be a second charge, and the lender would have needed to be consulted - but if you had a mortgage, there'd have been issues signing part of it over anyway.

On reflection I think you are right, it would have been better and saved a lot of angst. Thank you.

SDLT_Geek

xylophone wrote: »

Is it the case that a few years back, the son was living at home with the OP and went off to university - the lad came into an inheritance and gave the money to the OP so that she could buy a property (in Scotland?) and that property was registered as joint tenants?

Could it not legitimately be claimed that he had provided the money for his share and that this property was his main residence although he was living in halls?

When this property was sold, the new property was also registered in joint names but the son was by now working and living a couple of hundred miles away so that neither the new or the old property were his main residence?

The capital gains tax position of OP's son on the sale of the previous family home might not be so poor if, during the time the son was at university, the family home (of which he was a joint owner) counted as his main residence.

The voter registration case of Ricketts v Registration Officer for the City of Cambridge in 1970 said that a Cambridge University student was "resident" in the city on the key date (10 October) for the purposes of voter registration and extracts from Lord Denning's judgement in this case about what is a person's main residence are quoted in the HMRC capital gains tax manual at CG64455.

The Scottish Taxpayer Technical Guidance by HMRC (for the purposes of the Scottish rate of income tax) at STTG4400 https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/scottish-taxpayer-technical-guidance/sttg4400 has some examples of where students are "resident". The examples involving Solomon and Rebecca are for university students. Solomon returns to the family home in vacations and his main place of residence is the family home. Rebecca stays at the house she shares with friends in the university town working over the vacations and her main residence is that shared house.

So if OP's son kept the family home as his main base, with many of his belongings there and returning there for vacations, perhaps a reasonable case can be made that this was his main residence over the period. Perhaps the position would be even stronger if, whilst at university, he was in different accommodation each year.