Buying a house with inlaws

bobbidodar

Hi,
We are considering buying a house together with our in-laws. So that will be me, my wife and kids, and my wife's parents.

That will mean selling both our separate houses and buying one house together.
So Questions:
1. Who owns the new house? Can you have more than 2 people owning? i.e Me, my wife and her parents have an equal share?
2. is it completely flexible how much each of us puts into the house, and does that have to be specified as a percentage ownership? For example if we put in £200K and they put in £300K, does it have to be a 2/3s share?
3. Also we will still have a mortgage, whereas my wife's parents have paid off their house.  Is there a problem with joint ownership while we are still paying a mortgage?
4. What happens in the future if one or both my wife's parents need to go in a care home?  I know if a single person has to go in care or a couple, they will have to sell their house to pay for the care costs, but I assume that if that happens we will not have to sell the house the rest of the family are living in to release their share to cover nursing home costs?  This is my biggest concern if I'm been honest.

Obviously we will get professional advice as and when appropriate, but we were just initially discussing the idea and wondered about the ramifications of this.

If there are any legal experts on here or anyone that has done anything similar I would love to hear your thoughts

Thanks
Steve

diego_94

Can I ask what the motivation is for doing this so we can understand? Is it to care for them in the long run?

davidmcn

All owners need to sign the charge over a property in order for it to be mortgaged. And generally, lenders expect the borrowers and the owners to be one and the same. So the main problem will be finding a lender who is willing to accept the in-laws as joint borrowers (and therefore potentially liable to repay the loan by themselves if you and your OH disappear), or who accept the complications from having the in-laws effectively guaranteeing your mortgage by giving up their half of the house as security.

greatcrested

I believe (someone correct me?) you can have up to 4 names registered as owners at the Land Registry but notmore.

However a Deed could be Executed listing the Beneficial Owners, and the shares each owned.

You need to think carefully of all future possible scenarios - however unpleasant or unlikely - and agree what would happen if

* parents in law needed care or residential care

* Your job moved and you wanted to sell and buy elsewhere

* you got divorced

* you lost your job and couldn't pay the mortgage

etc etc

onwards&upwards

Why on earth do you want to do that?

Unicorn_cottage

Surely lots of Asian families do this or is it purely done on trust?

bobbidodar

Thanks for the comments everyone.

The 2 main motivators are to be able to support my wife's parents in their old age. We both have ok houses but not big enough to live together. The inlaws have obviously paid off their house and there is a fair amount of equity in ours, so together we could afford a really big house which would hopefully be our forever house. 

obviously you can't predict the future, but we are in pretty secure a jobs and pretty secure long time relationship.

i was probably most worried what would happen if one or both parents need nursing home care? Would that threaten our family home?

davidmcn

bobbidodar said:

i was probably most worried what would happen if one or both parents need nursing home care? Would that threaten our family home?

Depends how you expect it to be paid for.

bobbidodar

davidmcn said:

bobbidodar said:

i was probably most worried what would happen if one or both parents need nursing home care? Would that threaten our family home?

Depends how you expect it to be paid for.

Well I believe if a single person or couple, with assets (in this case a house) requires nursing care then they have to sell the house to fund the care.  But if one spouse requires nursing care but the other spouse is still living in the house then the council funds the care and the spouse can continue living in the house.

in my scenario both inlaws and my family will be living in the house, so if one or both parents require nursing care in the future, will the funding of that force my family to have to sell up and move out?

its complicated I know

AdrianC

bobbidodar said:

1. Who owns the new house? Can you have more than 2 people owning? i.e Me, my wife and her parents have an equal share?

Maximum four names, IIRC

2. is it completely flexible how much each of us puts into the house, and does that have to be specified as a percentage ownership? For example if we put in £200K and they put in £300K, does it have to be a 2/3s share?

Joint tenants, with any ownership shares you wish specified.
https://www.gov.uk/joint-property-ownership

3. Also we will still have a mortgage, whereas my wife's parents have paid off their house.  Is there a problem with joint ownership while we are still paying a mortgage?

Lenders don't like only lending to a subset of owners - it makes their life very hard if they need to repossess.

4. What happens in the future if one or both my wife's parents need to go in a care home?  I know if a single person has to go in care or a couple, they will have to sell their house to pay for the care costs, but I assume that if that happens we will not have to sell the house the rest of the family are living in to release their share to cover nursing home costs?  This is my biggest concern if I'm been honest.

They will need to pay for their care. If the house needs to be sold to release their capital, it needs to be sold.

However... as a rule of thumb, if one of the couple still lives in it, it's disregarded.
https://www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-ni/documents/factsheets/fs39_paying_for_care_in_a_care_home_if_you_have_a_partner_fcs.pdf

 Honestly, my biggest question mark would be over whether you actually want to live with your in-laws for the foreseeable future...

bobbidodar

 Honestly, my biggest question mark would be over whether you actually want to live with your in-laws for the foreseeable future...

Lol, i wouldn't live with my parents, but my wife and inlaws really are the nicest of people.

4. What happens in the future if one or both my wife's parents need to go in a care home?  I know if a single person has to go in care or a couple, they will have to sell their house to pay for the care costs, but I assume that if that happens we will not have to sell the house the rest of the family are living in to release their share to cover nursing home costs?  This is my biggest concern if I'm been honest.

They will need to pay for their care. If the house needs to be sold to release their capital, it needs to be sold.

However... as a rule of thumb, if one of the couple still lives in it, it's disregarded.
Ageuk/documents/factsheets/fs39_paying_for_care_in_a_care_home_if_you_have_a_partner_fcs.pdf 

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Yeah that's what I was afraid of.
i could see the bit about if one spouse needs care and one is still living in the house, but couldn't see anything about other family living in the house with a share of that house.
The last thing I want to happen is that I have to lose my family home.