House/Equity Advice

hallster11

Hello

My father-in-law passed away last year and whilst going through all his and his wifes (who is still alive) financial affairs my wife and I discovered that between 2009 and 2014 took out four separate equity release loans amounting to around £28K with roughly 6% interest on all four.  The amount owed is now around £53K and goes up by £3K every year.  When asked why they had taken it out the answer was to "protect my daughter and her husband", i.e. me and my wife.  I don't think for one second they were ill-advised but I don't think they really understood what they were signing up for. The house is worth around £200K I would estimate.  We have discussed signing the house over to my wife over the last few years but now the mother-in-law is 80 its something that we really need to push on with.  She is in decent health (I think).

So, I've just started looking in to the possibility of sorting this out but have a few questions:-
1. Is the signing over of a house to their only child easy to do and what channels do I need to go through/look at?
2. Should the mother-in-law get ill/pass away in the next few years how does that affect things with regards to any inheritance tax (the will currently leaves everything to my wife)?
3. In the event of whenever she does pass away, presumably the equity gets passed on to my wife?

Like I mentioned any advice would be brilliant.  As a side note my wife and I have no children, are in our 40s and own our house (approx value £120K) with no mortgage with decent savings.

Thanks in advance

MovingForwards

1. What's the purpose of 'signing the house over'?

2. Still potentially payable, depending on other assets of MIL.

3. Depends. Does MIL have a will?

Plenty of older people do equity release, especially if they only have state pension or SP and a small private pension. Means they have money to fund their lifestyle, or to leave it in the bank as inheritance.