Changing house deeds to children

nicnak66

mum wants to change house deeds to my sister and i. She is 85. We live in scotland - can this be done considering her age now. She said she should have done it years ago. Any help much appreciated. 

mr_stripey

not an expert, but I think the answer is Yes, you can BUT if this is for the purposes of trying to avoid care home fees then it won't work. 

Savvy_Sue

As above, yes but why would she want to? What's she hoping to achieve? Is she in good health? And what position are you and your sister in, home owners or not? Married / in legal partnerships or not? With or without children? It could be a really expensive 'gift' to you.

nicnak66

Think its mainly to do with solicitors extravagant fees when she is gone. She doesnt want it to take over a year etc
to sort stuff out. We know re care home fees. I dont own property. Will jeed to make an appointment with solicitor. 

Savvy_Sue

If her will is uncomplicated, then it need not take over a year to sort stuff out, and although Confirmation is more difficult in Scotland than obtaining probate in England, plenty of people have done it with either minimal or no solicitor involvement. There's at least one very helpful thread here already. 

You don't own property - but do you intend to buy, ever? If you do, you will lose all entitlement to First Time Buyer 'bonuses' (for want of a better word). If this is a second property for your sister, then there will be additional stamp duty to pay. If it is not the primary residence for either of you, then that one (or both) will be liable to pay Capital Gains Tax when it is sold. 

And if either of you needs to claim means tested benefits or divorces, then your mother's house will be counted as part of your assets, and might have to be sold in certain cases. Such situations may seem unlikely right now but it happens. 

Keep_pedalling

It would be an exceedingly dumb thing to do. Confirmation is a fairly straight forward thing for a simple estate, and this will be considered deliberate deprivation of assets if she ever dies need residential care.

Her security will be at risk if either you or your sibling got into financial trouble, got divorces or died before she does.

[Deleted User]

We've just done probate after my dad died it only took 3 months and cost less than we thought.

Yellowvest23

Keep_pedalling said:

It would be an exceedingly dumb thing to do. Confirmation is a fairly straight forward thing for a simple estate, and this will be considered deliberate deprivation of assets if she ever dies need residential care.

Her security will be at risk if either you or your sibling got into financial trouble, got divorces or died before she does.

It would not be considered deliberate deprivation of assets if she is not in need of residential care at the time of transfer.

McKneff

Yellowvest23 said:

Keep_pedalling said:

It would be an exceedingly dumb thing to do. Confirmation is a fairly straight forward thing for a simple estate, and this will be considered deliberate deprivation of assets if she ever dies need residential care.

Her security will be at risk if either you or your sibling got into financial trouble, got divorces or died before she does.

It would not be considered deliberate deprivation of assets if she is not in need of residential care at the time of transfer.

Oh it certainly does. The DWP can and do dig back years

Keep_pedalling

Yellowvest23 said:

Keep_pedalling said:

It would be an exceedingly dumb thing to do. Confirmation is a fairly straight forward thing for a simple estate, and this will be considered deliberate deprivation of assets if she ever dies need residential care.

Her security will be at risk if either you or your sibling got into financial trouble, got divorces or died before she does.

It would not be considered deliberate deprivation of assets if she is not in need of residential care at the time of transfer.

That might be true with certain gifts. If for instance I gave some of my savings away to help my children to get on the property ladder then that is unlikely to be considered DDOA in latter years as 
my motivation had nothing to do with avoiding care costs. There is however no other reason to give home away other than to avoid care costs. 

TELLIT01

If somebody of 85 made over their property to their children and then needed to go into care it's almost certain the council would pursue the "Deprivation of Capital" route.  A friend's mother had put her property into a trust many years ago.  That didn't stop the council changing the locks on the house and refusing to allow her daughter entry for a couple of years while they fought, and lost, to overturn the trust.  That one did end up costing the council a lot of money as they had to pay all legal costs for both sides.