Delicate will and inheritance issue.

Gers

MoneySeeker1 said:

I would agree it is indeed an issue.

The house was left  GIFTED to the 3 adult children  and not to "a partner of one of the adult children". Therefore it now rightfully belongs to the 2 brothers only imo.

In your position - I'd take the position that, as long as I wasn't left short for any expenses (taxes/etc) and was in exactly the same financial position as if there'd not been a house/etc to leave then I'd accept that and stop fighting them and have the estate re-divided just between the two of them.

I know it's not what you want to hear - but I'm with the 2 brothers on this that they are due for it to be split 50/50 between them and not go to a "stranger" because of an accident of marriage/then death of someone else.

Let me correct your typo!

The house wasn't left to the adult child, it was gifted!  Then it was willed to the now deceased adult child's partner.  It does not rightfully belong to the other two adult children. The one third share now belongs to the partner.

yksi

xylophone said:

Presumably your partner's will simply left you her whole estate - you had no idea of her part ownership of the property but this does not change the fact of her ownership - if it was indeed part of her estate and eligible to pass by will (see linked thread above), then that share now  belongs to you.

It seems to me that  while you are obliged to pay the IHT, you are not in any way obliged to return the  share of the property to the family.

THIS. I disagree with those who say that morally it belongs to either the father or the two brothers. It was given to your partner and via her passing it is now yours. That was the correct inheritance according to law. It is completely irrelevent to talk about what they intended; they did what they did and now it has ended up with you, right or wrong. They don't have either the moral or legal right to insist on its "return".

Stop communicating with them completely and direct all correspondence through your solicitor.

Consider that you could also insist they sell it now because you want your share out of it. You're being gracious in not forcing the sale and you should be entitled to rent - this is worth looking into because you are now responsible for one-third of its upkeep etc! If that property caused a problem with a neighbour's property, you would be jointly responsible for the costs, which could get VERY expensive. This, I'm afraid, is about more than "some old man wanting to decide where his gift ends up". You need to make an active decision on whether you want to remain a landlord and if you don't, you need to sell either your share or the property itself.

naedanger

stephenbalmer said:

Thank you thank you all very much for you comments and advice.

On the points raised, it was actually my partners father’s solicitor who was involved in the original transfer of the house into their names, so I guess it’s the solicitor who was mistaken in the plan of avoiding care home fees and IHT? Anyway, that is something of a side issue to my current quandary.

The other point of why this is happening two years after her death and settling her estate, is that I simply did not know about the arrangement with his house. I suspect he has recently been checking his own Will and realised the situation, or I actually think brother 2 has realised the situation and saw cash leaking away from his inheritance.

Morally, I should facilitate the return of the family property back to their family. What is really irritating me is the way it is being approached and handled, especially by brother number 2.

The attitude taken is that I must transfer this to them, they are not asking if I will. Additionally they are layering on emotional pressure; this is what dad wants, so get the issue fixed, he is a very old man, there’s not much time. They are taking the stance that there is actually an issue, but it is not really - a very deliberate attempt was made, rightly of wrongly, to avoid something and it went wrong when his daughter died before him. When they say issue, they really mean, I’ve got money then want.

I actually feel that if I could even get them to agree that I’d be helping them out, rather than their current belief that I’ve got this somehow unlawfully, it was not what was meant to happen so give it back, I would be happier about doing so. Right now I feel bitter and the desire for cash is causing some frankly very unpleasant behaviour.

The brothers are being totally unreasonable.

As others have said you are totally within your legal rights to simply keep the property, and I would also say you if you decided to keep it you would be doing nothing morally wrong. Your father gave his daughter a gift and she chose to leave it to you. Why should her wishes not be respected? And if the father was trying to evade (not avoid) possible future tax and/or future care costs then it was him who was not behaving morally. 

Given that you wish to return the property at no cost to yourself then I think you should consider whether you should be returning it to the father rather than the brothers. (If you pass it to the brothers are you going along with a potential tax evasion plan. I doubt doing so would have a legal risk but morally are you comfortable if the aim is to evade potential tax and care costs.) 

You could write to the brothers explaining that you are under absolutely no legal or moral obligation to return the gift. Nevertheless acting purely out of goodwill you are planning to return it provided they are willing to pay all the costs that have arisen (including any legal costs if you wish to get professional advice regarding all aspects of the proposal) and provided they are willing to be patient and understanding.

(Also consider whether you are concerned about the potential tax implications for your own estate should you die within the next seven years.)

Of course it all depends on how much you value the relationships.

Flugelhorn

Can't quite help nut imagine the comments that must have gone on recently when partner's father was reviewing  his will and possibly mentioned the property -  only to be reminded that he had given it away and it was no longer relevant in the will -  the third he had given to his now deceased daughter, belonged to her partner. 
I appreciate the OP's thoughts of giving it back but he should not be out of pocket for doing this, if they don't behave better then just hang onto the share - they will have to start behaving better soon

Stubod

Just out of interest, if the original "gift" had not been a property but a lump sum of (say), £100k, would the brothers expect you to pay them that money back?.....

I agree with the above, your wife inherited it they unfortunately passed on and left everything to you, I assume your partner would have had the option to write a will and pass it back to her siblings if that's what they wanted? 

theoretica

I would point out that you have no obligation to do anything and if you do choose to return it to your partner's family it would only be out of goodwill, and them covering all costs.  And your goodwill could evaporate very rapidly if they hassle you.

pollypenny

OP, you haven't mentioned children, so I'm assuming you don't have any who would subsequently benefit from their mother's share of the house. If you do have children, do you want them to have a good relationship with their mother's family? 

These brothers are behaving appallingly and, although I'd be tempted to keep the share you now own, I'm in the give it back as long as all your costs are covered. 

Marcon

How horrible to lose your partner and then have her family behave like this.

In England you only have two years from the date of death to execute a deed of variation (not sure about the system in Scotland), so if the tax system operates in a similar way to England, I think there would be two lots of tax to pay: IHT by the estate of the lady who has died, and possibly capital gains tax when OP disposes of his share of the house, depending on how much the value of the property has increased. Even if OP gave his share to the 2 brothers, HMRC would treat him as if he'd disposed of his share at market value. 

Stubod said:

Just out of interest, if the original "gift" had not been a property but a lump sum of (say), £100k, would the brothers expect you to pay them that money back?.....

I agree with the above, your wife inherited it they unfortunately passed on and left everything to you, I assume your partner would have had the option to write a will and pass it back to her siblings if that's what they wanted? 

Couldn't agree more with the above post.

MoneySeeker1

Re "partner would have had the option to write a will and pass it back to her siblings" and it may be that partner wasn't aware that the amount of time she had left meant she needed to "get her affairs in order" - it may well have been pretty unexpected or she was preoccupied with fighting an illness or the like.

We aren't all well-organised and prepared for these things in advance. I've definitely found that (even in my 60's) I seem to be one of the more organised people I know in that respect - right down to if Lockdown (yep - Lockdown and not Covid) means it all happens sooner than expected. But there are many people that get to be quite elderly and still haven't "got their affairs in order" for whatever reason.

thepurplepixie

MoneySeeker1 said:

Re "partner would have had the option to write a will and pass it back to her siblings" and it may be that partner wasn't aware that the amount of time she had left meant she needed to "get her affairs in order" - it may well have been pretty unexpected or she was preoccupied with fighting an illness or the like.

We aren't all well-organised and prepared for these things in advance. I've definitely found that (even in my 60's) I seem to be one of the more organised people I know in that respect - right down to if Lockdown (yep - Lockdown and not Covid) means it all happens sooner than expected. But there are many people that get to be quite elderly and still haven't "got their affairs in order" for whatever reason.

Presumably she did have a will, the OP refers to his partner not his wife so she must have left it to him in a will unless she was actually his wife.

Why should the OP be out of pocket because he has to pay solicitors fees and IHT, if her family want the share of the house the very least they could do is talk politely to the OP about it and offer to cover all expenses.