Trying to get advice beforehand, joint owner of family home advice.

dinsey

Hi

Thanks for taking the time to read my post.

Myself / my partner live with my parents in a family home owned Jointly by my Parents (current value 1.2m London Home).

My parents also Jointly own 2 BTL’s both in their names.

I have 1 sister who is married and does not live with us.

My father wishes to pay off the family home with my help (currently small Mortgage left on it) and add myself to the property.

Ie it will no longer have a mortgage on it and mother will be removed and myself added on.

Both myself and father will be joint owners.

If my father passes away (whilst my mother is alive) does his share (namely family home) go to my mother and then if she wishes she can leave her share to my sister?

What would you suggest would be the best way here as I don’t want to be left having to split the family home with my sister.

 Thanks

Savvy_Sue

The best way would be for your parents to take some advice on this, and to work out whether this is a sensible thing to do or not. 

Questions to be asked include: how old are your parents? Are they in good health? (Deprivation of assets to be considered, plus whether there's a potential to leave your mother homeless after your father dies if she does not own any part of her home.)

Have they made wills? If they have, then these will need to be updated after any change of ownership takes place, but basically your sister could be left the BTL properties - or a half-share in each on the first death. Or you could offer to buy out any share of the family home left to her. Or the family home could be left to you, in recognition of the fact that it's your home. Achieving an equal split would be extremely difficult, because house values can go up as well as down in different situations. Will that matter? 

If they don't make wills it's likely to be messy. Work your way through https://www.gov.uk/inherits-someone-dies-without-will to see how messy. 

tacpot12

Agree with Savvy_Sue's advice. They should make Wills, and Power of Attorney's (for different reasons than the issues raised in your post). 

Keep_pedalling

Why does your mother need to relinquish her ownership? She would be very foolish to do so. 

With the size of estate we are talking about here your parents should take professional advice before doing this 

pphillips

First of all, you can't leave a property owned as beneficial joint tenants by will. It's possible to leave a share of joint property by will, but first the beneficial interest has to be severed (it's easy to do it by serving notice on all the other co-owners). If severance has not taken place then the property will automatically pass by survivorship to the remaining co-owners. 

For example, if you and your father own a property jointly then you automatically get the whole property on his death unless he severes his beneficial interest then he can leave 50% of the property in his will to whoever he wants to. 

xylophone

Both myself and father will be joint owners.

Why should you/your father/your mother not be joint tenants or tenants in common?

it seems to me that your parents should be consulting a solicitor expert in wills and trusts before taking any action.

https://content.step.org/step-directory

Marcon

dinsey said:

What would you suggest would be the best way here as I don’t want to be left having to split the family home with my sister.

What you want and what is feasible may not be one and the same. Your parents both need to take expert advice from a solicitor, not via you from a free forum where nobody has a full picture of the facts.

Morrigan_2020

Are you not planning to ever move out from your parents' home?  How old are you?

naedanger

dinsey said:

Hi

Thanks for taking the time to read my post.

Myself / my partner live with my parents in a family home owned Jointly by my Parents (current value 1.2m London Home).

My parents also Jointly own 2 BTL’s both in their names.

I have 1 sister who is married and does not live with us.

My father wishes to pay off the family home with my help (currently small Mortgage left on it) and add myself to the property.

Ie it will no longer have a mortgage on it and mother will be removed and myself added on.

Both myself and father will be joint owners.

If my father passes away (whilst my mother is alive) does his share (namely family home) go to my mother and then if she wishes she can leave her share to my sister?

What would you suggest would be the best way here as I don’t want to be left having to split the family home with my sister.

 Thanks

The estate is above the inheritance tax threshold, and the requirements are not straightforward. Therefore professional advice is definitely advised to ensure your parents' wishes are implemented in the most tax efficient manner while at the same time taking account of possible future changes of circumstances.