Buying Sisters Shares of interied property

bloke91

Hi,

I have inherited my late father’s house along with my two sisters. Turns out the house had never been registered with the land registry ever.

There is an application in process with the land registry to place the house in mine and my two sisters name.  It's pending waiting the grant of probate and decision on joint tenancy or common tenancy allocation from us.

Once the house is registered and probate is complete, I am hoping my two sisters will allow me to buy there shares of the property.

Question 1

I am thinking the house needs to be registered as tenants in comment and not joint tenancy.   That way in the event something happened to any of us, our shares would form part of the estate and could be left to our children in our wills etc.

Am I right?

Question 2

With heinsight would the below approach be better?

1. Hold fire on current land registry application.
2. Wait until probate is completed.
3. Have the house valued.
4. Use my share of the cash from the estate to buy there shares of the property.

Apart from having to update the deeds/land registry twice.  What benefit does the above provide vs proceeding as is and then transferring ownership into my name later if my sisters agree to me buying them out etc?

I believe I would pay capital gains the same either way, when and if I came to sell one day?

Are there any additional stamp duty implications if its in all three names and then I use cash from the estate post probate completion to buy my sisters out?

Thanks in advance.

Marcon

bloke91 said:

Hi,

I have inherited my late father’s house along with my two sisters. Turns out the house had never been registered with the land registry ever.

There is an application in process with the land registry to place the house in mine and my two sisters name.  It's pending waiting the grant of probate and decision on the prefer joint or common tenancy.

Once the house is registered and probate is complete, I am hoping my two sisters will allow me to buy there shares of the property.

Question 1

I am thinking the house needs to be registered as tenants in comment and not joint tenancy.   That way in the event something happened to any of us, our shares would form part of the estate and could be left to our children in our wills etc.

Am I right?

Question 2

With heinsight would the below approach be etter?

1. Hold fire on current land registry application.
2. Wait until probate is completed.
3. Have the house valued.
4. Use my share of the cash from the estate to buy there shares of the property.

Apart from having to update the deeds/land registry twice.  What benefit does the above provide vs proceeding as is and then transferring ownership into my name later if my sisters agree to me buying them out etc?

I believe I would pay capital gains the same either way, when and if I came to sell one day?

Are there any additional stamp duty implications if its in all three names and then I use cash from the estate post probate completion to buy my sisters out?

Thanks in advance.

1. Yes
2. There may be more efficient ways to accomplish your objectives, depending on the overall value of the estate, whether you/your sister(s) already own a property, how quickly this could all be done etc. Well worth having a chat with a solicitor about it all before you go any further.

tacpot12

If you have children and want to be able to leave your share in the house to them, then your preference should be for the property to be registered as tenants-in-common, but as per Marcon's advice, you might be able to arrange that the registration of the property is carried out so that you alone are registered as the owner.

I think Marcon might have been thinking that a Deed of Variation would be useful in you case. Such a Deed would allow you and your sisters to change your father's will so that you are left the house and they receive cash or other assets instead. Both your sisters would have to agree, but you can use the probate valuation to understand roughly how much cash they would need to receive and whether the estate has enough cash and assets to allow this to happen. Many solicitors will give you a free initial consultation on such matters, but the main question in any such consultation should be "How much will you charge to do what you suggest?". A Deed of Variation should cost less than £1000, and might be a lot less if you negotiate carefully. 

bloke91

Thanks for comments.

Sounds like tenants in common would be best if house if house registered jointly with my sisters with land registry.

Would the below be the better approach, avoid need for extra documents and having to update the land registry twice.

1.    Hold fire on current land registry application to register the property jointly.

2.    Wait until probate is completed.

3.    Have the house valued.

4.    Use my share of the cash from the estate to buy my sisters shares of the property.

5.    Register the property in my sole name.

Keep_pedalling

bloke91 said:

Thanks for comments.

Sounds like tenants in common would be best if house if house registered jointly with my sisters with land registry.

Would the below be the better approach, avoid need for extra documents and having to update the land registry twice.

1.    Hold fire on current land registry application to register the property jointly.

2.    Wait until probate is completed.

3.    Have the house valued.

4.    Use my share of the cash from the estate to buy my sisters shares of the property.

5.    Register the property in my sole name.

There is no need for the property ever to be registered in their names, so yes this is a better approach especially. You should have a proper value done for probate so step 3 comes before step 2.

p00hsticks

Surely the very first step is to check that your sisters are actually prepared to let you buy them out ?

bloke91

Yes they are prepared to in prinicpal.  The hosue was valued prior to applying for probate, we just need have the house re-valued post probate and agree price.