Advice about inheritance

eg1980_2

Can anyone advise on the following? My Grandad passed in December 2011 with no will - everything passed to my Gran. My Gran passed in April this year. She was resident in a care home. She had made a will in 2014 leaving her house to one uncle. However at time of her death she had a deferred payment arrangement DPA with the local council and they have placed a charging order on the house. Will my uncle have to come up with the funds to settle the DPA? If he is unable to do so will the house have to be sold? What happens to the surplus funds? Will these go to my uncle in lieu of the house? 

[Deleted User]

Any debts need to be settled from the estate.

Your uncle could choose to pay these from his own reserves if he wants to keep the home, or sell the property he prefers. 

He gets the residual value of the estate.

Keep_pedalling

Deleted_User said:

Any debts need to be settled from the estate.

Your uncle could choose to pay these from his own reserves if he wants to keep the home, or sell the property he prefers. 

He gets the residual value of the estate.

The OP has not mentioned who gets the residual estate, although with a DPA in place I can’t imagine that will consist of much. 

Does the will name any other beneficiaries?

xylophone

She had made a will in 2014 leaving her house to one uncle. However at time of her death she had a deferred payment arrangement DPA with the local council and they have placed a charging order on the house. Will my uncle have to come up with the funds to settle the DPA? If he is unable to do so will the house have to be sold? What happens to the surplus funds? Will these go to my uncle in lieu of the house? 

Who is the executor?

He will be required to follow the normal process in dealing with the estate of the deceased.

The DPA is a debt of your late grandmother's estate.

If the debt cannot be repaid from other assets held by the deceased, then either the beneficiary of the property comes up with the money (from his own resources or perhaps by way of a mortgage loan) or the executor sells the property, repays the debt and distributes any balance to the beneficiary/ies of the will.

74jax

How much are all debts, how much is the cash estate and how much is the house?

No your uncle does not have to pay the debt, the estate does.

The cash will be used first, then the house sold off need be or the uncle could pay in can to keep the house. 

eg1980_2

Keep_pedalling said:

Deleted_User said:

Any debts need to be settled from the estate.

Your uncle could choose to pay these from his own reserves if he wants to keep the home, or sell the property he prefers. 

He gets the residual value of the estate.

The OP has not mentioned who gets the residual estate, although with a DPA in place I can’t imagine that will consist of much. 

Does the will name any other beneficiaries?

So in the will it states my Gran is to leave her property to one of my uncles, everything else has to be split between her children (5 in total including one that has been left the house). You are right there isn’t much other than the house just her physical possessions and a few thousand in bank. If the property is to be sold to settle the DPA will the surplus amount go to my uncle or would that amount go into the residual estate and be split between the 5 siblings? 

eg1980_2

xylophone said:

She had made a will in 2014 leaving her house to one uncle. However at time of her death she had a deferred payment arrangement DPA with the local council and they have placed a charging order on the house. Will my uncle have to come up with the funds to settle the DPA? If he is unable to do so will the house have to be sold? What happens to the surplus funds? Will these go to my uncle in lieu of the house? 

Who is the executor?

He will be required to follow the normal process in dealing with the estate of the deceased.

The DPA is a debt of your late grandmother's estate.

If the debt cannot be repaid from other assets held by the deceased, then either the beneficiary of the property comes up with the money (from his own resources or perhaps by way of a mortgage loan) or the executor sells the property, repays the debt and distributes any balance to the beneficiary/ies of the will.

Thank you for responding. The executor is a solicitor. What I was trying to understand was if the executor sells house to settle the DPA would the surplus amount go to my uncle or should it be divided between the 5 siblings who were named in the will as beneficiaries for all other possessions etc. 

Keep_pedalling

eg1980_2 said:

Keep_pedalling said:

Deleted_User said:

Any debts need to be settled from the estate.

Your uncle could choose to pay these from his own reserves if he wants to keep the home, or sell the property he prefers. 

He gets the residual value of the estate.

The OP has not mentioned who gets the residual estate, although with a DPA in place I can’t imagine that will consist of much. 

Does the will name any other beneficiaries?

So in the will it states my Gran is to leave her property to one of my uncles, everything else has to be split between her children (5 in total including one that has been left the house). You are right there isn’t much other than the house just her physical possessions and a few thousand in bank. If the property is to be sold to settle the DPA will the surplus amount go to my uncle or would that amount go into the residual estate and be split between the 5 siblings? 

If the house had been sold to pay the care costs the bequest would have failed and the remaining assets split evenly. As the house was still owned by the deceased at the time of her death it still passes to your uncle. The LA debt secured against the house will either need to be paid by him if he wants to keep the house or though the sale of the house with him getting to keep anything left after the dept is paid.

Where there is debt secured against an asset that is subject to a specific bequest the debt should be paid with that asset not the residual assets.

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/legal-updates/probate-dealing-with-debts/5038206.article

eg1980_2

@Keep_pedalling thank you for clarifying. I feared that is what would happen. 

My Gran in leaving the house to my uncle wanted to do just that as he did not own his own property. Out of the 5 siblings he was the only one living in rented accommodation, she wanted to ensure that he had a property of his own. she did not know when making the will she would be living in a care home and have a DPA against the property. I feel if she knew the property was to be sold and therefore no longer in the equation she wouldn’t want my uncle to have the surplus money, she would want this divided equally amongst the 5 siblings.  

I also have concerns over the wording used in the will. I feel it is not clear. Can a will be challenged for this reason? My Gran was resident in a care home for over 4 years prior to her death. 

This is the wording:
I direct my executor to make over to my son ** residing with me at ** my interest in any house occupied by me as my normal residence at the time of my death free of all expenses of transfer, heritable debts and securities, and other capital burdens affecting my interest in the house at the time of my death. 

Brie

Was the uncle living in the house in the past or currently?  And what is his age??  I ask as we were told that care home costs for MiL would be paid by selling the house we all live in which would make us homeless.  That however doesn't apply if one of the residents (i.e. me and/or other half) were at least 60.  In that situation there would be a lien put on the house until such time as we sell it.

eg1980_2

Yes my uncle did stay for periods of time with my Gran - he doesn’t have a very stable relationship with his partner. He is 56 just now. I’m not sure if things are different depending on where you live, we are in Scotland. I think the deferred payment arrangement DPA allows for the sale of the house to be delayed until after the owner has passed away. Obviously this has benefitted my uncle in this instance as had the house been sold and the money paid for care home fees, the gift of the house would have failed and any remainder would have been split 5 ways.