Late father's legal aid charge on my inherited house

elsmandino

Hi there.

I would be really grateful for some advice on this slightly tricky situation.

I am an only child and my parents divorced many years ago.

My father moved out of the family home and moved into another home with a new family.

I remained the family home, with my mother, who passed away (intestate), leaving me as the sole heir to the estate - I remained living in the same house.

My father recently passed away and I was invited to go to the solicitor for the reading of his will - my father's will confirmed that he left me any beneficial interest in my home, to me (everything else to go to his new wife).

The one thing that did arise, however, is that the solicitor mentioned a legal aid charge that remains on my home - this was occurred by my father whilst divorcing my mother.

The solicitors then went on to say that it is not payable by me but by my father's estate.

I pretty much left things there - was a bit awkward to ask anything further about this in front of my father's new family.

My issue now is what this means for me and my home - if the statutory charge is not payable by me, how can I have it removed?

Having done a bit of research, I realise that whilst the charge on the house remains, I shall never be able to sell it.

Apologies for the long post - any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

sammyjammy

The charge cannot remain as you will not be able ot have the house registered in your name with it in place, are there any other funds?  His debts will be paid before anything else from his estate so if it is only the house it will need to be sold to pay the debt unless you can afford to pay it yourself.  Any funds remaining after sale, taxes etc will be yours.

Norman_Castle

You can sell the house but the charge will be paid from the proceeds. Did you ask the solicitor to explain your options? I'd suspect that despite the estate potentially now having assets to pay the legal aid cost it may be expected to remain as a charge against the property as that was the arrangement. Its possible the people owed the money could now pursue the estate but they to may have to stick to the agreement of a charge against the property.

With regards to the new family what would your father considered right?

elsmandino

Thanks very much for the reply.

Just to clarify - when you say the house needs to be sold, you are talking about the house that my father left to his wife, rather than mine?

I rather got the impression that the charge would be moved from my property to his widow's house.

Edit - sorry, should have clarified that my father bought a new house with his wife.  They were joint tenants, so she now owns that house.

74jax

When your mother died did she own any of the maritial home?  You say her estate passed to you, did this include any share of the home? So really you owned 50% and your dad only owned 50%?

Or was the house solely owned by your father but you both (mother and you) lived there? 

You say you recieved a beneficial interest in the house from your father. What was this interest? Was it - The right to live there? the right to own it? The right to rent and gain from it?

elsmandino

Oh dear - I am not sure, to be honest.

I am pretty sure that my parents were joint tenants before the divorce but I think that, when my parents divorced, the court awarded the house to my mother - however, I am not totally sure about what the terms were.  My father had himself inherited a mortgage-free house, shortly before this, so he simply moved into there.

The will, itself, merely conveyed any of my father's interest in my property to me upon his death.

youth_leader

Can you download the Title deeds to check that your Mum owned the house? 

Norman_Castle

No need to sell the house now to pay the debt but when the property sells at a later date the debt will be paid from the proceeds.

Are there details of the charge in the properties deeds?

daveyjp

You need details of the charge, it may be accruing interest.

Section62

elsmandino said:

I am pretty sure that my parents were joint tenants before the divorce but I think that, when my parents divorced, the court awarded the house to my mother - however, I am not totally sure about what the terms were.  My father had himself inherited a mortgage-free house, shortly before this, so he simply moved into there.

You need to get hold of a copy of your parent's divorce financial settlement to see what it says about the (family) home. If your father inherited another house it wouldn't be surprising if the court said your mother should stay in the (family) home, especially if you were under 18 at the time.

But that doesn't necessarily mean she took 100% ownership of it.

And if the legal aid charge was placed on the property prior to the financial settlement then the court wouldn't necessarily be able to have it removed and transferred to a different property (even if they did think it would be fair to do so).

But the answers should be in the financial settlement.

74jax

Who was executor of your mother's Will?