Mum wants to transfer house deeds to myself after dad has died.. best way to do it for her?

welshlad46

So would she be best off updating her WILL to include the house

welshlad46

She has in the WILL that she will leave money to mine and my wifes little girl

user1977

p00hsticks said:

user1977 said:

welshlad46 said:

I am unsure who told her but I think she wanted the house done outside of the WILL people ( as said i do apologise but we are both very un knowledgeable in these areas ). The WILL people did keep asking why she didnt want it in there but she just told them she was sorting it 

Are you sure that's what the Will says? i.e. it deals with her whole estate but specifically not the house, and is completely silent about what's meant to happen to it? That sounds...odd. 

no it doesn't - as others have said, unless there is a specific need for the property to be treated separately from the rest of the estate (for example, if you want to allow someone to continue to live in it after your death but it to eventually go to someone else) which isn't the case here, then it's usually best not to mention the property so that it is just included in with the rest of the estate.

Well that's what I was getting at by "specifically not the house" - I wouldn't necessarily expect it to refer to the house if it's actually dealing with the whole estate (hence my previous reply), but the OP seems to be suggesting that it actually excepts the house somehow. I suspect they're misunderstanding what the Will really says.

trailingspouse

A few more thoughts to add to the mix -

• what if you and she have a falling out? You could decide to sell the house from under her and spend it all on choc ices.
• what if she wants to move house? Maybe the current one becomes too much for her, or she just fancies a retirement home or a cottage by the sea.
• early days I know, and apologies if it sounds insensitive, but she's only 64 - what if she meets someone else?
• If you own it and she lives in it, would you be her landlord? That's a whole other can of worms...
  

The bottom line is that by gifting the house to you she is losing a lot of control over her own life. And at 64 she could have another 30+ years of that life left. Tell her that you'd rather be patient and wait until she's 'finished with it'.

welshlad46

But what would have to be done for it to end up transfered to me for say.. when she does die? Would it need to be in her WILL? I always said if i fell out with her or anything like that the house is still hers and i would never touch it.. she has lived there all her married life and as far as im concerned it is always going to be hers until her time is up

RAS

If you are her only child and she pop's her clogs in thirty years time without a will and still living in the house, you will inherit it.

If she remarries and doesn't make a will, her future spouse will inherit it.

theoretica

welshlad46 said:

But what would have to be done for it to end up transfered to me for say.. when she does die? Would it need to be in her WILL? I always said if i fell out with her or anything like that the house is still hers and i would never touch it.. she has lived there all her married life and as far as im concerned it is always going to be hers until her time is up

It doesn't need to be specifically mentioned in the will - there is, as a standard part of a will, a bit that says what is to happen to 'everything else I own'.  The house will just be included with that - as will her favourite teapot that she didn't mention in the will either!

youth_leader

welshlad46, I am sorry your dear Dad died.  Your Mum sounds as numb as I was after my husband died, it is hard to think straight when you are grieving. I'm the same age as your Mum and looking forward to a more flexible budget when I get my SPA in two years time.   Hopefully when you say the WILL people you mean a solicitor, ask your Mum where the will is being kept.

Everything she owns forms her 'estate' and that's what you will inherit if she dies in her own home.  When my husband died I redid my will, and didn't mention my house, as I knew I had to downsize and move. 

Unfortunately you might not inherit anything, and I've warned my two kids of this.  If your Mum needs care in the future, perhaps 20 years time, her savings, widows/state pension and the proceeds of the sale of the house will all be put towards paying her care home costs.   My IFA told me the average time in a home is 4 years, at £1400 per week for four years this would cost approximately £291K. 

doodling

Hi,

There is no massive urgency so as others have said, it might be worth giving time for things to settle before doing anything. From what has been said, I would do the following:

1. Make sure that your mum's will has been written by someone competent, ideally a solicitor.

2. Understand what the will says. Providing that it simply leaves everything to you then there is nothing more to be done. You don't want the will to say anything special about the house, or try to exclude it or anything like that, if your mum simply leaves you everything then that will include the house.

3. Understand who the executor of the will will be. Ideally that should be you if you are the sole beneficiary - you can always pay a solicitor to do the work when the time comes. Naming a solicitor or a bank or any other organisation as executor is generally a bad idea as then you have no control over them and can be stuck with high costs.

4. Make sure you know where your mum's will can be found when it is needed. It may be better if it is kept at a solicitors, or stored at the probate registry (£20 - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/store-a-will-with-the-probate-service ).

5. You need to convince your mum that giving you the house now is a bad idea. The most obvious reason why it is a bad idea is that you will pay capital gains tax on it if you ever come to sell it, based on the difference in value between when you were given it and when you sold it. Others have given further very good reasons why giving away her house won't achieve what your mum appears to want and might cause both you and her problems in future.

6. What is worth doing is getting the house registered at the land registry. This will make dealing with its sale in the future easier and avoid the risk that the deeds get lost which would make things even more complex. A solicitor should be able to assist with this (I would expect less than £500).

Once you've done the above, I don't think there is much else you can do. Whilst your mum might not see it that way, she should be enjoying what she has, not worrying too much about what will happen when she is gone. If she had £millions then some planning might be a good idea, but that doesn't sound applicable here.

GaleSF63

welshlad46 said:

I am unsure who told her but I think she wanted the house done outside of the WILL people ( as said i do apologise but we are both very un knowledgeable in these areas ). The WILL people did keep asking why she didnt want it in there but she just told them she was sorting it ( once again, she is grieving so please go easy on us I understand there are alot of people here that know what they are talking about but for us it is all new ). 

Who are the "will people"? It doesn't sound like a solicitor which is really who she should go to to get a will made. 
Not putting the house in the will may simply mean it isn't specifically mentioned which is sensible.