House Sale without permission?

theoretica

In addition to the complications of not having fully sorted your mother's estate years ago you need to be prepared for tax complications.  If half this property had been included in her estate at the time would more inheritance tax have been due or was the total below the then limits?  And you will need to pay capital gains tax on the increase in value since your mother's death (and there is a short timescale for that). 

theshoefairy

I am pretty sure the total would have come below the threshold for inheritance tax. Not sure about capital gains tax though.

ElizabethRose

theshoefairy said:

@pinkshoes no there was no mention of their shared property in her will as it was made before the shared house came into play. She would have wanted me to have her share after her partner passed away.

Are you absolutely certain there is no signed will after she met her partner and bought the house? Could they have done wills you aren't aware of where you inherited the property you live in but her share of the other one went to her partner hence why nothing happened at the time?

Good luck but I have a feeling this might be a long drawn our process which may not end how you hope.

SDLT_Geek

pinkshoes said:

OK, so your mum owned a property as tenants in common (50%?) with her partner.

They were NOT married.

The will was not signed so invalid, which means she died intestate? (and what did the will that she intended to sign actually say about her share of the house?)

In which case, the next of kin to inherit would be you, so you owned the other half of the house with her partner, and you let him live there.

Since then, the partner has died and his two sons (who were not close to their dad) have inherited his share.

I imagine the two sons have no idea that their dad only owned half, so put it up for sale thinking he owned it all. Not everyone things to download the deeds. 

That just means that all you need to do is contact the EA, let them know they are selling a property that they are not able to sell without your permission, and thus your own solicitor will need to be involved in the sale so half the profits go to you.

But... as it is looking like your mum died intestate and the deeds were not transferred into your name, then this is potentially going to put a spanner in the works over the sale and make it take much longer.

I would suggest getting in touch with the partner's two sons and meeting them for tea and cake to discuss.

I agree with pretty much all of this, apart from the part shown in bold.  If OP does not take steps, then her mother's partner's sons, if they are personal representatives of the mother's partner, would be able to sell the property without the permission of OP.  The buyer would get good title because the "legal" title to the house passed by survivorship to the mother's partner and then to the personal representatives following the partner's death.
The mother's estate's interest would be "overreached" on a sale by the personal representatives of the mother's partner. 
Those personal representatives should divide the net proceeds as sale in accordance with the beneficial interests, once they work out what they are.

pumas

SDLT_Geek said:

SDLT_Geek said:

 would be able to sell the property without the permission of OP.  The buyer would get good title because the "legal" title to the house passed by survivorship to the mother's partner and then to the personal representatives following the partner's death.

The mother's estate's interest would be "overreached" on a sale by the personal representatives of the mother's partner. 
Those personal representatives should divide the net proceeds as sale in accordance with the beneficial interests, once they work out what they are.

OP states mother and stepfather are tenants-in-common, so why would the title pass by survivorship to stepfather?

SDLT_Geek

pumas said:

SDLT_Geek said:

SDLT_Geek said:

 would be able to sell the property without the permission of OP.  The buyer would get good title because the "legal" title to the house passed by survivorship to the mother's partner and then to the personal representatives following the partner's death.

The mother's estate's interest would be "overreached" on a sale by the personal representatives of the mother's partner. 
Those personal representatives should divide the net proceeds as sale in accordance with the beneficial interests, once they work out what they are.

OP states mother and stepfather are tenants-in-common, so why would the title pass by survivorship to stepfather?

A distinction needs to be made between:
(a) Beneficial ownership, where the underlying ownership can be as tenants in common where survivorship does not apply
and
(b) Legal title (giving the power to sell) where under the Law of Property Act 1925 legal title can only be held as joint tenants, so survivorship applies.  

getmore4less

This is a very common misunderstanding on how property works.

this should have been part of dealing with the estate of the mother.

If a joint owner with a distributable beneficial interest(TIC) then steps should have been taken to establish who that beneficial interest went to or if any trust may have been needed for example a will gave the other owner a life interest.

Ideally the new owner or trustee gets put on the legal title to protect the interests that share of the beneficial interest.


If the TIC restriction was still in place the sole surviving owner(or their representatives ) can sell the property but would need at least 2 people.

As that can be anyone and there are 2 brothers that would be sufficient to proceed with a sale

There would be no requirement to tell anyone else.

A  conveyancer may look deeper to check if there are any other parties that may be involved but not all would.

SDLT_Geek

getmore4less said:

This is a very common misunderstanding on how property works.

this should have been part of dealing with the estate of the mother.

If a joint owner with a distributable beneficial interest(TIC) then steps should have been taken to establish who that beneficial interest went to or if any trust may have been needed for example a will gave the other owner a life interest.

Ideally the new owner or trustee gets put on the legal title to protect the interests that share of the beneficial interest.

If the TIC restriction was still in place the sole surviving owner(or their representatives ) can sell the property but would need at least 2 people.

As that can be anyone and there are 2 brothers that would be sufficient to proceed with a sale

There would be no requirement to tell anyone else.

A  conveyancer may look deeper to check if there are any other parties that may be involved but not all would.

Well put!

RAS

theshoefairy said:

I wouldn't like to contact his sons directly regarding this matter as I don't think it would be well received.

I have contacted the estate agent, got the name of the solicitor acting on behalf of his sons and they asked for my solicitors contact details so I am assuming this issue will come to light fairly soon? Part of me thinks that my stepfather would have told them of the house situation, but of course, I cannot be sure of this.

Why would this put a spanner in the works over the sale? I am happy for the sale to go ahead.

Your interest in this should have been sorted out when your mother's estate was administered. 

Given the situation assuming anything is unwise. You need to instruct your solicitor to contact the son's solicitor, promptly. 

And take advice about insurance. Hopefully the son's have got some in place but....

Thrugelmir

The fact that the OP already has a solicitor on the case suggests there's more to the tale than is being told. Not least that the solicitor has already given advice. That we're not party to.