House not put into trust

flipper_72

Mum died in 2014 and her half of the house was left to myself and my brother to be held in trust for my dad. Dad is now selling to downsize slightly and the new solicitor has pointed out that the house is only in mine and my dad’s names 50:50 and there is no trust. Old solicitor is still in business, would they have to put this right? Or is it too long ago that we have no comeback?

Thanks

Keep_pedalling

Was the old solicitor also the executor? If so they should put this right. 

flipper_72

I don’t think so, I believe my dad was executor, i renounced as I was listed as joint (I don’t  remember renouncing but have the signed form in my paperwork so clearly did). My dad is finding this really stressful already, he is 84, so I don’t want this to cause problems for him. I might be better paying the cgt I assume I will owe? The solicitor also lost my mum’s will they we’re pretty awful.

getmore4less

All property is held in trust.
Land registry records legal owners

The legal  owners are trustees for the beneficial owners.

The will creates the trust.
If probate was obtained it will be on record.

The key is what provisions are in the will for downsizing. Often any residual remains in trust for the benefit of the life tenant.

Are there any restrictions on the register.
Form A is quite common.

flipper_72

Thank you for your reply, I have looked at the form I signed and it states tenants in common, the held in trust box isn’t ticked. 

How do I check land registry? Do I want title register or title register and plan?

flipper_72

I was in an expensive site, have found the hmrc site now.

doodling

Hi,

What does the solicitor say is wrong?

As getmore4less says, there isn't really a problem with how the house is currently owned, unless you think that you might attempt to steal your brother's share of the house(!).

The correct owner for you and your brother's share is "The trustees of [Mum] (deceased)" but since that is you and your brother then it is not so different from what you have now.

The trust doesn't need "setting up", it came into existence by the words in the will when your Mum died.

My guess is that of all life interest trusts out there:
- a third probably show the deceased as the owner, i.e. the land registry hasn't been updated (which is not ideal but fine if the executor for the first death and his paperwork is likely to be around for the second)
- a third probably have the correct ownership recorded
- a third probably have the deceased's share shown as owned directly by the trustees rather than a trust (which is still arguably correct but misleading).

It would be trivial for the current solicitor to correct this (at very little cost) during the sale.

flipper_72

The new solicitor has come back to me and they are able to purchase the new property with the house being held in trust for my dad.

It felt a little stressful for a couple of days and I had the strangest conversation with my brother about the ownership, the outcome of which was us giving the house back to dad in it’s entirety so we didn’t have to worry about it being done wrong again.

The additional cost is £150 plus vat which is a far more palatable amount when compared to the possible cgt payable. 

Thank you for your help, I definitely slept better until the solicitor replied than I would have done if I hadn’t posted on here.