Tenants in common - probate 26 January at 6:54PM in Deaths, funerals & probate 5 replies 195 views

Fabtasia

I was following the other tennants in common  post but it doesn't really answer my question.

My husband and I bought a house before marriage and we set it up as tennants in common.

I want to make sure if one person dies or one person goes into care  the other is not affected.  If we are both dead, I don't care about the estate.

If it is not advisable to be tennants in common, if we change to joint tennants, will we be liable for capital gains.

Keep_pedalling

Fabtasia said:

I was following the other tennants in common  post but it doesn't really answer my question.

My husband and I bought a house before marriage and we set it up as tennants in common.

I want to make sure if one person dies or one person goes into care  the other is not affected.  If we are both dead, I don't care about the estate.

If one of you goes into care it won’t affect the other as the house will be disregarded in the financial assessment while the other one is still living in it. 

If one of you dies the other will only really be affected if you have left your share to someone other than the survivor without giving them a life interest, so you really should care about the estate.

If it is not advisable to be tennants in common, if we change to joint tennants, will we be liable for capital gains.

No, you won’t be liable to CGT. 

Fabtasia

Many thanks. As the beneficery if one dies is the other spouse. It sounds like it's not worth changing to joint tennants. 

Once we are both dead, then the longest survivor will leave it to family but they won't be relying in it.

Keep_pedalling

Fabtasia said:

Many thanks. As the beneficery if one dies is the other spouse. It sounds like it's not worth changing to joint tennants. 

Once we are both dead, then the longest survivor will leave it to family but they won't be relying in it.

No, it is not worth doing as it changes nothing.

msb1234

As tenants in common, when the first person dies, their share of the house will go to whomever they have nominated as beneficiary in their will. If you have no will, it’ll go to their spouse. 

If one person has to go into care, only their share of the property can be taken into account when determining the financial position in regards to paying their fees. However, whilst the other spouse is still living in the marital home, it can’t be forced to sell for care home fees. 

Keep_pedalling

msb1234 said:

As tenants in common, when the first person dies, their share of the house will go to whomever they have nominated as beneficiary in their will. If you have no will, it’ll go to their spouse. 

It will if they have no children, or their share is not more than £270k.  For anyone who has children the spouse gets the first £270k plus 50% of the remainder and the children get the rest.