Probate and equity question

hallster11

Hello

My mother-in-law unfortunately passed away yesterday after a short stay in a care home following 20 plus weeks in hospital. As we had no power of attorney we were preparing to apply for deputyship as my wife and I wanted to buy the house off her (at market value) - she had no mental capacity and we have no power of attorney. Anyway that has now changed with her death.

My wife is named in the Will as the sole beneficiary with the estate worth around £275000. The house itself is roughly £250000 out of that total but has £70k of equity release on it. Looking online the equity release ceases with the death of the mother in law and will need paying as soon as possible. 

So, am I right in thinking that we need to apply for probate to get the house transferred in to my wife’s name, which can take up to a year? We can then sell our house to pay off the equity as long as the equity release firm will wait for that long.

Any advice is much appreciated.

Flugelhorn

it shouldn't take that long to get probate providing estate is not too complicated. If your wife is the sole beneficiary then can't you move into the house and sell your own property to pay off the equity loan?

Keep_pedalling

There is nothing stopping stooping you putting your house on the market now. As sole beneficiary there is nothing stopping you moving in before probate is obtained, you can leave the transfer until you have both obtained probate and paid off the ER company.

Is your wife the executor as well?

hallster11

Flugelhorn said:

it shouldn't take that long to get probate providing estate is not too complicated. If your wife is the sole beneficiary then can't you move into the house and sell your own property to pay off the equity loan?

Thanks for the reply.

Because we live 60 miles away we’ve been spending most of the week in the MiLs house so we could visit her regularly. As I’ve not been through this before how does it work when the Will is sorted - do we have to arrange (& pay) for the house to get transferred in to my wife’s name. And don’t you need probate to do that. And if we do have to wait, but still spend time between two houses, how does council tax work with us not being the actual house owner?

hallster11

Keep_pedalling said:

There is nothing stopping stooping you putting your house on the market now. As sole beneficiary there is nothing stopping you moving in before probate is obtained, you can leave the transfer until you have both obtained probate and paid off the ER company.

Is your wife the executor as well?

Both me and my wife are named as executors.

Keep_pedalling

hallster11 said:

Keep_pedalling said:

There is nothing stopping stooping you putting your house on the market now. As sole beneficiary there is nothing stopping you moving in before probate is obtained, you can leave the transfer until you have both obtained probate and paid off the ER company.

Is your wife the executor as well?

Both me and my wife are named as executors.

In which case everything is under your control which should help speed things along, solicitors tend to slow things down horribly.

p00hsticks

hallster11 said:

Flugelhorn said:

it shouldn't take that long to get probate providing estate is not too complicated. If your wife is the sole beneficiary then can't you move into the house and sell your own property to pay off the equity loan?

if we do have to wait, but still spend time between two houses, how does council tax work with us not being the actual house owner?

If the house is empty following your mothers death then there is a counci ltax exemption until six months after probate is granted.  However if you are considered to be occupying the house then you'll need to pay council tax. It might be worth discussing with the council what they consider 'occupying'. Bear in mind that any savings on council tax by leaving the property unoccupied may be balanced by the additional costs of insurance.

As others have said, assuming that your intention is to make the house your main residence, there is nothing to stop you moving in and putting your other house on the market straight away, (unless the equity release company has some objection to that).

Flugelhorn

hallster11 said:

Flugelhorn said:

it shouldn't take that long to get probate providing estate is not too complicated. If your wife is the sole beneficiary then can't you move into the house and sell your own property to pay off the equity loan?

Thanks for the reply.

Because we live 60 miles away we’ve been spending most of the week in the MiLs house so we could visit her regularly. As I’ve not been through this before how does it work when the Will is sorted - do we have to arrange (& pay) for the house to get transferred in to my wife’s name. And don’t you need probate to do that. And if we do have to wait, but still spend time between two houses, how does council tax work with us not being the actual house owner?

Yes you will need probate to sort out the change of names etc - I would suggest that get the whole probate process started, move into MILs property, put your own on the market and when you sell it ask the solicitor handling that sale to also arrange to change the ownership of MILs property at the same time, having paid off the equity loan and ensured than any charge on the property is removed . Yes there will be a cost to the changes in name etc but probably less if you are dealing with one company. 

Re council tax, it isn't the owner who is responsible but the resident - you can have up to 6 months free after the death if the property is empty, you may want to minimise the time you are paying for two places by selling your own as soon as possible