Some Advice on adding names on deed without causing problems

PennywiseMa

Hi to anyone who can help
my husband is in a care home which is paid by his pension and council
his name is on the deed(stored) to the house (no mortgage) but he wanted to put mine and our sons name on the deed all equal but we don't want it to affect the care fees we were told if we change the ownership it could be seen as dodging care fees I've looked at the forms and i'm not 100% on which i need
thanks in advance

elsien

For what purpose do you want to add yours and your son’s name on?

As his wife, for as long as you remain living in the house, it is not taken into account in the financial assessment. And if he passes away, he can will his shares to either/both of you if he wishes. 

So you really need to think what you want to achieve by doing this - depending on the reason, there may be other ways to achieve what you want.


You also need to consider his capacity, given that you say it’s what he wanted in the past tense,. You can’t go giving his assets away if he no longer has capacity to make that decision for himself.

Brie

If he doesn't have one already and isn't capable at this point of making a will or any other financial decisions then if you are married and the house is solely in his name then it should pass to you in keeping with the rules of interstacy. 

Obviously if he is capable of making decisions then he could transfer ownership to you and your sons but the council may very well question the reasons for this.  But as elsien says there's no need at this point.  It would definitely be called into question if you needed to go into care as well as the council would then expect the house to be sold to help pay for everything.    

p00hsticks

Brie said:

If he doesn't have one already and isn't capable at this point of making a will or any other financial decisions then if you are married and the house is solely in his name then it should pass to you in keeping with the rules of interstacy. 

Quite possibly - but you can't say that for sure as it will depend on what the property and the rest of the estate is worth (and possibly where in the country you are). 

The intestacy laws in England and Wales give the first £270, 000 to a surviving spouse, with anything above that going half to the spouse and half divided between any children...

Keep_pedalling

The house will only come into a financial assessment if something happens to you. If he no longer has mental capacity then it is too late to do any transfer. If he has capacity then it might be a good idea to make you a tenant in common on a 50 / 50 basis. He could then make a will leaving his share to your sons giving you a life interest. This avoids a potential CGT issue down the line and provides you with long term security.

 

PennywiseMa

thanks for the reply's my husband wants to make sure that me and our son are ok as a member of his previous family(non blood related relative) being invasive is around and asking about wills and money(there isn't any) he has only appeared since my husband went into a home because of his physical illness the house is in a state we managed to replace the 15yr old boiler and trying to get a grant to repair the windows but my husband does not like the idea of the insecurity he wanted a more legal path like suggested (tenant in common on a 50 / 50) or our original idea was a joint tenant of 3 but i think this may look suspect we never wanted or intended to remove anyone from the deeds just security for the future

chanz4

If married will auto pass to you without a will anyway

theartfullodger

As sons will be in deeds they will quite likely pay HIGHER stamp duty on other property purchases.  Is that what everyone wants?

Suggest wills all round to avoid "confusions".  But they can of course be changed..

TBagpuss

If he were to add you so that you and he own as joint tenants, then on his death it passes automatically to you , and doesn't form part of his estate. 

If he adds you to the deeds as tenants in common in equal shares then then on his death his 50% would pass to whoever he has left it to by will, or to you if he doesn't have a will.

Making sure that he has a will in place is also important. You don't say what the connection is to the person who is 'sniffing around' but f they are not related then they are unlikely to have any claim to his estate, whoever, by making a will he can ensure that they don't, and can if he wishes also do a 'side letter' which could be kept with his will and could be produced if any claim were made, explaining why that person is not being left anything.

Adding your son might well be overly complex at this stage, it's probably simpler to just add you as his spouse, and then you can make a will to benefit your son

FreeBear

PennywiseMa said:

thanks for the reply's my husband wants to make sure that me and our son are ok as a member of his previous family(non blood related relative) being invasive is around and asking about wills and money(there isn't any) he has only appeared since my husband went into a home because of his physical illness the house is in a state we managed to replace the 15yr old boiler and trying to get a grant to repair the windows but my husband does not like the idea of the insecurity he wanted a more legal path like suggested (tenant in common on a 50 / 50) or our original idea was a joint tenant of 3 but i think this may look suspect we never wanted or intended to remove anyone from the deeds just security for the future

If he is still "of sound mind" he should make a will and have his GP do a statement confirming mental capacity. With a proper will drawn up (please, use a STEP trained solicitor, not one of these will writing outfits), he can rest in the knowledge that his assets goes to the people he wants.

If your son has never owned a property, adding his name to the deeds removes his First Time Buyer status - At the moment, there are a number of incentives & help for FTBs which he would lose by going on the deeds.