Transferring property ownership to son - advice please

Werdnal

km1500 said:

from reading your opening post I gather that what you want to do is to add your son into the equity of the whole property. this is simple to do all you have to do is to add your son to the entry at the land registry. it is irrelevant whether he moves into the barn or sleeps there or sleeps in the main house or whatever that is domestic arrangements between the three of you.

you need to have a think about the way you want to hold the property however because if you just add your son then the default position will be that you all own one third each.

you can vary this by a declaration of trust. also you can become tenants in common whereby you all own 100% of it and it will pass to the last survivor in the fullness of time

you need to take legal advice about this however the mechanisms are very simple

Thank you for this ... when we first started exploring these options, we thought it should basically be pretty simple, but then got bogged down in tax implications etc, and the solicitors we originally contacted for advice suggested we look into this in more detail before they would get involved.  If it really is that simple to arrange, why did they not suggest this at the start?  I have looked at "gifting", "tenants in common" etc, but it all seems a little confusing, and we want to do what is best for all of us.  I will contact a couple of other solicitors for their take on things, so we can see if this fits what we want to achieve ...

gld73

You probably also need to be aware that your son may have to pay additional 3% stamp duty charge if he buys a property elsewhere (or 4% in Scotland) if he owns or part owns the house you're living in.

sheramber

The paper work is simple. 

It is the potential consequences later on that make it complicated and that is why your solicitor does not want to be held responsible if it all back fires in the future.