Joint Tenants/Tenants in Common

squidley

I am going through the process of moving home. I/we have to choose if we would like the new property to be held as joint tenants or tenants in common. My default setting is to choose the joint tenants option.

However, should the fact that we both have a (grown up) child from a previous relationship in any way affect this decision?  In case it has any relevance, the house we are selling is in my name only. I bought it before I met my wife. The house we are buying will be in both our names. 

Grateful for any comments.

Keep_pedalling

It certainly should unless you are happy to have your adult child not inherit from your estate if you happen to be the first to die.

You not only need to purchase as TiC and make sure you have up to date wills in place. Best practice would be for each of you to leave your share to your child but with your spouse given a life interest through an immediate post-death interest trust. If you don’t have wills in place then you should both se a solicitor asap to get those sorted.

squidley

Thank you for your response. I have been extremely negligent for not dealing with this earlier. Because of where we are in the house moving process my solicitor needs me to make a decision sooner rather than later.

My gut feeling is to complete the house move as joint tenants. And then as soon as we are settled change over to TiC, and sort out the appropriate post death interest trust. I know it's not ideal, but is there anything intrinsically wrong with doing it this way?

doodling

Hi,

You don't say if you are married or if you have a will.

There are several options:

1. Joint tenants: Your partner gets the house if you die.  They can choose whether your offspring receive anything.

2. Tenants in common + Will: Your will says who gets your share of the house.  If it doesn't include a post death life interest for your partner then the beneficiaries could choose to force it to be sold (against your partners wishes) to get their money if they wanted.

3. Tenants in common + Married: Your partner gets the house if you die, they can choose whether your offspring receive anything.

4. Tenants in common + Not Married + No Will: Your offspring get your share of the house (as per laws of intestacy, the detail of which varies depending in which country in the union you are in).  They could choose to force it to be sold (against your partners wishes) to get their money if they wanted.

Personally I would hold it as tenants in common but that doesn't give your partner much protection if you aren’t married, or your offspring much protection if you are married but haven't made an appropriate will.

Keep_pedalling

doodling said:

Hi,y

You don't say if you are married or if you have a will.

There are several options:

1. Joint tenants: Your partner gets the house if you die.  They can choose whether your offspring receive anything.

2. Tenants in common + Will: Your will says who gets your share of the house.  If it doesn't include a post death life interest for your partner then the beneficiaries could choose to force it to be sold (against your partners wishes) to get their money if they wanted.

3. Tenants in common + Married: Your partner gets the house if you die, they can choose whether your offspring receive anything.

4. Tenants in common + Not Married + No Will: Your offspring get your share of the house (as per laws of intestacy, the detail of which varies depending in which country in the union you are in).  They could choose to force it to be sold (against your partners wishes) to get their money if they wanted.

Personally I would hold it as tenants in common but that doesn't give your partner much protection if you aren’t married, or your offspring much protection if you are married but haven't made an appropriate will.

3 is not quite correct, a spouse only gets the first £270k plus 50% of the rest. The other 50% goes to your children.

Keep_pedalling

squidley said:

Thank you for your response. I have been extremely negligent for not dealing with this earlier. Because of where we are in the house moving process my solicitor needs me to make a decision sooner rather than later.

My gut feeling is to complete the house move as joint tenants. And then as soon as we are settled change over to TiC, and sort out the appropriate post death interest trust. I know it's not ideal, but is there anything intrinsically wrong with doing it this way?

Your gut feeling is wrong, no point in doing this in two steps, and there is a strong chance you will keep putting it off.

squidley

Thank you doodling. That is extremely helpful.

Yes, I did forget to mention the key fact in that I am happily married. 

Tenants in common plus will plus post death life interest seems the ideal solution. But, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I would rather just get the move finished now, and then all the wills and trusts sorted out afterwards. And I presume it is easy to change from joint tenants to TiC quite easily?

squidley

Thank you keep_pedalling. I appreciate your response. 

If there was absolutely no chance I was going to put the sorting out of the wills off would my gut feeling still be wrong? 

I appreciate I've made a mistake in putting it off this long but I really do want to get this move completed with the minimum of fuss. It's stressful enough as it is. 

Is there any actual reason why we can't sort all this out in two steps?

Keep_pedalling

squidley said:

Thank you keep_pedalling. I appreciate your response. 

If there was absolutely no chance I was going to put the sorting out of the wills off would my gut feeling still be wrong? 

I appreciate I've made a mistake in putting it off this long but I really do want to get this move completed with the minimum of fuss. It's stressful enough as it is. 

Is there any actual reason why we can't sort all this out in two steps?

Why do your think starting as TiC will delay things or cause a fuss? 

squidley

Thank you keep_pedalling.

I have presumed I would need to have the appropriate wills and trusts set up for it all to work as intended. I assume that will take a little time. Whereas if I just go with joint tenants now it won't slow us up and my wife has complete security in case anything was to go wrong in the short term. 

It may not be ideal, but that is how I feel. 

Keep_pedalling

squidley said:

Thank you keep_pedalling.

I have presumed I would need to have the appropriate wills and trusts set up for it all to work as intended. I assume that will take a little time. Whereas if I just go with joint tenants now it won't slow us up and my wife has complete security in case anything was to go wrong in the short term. 

It may not be ideal, but that is how I feel. 

You do need the will in place to make it work, and if you have time just get those sorted before you complete on the new house, if you don’t have the time to do that then you are gambling whichever way you do it.