Marital home - can it be willed to someone else?

ManWithQuestion

Hello all. I have been married for 7 years but the marital home is in my wife’s name. Is she allowed to will 100% of the house to someone else or do I retain 50?

Keep_pedalling

She can leave it to whoever she wishes, but if she failed to provide for you (providing you with a life interest for example), you could challenge the will using the Provision for Family and Dependants Act 1975. If you had no where else to live or insufficient assets / income to obtain alternative accommodation you would have a strong chance of succeeding.  

Exodi

Keep_pedalling said:

She can leave it to whoever she wishes, but if she failed to provide for you (providing you with a life interest for example), you could challenge the will using the Provision for Family and Dependants Act 1975. If you had no where else to live or insufficient assets / income to obtain alternative accommodation you would have a strong chance of succeeding.  

I don't mean to boycott the OP's thread, but to save opening a new thread and asking vaguely the same question, to take a more extreme example what about assets in general?

E.g. let's say a husband and wife jointly own £1M of assets between them (houses and money in joint names).

As (in my example) they are joint owners of both the house and the money, they both own 100% of it (not 50% each). Let's say the husband died first, would his estate be £1M? Could he theoretically leave all of this to someone else (perhaps a bit less to ensure adequate alternative accommodation for the surviving spouse)?

HappyHarry

Exodi said:

Keep_pedalling said:

She can leave it to whoever she wishes, but if she failed to provide for you (providing you with a life interest for example), you could challenge the will using the Provision for Family and Dependants Act 1975. If you had no where else to live or insufficient assets / income to obtain alternative accommodation you would have a strong chance of succeeding.  

I don't mean to boycott the OP's thread, but to save opening a new thread and asking vaguely the same question, to take a more extreme example what about assets in general?

E.g. let's say a husband and wife jointly own £1M of assets between them (houses and money in joint names).

As (in my example) they are joint owners of both the house and the money, they both own 100% of it (not 50% each). Let's say the husband died first, would his estate be £1M? Could he theoretically leave all of this to someone else (perhaps a bit less to ensure adequate alternative accommodation for the surviving spouse)?

No. As it is a joint asset it belongs to the surviving owner.

Newly_retired

No because the assets pass to the joint owner on the death of one of them.

Exodi

HappyHarry said:

Exodi said:

Keep_pedalling said:

She can leave it to whoever she wishes, but if she failed to provide for you (providing you with a life interest for example), you could challenge the will using the Provision for Family and Dependants Act 1975. If you had no where else to live or insufficient assets / income to obtain alternative accommodation you would have a strong chance of succeeding.  

I don't mean to boycott the OP's thread, but to save opening a new thread and asking vaguely the same question, to take a more extreme example what about assets in general?

E.g. let's say a husband and wife jointly own £1M of assets between them (houses and money in joint names).

As (in my example) they are joint owners of both the house and the money, they both own 100% of it (not 50% each). Let's say the husband died first, would his estate be £1M? Could he theoretically leave all of this to someone else (perhaps a bit less to ensure adequate alternative accommodation for the surviving spouse)?

No. As it is a joint asset it belongs to the surviving owner.

Newly_retired said:

No because the assets pass to the joint owner on the death of one of them.

Thanks both, completely escaped my mind.

Mojisola

ManWithQuestion said:

Hello all. I have been married for 7 years but the marital home is in my wife’s name. Is she allowed to will 100% of the house to someone else or do I retain 50?

In this situation, it's worth registering matrimonial rights to the house -

www.gov.uk/government/publications/notice-of-home-rights-registration-hr1