Passing property to my children

slaterp

Hopefully this question is in the correct forum section. I am recently widowed and have 2 properties. At the moment my deceased wife, my son and myself are on both sets of deeds. I intend to
1) remove my deceased wife off both the deeds, 
2) remove my son off one set of deeds and add my daughter.
I will end up with me and my son on 1 set of deeds and me and my daughter on the other deeds.
My son and I will live in 1 property and my daughter will live in the other property. 
My will and testament will state that on my death each property will be left to my son or my daughter.
If, before death, my health deteriorates and  I need to be placed into a home of some kind, I.e a home which will need to be paid for. Will the state have any legal right to part of either of the properties. My pension is good and should go along to covering the costs of the home.

bobster2

If you can self-fund care - then your local authority will have no interest in your properties.

If you ask for local authority financial support - then they will carry out a financial assessment.

If you remain living at home, and need carers to visit, the value of that property will not be included in the assessment. However, the value of your share in the property where you do not live would be included. So yes - if you lack other funds you could be forced to sell that share of a second property.

If you move into residential care - the value of both properties could be included in the financial assessment. There are some exceptions - e.g. if you leave a relative living in your main home and they receive disability benefits.

But again - if you have sufficient funds to cover your own care - no properties would need to be sold.

Factsheet here...

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/factsheets/fs38_property_and_paying_for_residential_care_fcs.pdf

Keep_pedalling

You don’t mention any other assets, but even if you don’t have any your property’s mean you will be a self funder, although payment may be deferred with a charge place on one of the properties. 

On an unrelated point there may be a CGT issue for your son with the gift of his share of one of the properties to your daughter.

Marcon

slaterp said:

Hopefully this question is in the correct forum section. I am recently widowed and have 2 properties. At the moment my deceased wife, my son and myself are on both sets of deeds. I intend to
1) remove my deceased wife off both the deeds, 
2) remove my son off one set of deeds and add my daughter.
I will end up with me and my son on 1 set of deeds and me and my daughter on the other deeds.
My son and I will live in 1 property and my daughter will live in the other property. 
My will and testament will state that on my death each property will be left to my son or my daughter.
If, before death, my health deteriorates and  I need to be placed into a home of some kind, I.e a home which will need to be paid for. Will the state have any legal right to part of either of the properties. My pension is good and should go along to covering the costs of the home.

Hopefully you'll be taking proper professional advice based on a full understanding of all relevant facts.

Grumpy_chap

slaterp said:

Hopefully this question is in the correct forum section. I am recently widowed and have 2 properties. At the moment my deceased wife, my son and myself are on both sets of deeds. I intend to
1) remove my deceased wife off both the deeds, 
2) remove my son off one set of deeds and add my daughter.
I will end up with me and my son on 1 set of deeds and me and my daughter on the other deeds.
My son and I will live in 1 property and my daughter will live in the other property. 
My will and testament will state that on my death each property will be left to my son or my daughter.
If, before death, my health deteriorates and  I need to be placed into a home of some kind, I.e a home which will need to be paid for. Will the state have any legal right to part of either of the properties. My pension is good and should go along to covering the costs of the home.

Removing your wife from the deeds is being orderly and ensuring that the paperwork reflects the current reality.

As for the part ownership currently in your son's name, is he agreeable to forfeiting this share of an asset to gift to his sister?

Does your daughter want to live in the property that your son will be gifting her half of?

slaterp

Thanks for comments. There a great help, I'll make sure I keep some savings as a buffer to help with the home costs.

msb1234

What’s the plan if either of your children want to live elsewhere with a partner?

Gavin83

slaterp said:

If, before death, my health deteriorates and  I need to be placed into a home of some kind, I.e a home which will need to be paid for. Will the state have any legal right to part of either of the properties. My pension is good and should go along to covering the costs of the home.

Are you sure your pension is enough to cover the costs of a care home? It’s not unthinkable but it’s unusual. Although care homes vary quite significantly in price I think a fair estimate would be that you’d need at least £1000 of post tax income a week.

If you do have this level of income then you really don’t need to worry about the properties.

doodling

Hi,

Removing your wife from the deeds is a sensible thing to do.

Your son currently owns 33% or 50% of two houses depending on how they were originally owned (Joint Tenants vs. Tenants in Common) and if Tenants in Common, what your wife's will said.

I assume your son is agreeable to this idea as it will involve him giving his sister a valuable asset (which he doesn't have to do if he doesn't want to).

If the houses are owned as Joint Tenants then it doesn't matter what your will says, they will automatically be owned wholly by the other JointvTenant(s) when you die.  If you own the houses as Tenants in Common then you can leave your share of the house to whoever you want.

Whilst it is too late now for your son, I assume that you are confident that neither your son or daughter will get into significant debt or get divorced - any assets owned (or part owned) by them (I.e. the houses) would be an asset that could be pursued in those scenarios.

With respect to care costs, any assets you own can be used to pay for your care.  If you have a house you are not living in then you will be expected to sell it (or your share in it) to fund your care - this could mean that your daughter would need to find half the value of the house in order to carry on living there at some point  The same applies to your son although it is likely that they would wait until after your death (or at least you moving into a home) before they chased him for your share of the house he was living in.

You need professional advice (from a solicitor) as if you do go into care, presumably you wouldn't want your daughter to end up with only half a house whilst your son ends up with a whole house depending on the order your assets have been converted into cash to pay for your care.

Brie

I think there will be stamp duty if you/son "sell" a portion of a property to daughter.  Even if no money actually changes hands.  

The value of the property will be disregarded (I believe) if either son/daughter is at least 60 years old.  Otherwise the council might include it assuming you are moving into a home that they are funding.  At least that's what happened with us and MiL.  Before the council knew I was over 60 they said that they would force a sale even if that made us homeless.  It's all to do with deprivation of assets as they deemed MiL had given us too much of the value of the property.  

slaterp

Many thanks for all the helpful comments. Yes I'm going down the professional advice route. It's good to be prepared though.