Some Legal Advice please

andystephens

Hi all,

I wonder if anyone can help me.

 

A few years ago my father in law signed over his house to his son, and nothing to his other 2 children. The house was signed over below market value and we believe under duress. There are also other circumstances which I can go into if need be. Recently, the son has agreed to sell the house when the father dies (he can stay there till he passes away) and split it 3 ways between them all. My questions are:

 

Is it possible to sign the house back to the father then it being split upon death? Or will an agreement doing formally at a solicitor suffice?

 

If he then does not agree to sign it over or sell and there is nothing formally, where do we stand on challenging.

Thanks all

elsien

Signing the property back over to the father is possible, although unclear about any tax implications. Presuming he has capacity to agree to the deal.
You don’t say how old he is, but I’m wondering if this was in part a way to try and avoid care home fees in the future which tends to be the reason why people hand their property over.
If he does need care the house may need to go to pay for that. So they may, or may not be an inheritance at point of death. 

As to challenging, what evidence do you have that your father was coerced? Is he willing to say now that that was the case? Probably not if he’s living in the same house as the son. Challenges cost a lot of money and you do need to have something to back up your claim.

andystephens

He does not live with the son. He as an agreement he can live there till he dies.

Father in law has said he is willing to sign something to say he was not in the right frame of mind to sign it over in the first place

sheramber

andystephens said:

He does not live with the son. He as an agreement he can live there till he dies.

Father in law has said he is willing to sign something to say he was not in the right frame of mind to sign it over in the first place

Does he have any evidence to back that up?  Medical reports?

andystephens

He had just lost his mother so was in mourning, and he was diagnosed as an alcoholic

doodling

Hi,

The son now owns the house and can do what he likes with it.

If the son wants to change that to better match what everyone else considers fair then there is nothing stopping him from giving the house back to his father or giving a share in it to his other siblings.  That could be done now.

If the son doesn't want to give up.his ownership then the earlier you start legal action (assuming that such action has some chance of success which I doubt) the better.

Either way I suggest sorting things sooner rather than later - the longer this is left the more difficult making changes will be.

elsien

andystephens said:

He had just lost his mother so was in mourning, and he was diagnosed as an alcoholic

Neither of which automatically indicated a lack of capacity in decision-making terms.

_Penny_Dreadful

andystephens said:

Hi all,

I wonder if anyone can help me.

 

A few years ago my father in law signed over his house to his son, and nothing to his other 2 children. The house was signed over below market value and we believe under duress. There are also other circumstances which I can go into if need be. Recently, the son has agreed to sell the house when the father dies (he can stay there till he passes away) and split it 3 ways between them all. My questions are:

 

Is it possible to sign the house back to the father then it being split upon death? Or will an agreement doing formally at a solicitor suffice?

 

If he then does not agree to sign it over or sell and there is nothing formally, where do we stand on challenging.

Thanks all

You say the home was signed over at below market value, not for free. Did the son pay something for the property? I’m wondering if this is a situation where a parent had an interest only mortgage, no means with which to repay the capital, and the mortgage term was ending leaving an adult child to step in or the house would have to be sold. 

Annisele

andystephens said:

He does not live with the son. He as an agreement he can live there till he dies.

In that case, it's possible the son will have a capital gains tax liability if he disposes of the house (whether the "disposal" is a sale to an unrelated person, a gift to his father, or something else).

If it wasn't for the agreement that the father could live in the house until death, I'd say the valuation for CGT purposes was relatively straightforward. But that agreement might complicate things.

lincroft1710

The house belongs to the son.


And that basically is the end of it.


You have no proof of coercion, the son will refute anything the father says.

T.T.D

You have a he said he said case.

I am NOT a lawyer or solicitor, not giving legal advice, just giving my opinion.

 As you can’t give legal advice here anyway it’s against forum rules, I’m expressly stating this is my own personal opinion and I’m not a qualified legal expert. 

A solicitor will be happy to take your money and send empty threat letters to the son, even guide you through court process, it’s your money so they will act on your behalf and present a case.

I foresee this case will depend on the defence evidence as you have opinions not evidence so son could bring in testimony of the companies that saw dad sign the documents, That’s if they were present themselves, they can testify to dads cognitive ability at the time, they can testify to if they had seen any coercive type behaviour signals that may have gave rise to concern at the time and say no and you have to overcome this testimony, they may also testify to the contrary also which helps your case. 

You can present dad as testimony evidence but it’s just an allegation at the moment, defence could argue that dad has sellers remorse and now claims to have a “temporary cognitive impairments” at the time of signing this over to
get it back. 

I would say at present you have a hearsay case based on no evidence to warrant taking the son to court, you also run the risk of not only paying for your own representation but also risk paying the sons representation and any fees incurred for any expert witness. 

Dad saying it was forced is not evidence it’s an allegation per say in my opinion but is a spring board to have to dig deeper to get evidence of coercion, some kind of text messaging between them that appears to pressuring and pestering him to change the house to him.

This will tear a family apart everyone could lose in the end if he decide to sell and keep all the money because everyone went rogue on him with all these allegations…Treading on thin ice rings to my mind.