Making will, should we change home to tenants in common

Soconfused14

We are finally going to sort wills out this year. Our only real asset is a home valued about £200000. 
We are currently joint tenants but was wondering if its worth looking at becoming tenants in common. My thinking is that if we need to go into care, then at least the kids would inherit half the value of the house.

Is this a good idea or are there some cons I dont know/havent thought about?? 

westv

Not really the right forum for that sort of question. I'm sure somebody will point you in the right direction though.

Marcon

Have asked for post to be moved to more appropriate board - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/deaths-funerals-probate

MSE_ForumTeam5

moved as suggested

Keep_pedalling

The cons are someone ends up in over my dead body grange. The more appropriate reason for doing this is to protect an inheritance if the surviving spouse gets married again. 

Soconfused14

@Keep_pedalling not sure what you mean, can you explain?

Keep_pedalling

Soconfused14 said:

@Keep_pedalling not sure what you mean, can you explain?

The risk with a surviving spouse if they remarry is that they make a new will favouring their new spouse or they fail to make a new will when they marry. In the latter situation the old will is invalidated (and the rules of intestacy apply meaning the children could end up getting nothing. Moving to tenants in common at least protects half the house from this happening. 

The one downside to this is that where the house is of quite low value, the ability to self fund over more than a couple of years means a surviving spouse could be dependant on a cash strapped LA to fund it which could mean a move to a somewhere you would rather not go. Of cause this only applies to a surviving spouse, if one requires residential  while the other is still alive then they have no choice but to depend on the LA. 

Soconfused14

I am aware of this risk with mirror wills/joint tenants, as this has happened when my father died and my step mother has changed will to favour just her kids.
I am aware its a "low value " house (little bit rude) but figure that kids would get about £50,000 if change to tenants in common which is a decent amount (especially where we live).
Also the approx £100000 left to fund care home would be able to cover about 2 years, which I can see is the average stay. As you say if the first spouse needed care then its more complicated, maybe have to get one of those Equity release and then would depend on what happened to second spouse , if kids got any inheritance.

I am not averse to paying for care if its needed and would be glad to use my home to fund it if needed. 
 
Are there any other downsides to tenants in common??

Keep_pedalling

Sorry, did not mean to be rude about the house value. It just has a bigger impact in a potential source of self funding than someone with the good fortune to live in a more valuable one.

No there are no real downsides to moving to TiC.

Spendless

Tbf if your house is a 'low cost' one then the area you live in quite possibly is 'low cost too - compared to more affluent areas. No rudeness, I live in such a place myself. My Grandmother lived the last 8 years of her life with dementia (so yes this can happen too) dying last year. She was self funding. I wince when I see some of the care home figures mentioned on here, Nan was paying a lot cheaper prices. 

Soconfused14

Thanks thats great. Just trying to do some forward planning as hopefully we are no where near neeed ing care(in 50s).