Alterations to a will

Brie

Asking for a friend.....

The situation as I know it is that friend's parents have made their wills, mirrors.  And in them they say all to the other but on the death of the second one the assets are split equally between 2 children (no others).  But they also specify that both children equally inherit the home and they also equally inherit all the cash.  

Now friend has asked me (cuz she thinks I'm bright in this way) what happens if only she wants the house and her sibling doesn't.  I've suggested that they might be able to do an alteration to the will so that she gets the house 100% and sibling gets an equal value of the cash and then they can split the rest between the 2 of them or friend can pay a bit to sibling if that's the way things work out.  But I've also said that they should consult a solicitor.

She is certain that her parents will NOT change their wills at this stage.  

Obviously the big issue is if sibling has to sell 50% of the house to friend and there are CGT and stamp duty etc to pay.  

mebu60

Executor should be able to draw up a Deed of Variation to make that scenario work with no SDLT or CGT liabilities. 

Marcon

Brie said:

Asking for a friend.....

The situation as I know it is that friend's parents have made their wills, mirrors.  And in them they say all to the other but on the death of the second one the assets are split equally between 2 children (no others).  But they also specify that both children equally inherit the home and they also equally inherit all the cash.  

Now friend has asked me (cuz she thinks I'm bright in this way) what happens if only she wants the house and her sibling doesn't.  I've suggested that they might be able to do an alteration to the will so that she gets the house 100% and sibling gets an equal value of the cash and then they can split the rest between the 2 of them or friend can pay a bit to sibling if that's the way things work out.  But I've also said that they should consult a solicitor.

She is certain that her parents will NOT change their wills at this stage.  

Obviously the big issue is if sibling has to sell 50% of the house to friend and there are CGT and stamp duty etc to pay.  

Why? A deed of variation should avoid that.

Devongardener

But you have no idea at this stage what the house will be worth at the time of the death of the 2nd parent, or how much cash there will be.
It could well be that the house will need to be sold to pay for care, and similarly the cash/investments could dwindle.  

 The Will they have written is the only fair way to split the final net assets.

Keep_pedalling

Simple, the house gets sold and the proceeds split between the beneficiaries. 

It is usually a terrible idea to name a specific house in a will as there is a good chance you won’t own it when you die. 

Brie

deed of variation was the term I was looking for thanks Marcon!!

Yes none of us knows what the future will bring.  But.  Friend is already living next door to parents and the parents place is nicer than friend's so the thought is (currently) that friend will be the carer for parents and when they shuffle off she will sell her home, move into parent's and sibling will get the cash portion.  If there's an adjustment for house value vs cash then that should be relatively simply as friend's house sale can make up what's missing in cash or sibling can sliver off some cash to friend.