Property and money in will

goldygash

Hi, my father is currently doing his will.  I live with him in shared property and we are tenants in common with 50% split each. He intends to leave me his 50% in the will. 

My question is more around monetary gifts. He wants to leave a generous amount to his grand children as specific amounts. At the moment there is enough money to cover this, but when he dies if there is not enough money, how is this handled? could I be forced to sell the property to fund it, or would they just not receive any money?

Brie

Things can be listed in order of payouts.  So 1 - you get the house, 2 - kids get £Xk each.  My guess is that if there isn't enough for each kid to get £Xk then they would get a reduced amount pro rata.  Might be easiest for dad to state something like "after all bills have been paid the remaining cash assets are to be distributed on the basis that Bobby gets 15%, Jane gets 35% and Matilda gets 50%".  Alternative would be to add a proviso "Bobby gets 15% up to a max of £10k" etc leaving the remainder to you or Cats Protection or whatever.

badmemory

It could be easier to change the ownership of the house so that it comes to you automatically.  I think it is joint tenants, that would remove the need for it to be in the will & the money can be done as shares.

Linton

goldygash said:

Hi, my father is currently doing his will.  I live with him in shared property and we are tenants in common with 50% split each. He intends to leave me his 50% in the will. 

My question is more around monetary gifts. He wants to leave a generous amount to his grand children as specific amounts. At the moment there is enough money to cover this, but when he dies if there is not enough money, how is this handled? could I be forced to sell the property to fund it, or would they just not receive any money?

 There is a defined heirarchy of bequests once the estate has paid all debts, the relevent ones being:

1) Specific bequests - eg my 50% share of  1 Acacia Avenue.  My collection of WW1 medals, the contents of my account number XXXXX held with Coutts.  If it turned out that at the time of death  the deceased did not in fact own the object defined, the bequest would fail and the beneficiary would get nothing.

2) General bequests where the source of the money is not identified eg £10000 to my son Fred.  If there is insufficient money to pay all general bequests  they are distributed pro-rata

3) Residual bequests: eg 20% of the estate remaining after all specific and general bequests have been distributed. So in this case were there to be any residual beneficiaries, they would get nothing.

So in your case if the estate remains solvent but is unable to pay all bequests in full, you get father's 50% of the house and the grandchildren get a fraction of what money is left. 

Keep_pedalling

He should not attempt to DIY this, it needs to be drafted by a local solicitor. You should make your will as well.

Mojisola

Linton said:

1) Specific bequests - eg my 50% share of  1 Acacia Avenue.

It's best not to specify a property in a will in case it isn't owned at the time the testator dies.

The bequest would fail if they had moved to another property and the will hadn't been changed or father wasn't capable of making a new will.

I would change the ownership to 'joint tenants' to secure the property for goldygash and remove it from the estate, with the proviso that goldygash doesn't want to leave their 50% to someone other than father if they die first.

Linton

Mojisola said:

Linton said:

1) Specific bequests - eg my 50% share of  1 Acacia Avenue.

It's best not to specify a property in a will in case it isn't owned at the time the testator dies.

The bequest would fail if they had moved to another property and the will hadn't been changed or father wasn't capable of making a new will.

I would change the ownership to 'joint tenants' to secure the property for goldygash and remove it from the estate, with the proviso that goldygash doesn't want to leave their 50% to someone other than father if they die first.

Agreed that my example was poor. The key point remains though,  if it was clear from the will that a particular house or some any other object was intended  it would trump any general cash bequest if there was insufficient cash available. The exact wording should be checked with a solicitor.  

goldygash

Thanks all, I’ll get an appt booked with a solicitor