My brother wants to sell his share in our parents home

[Deleted User]

If my parents were to gift a share of their house to me, this would mean nothing to me unless I could sell it.

Of what benefit was such an arrangement to your brother, unless he could sell his share?

Has your brother had to pay second home stamp duty? Did your parents pay rent to him?

I am not saying what your brother is doing is ethical but he obviously sees the situation very differently. 

If you want to tidy up a mess, buy him out.

Emily_Joy

[Deleted User] said:

If my parents were to gift a share of their house to me, this would mean nothing to me unless I could sell it.
Of what benefit was such an arrangement to your brother, unless he could sell his share?
Has your brother had to pay second home stamp duty? Did your parents pay rent to him?
I am not saying what your brother is doing is ethical but he obviously sees the situation very differently. 
If you want to tidy up a mess, buy him out.

At the time, my brother lived there with my parents, and was neither able to work nor, indeed, to live on his own due to health issues. My brother's health gradually improved and about 5 years later he bought his first house. As far as I know my parents gifted him generous amounts (totaling to about 90K by now), which would exceed any reasonable rent. Yes - I am just looking to tidy up the mess and to enable our parents to live as best as they can taking into account their rather advanced years.

FreeBear

Emily_Joy said:

Emmia said:

I'm going to presume your father doesn't have the finances to buy your brother out, which is the obvious solution.

Why does your brother own half a house he doesn't presumably live in?

We - my husband and I - would have the finances to buy my brother out (or to help my parents to buy it out). What I don't know is how to agree on a sensible price.

The obvious thing to do would be to get a valuation done by a RICS surveyor. If you go to an estate agent, their valuation could be well wide of the mark. Once you've agreed on the valuation, negotiations can take place - Point out that if a deal is made between family members, only legal fees need to be covered, and EA fees could be discounted.

ciderboy2009

OP - have you checked the paperwork from when the 50% was signed over.  I'd be very surprised if a solicitor would have allowed them to do this without some form of life interest being in place for your parents.

theoretica

I think it would be helpful if your brother did his own research and found out for himself what is involved in forcing a sale.  This might make him more amenable to negotiating a buy out at a significant discount by you or your parents.  Half a property that someone else is living in is not worth half the vacant sale price of that property. 

It might be worth your parents talking to a good broker about what is available in the way of equity release products.  Not necessarily the best option, but good to know what it would be.

GDB2222

ciderboy2009 said:

OP - have you checked the paperwork from when the 50% was signed over.  I'd be very surprised if a solicitor would have allowed them to do this without some form of life interest being in place for your parents.

Hopefully, this was done. 

The brother could still sell his reversionary interest in the house, but the value would be discounted. The discount could well be around 5% a year, for each year of the parents' life expectancy. 

Emily_Joy

ciderboy2009 said:

OP - have you checked the paperwork from when the 50% was signed over.  I'd be very surprised if a solicitor would have allowed them to do this without some form of life interest being in place for your parents.

Thank you - we will check.

theoretica said:

 Half a property that someone else is living in is not worth half the vacant sale price of that property. 

I think that is why he wants to force the sale of the entire house.

theartfullodger

(Unless deeds ? Sasines ?  say otherwise) brother seems entitled to sell his half. And have CGT to declare and pay within 60 days of sale. (What HMRC's view would be re. price v value might be interesting.).

There are no rules or laws on what price should be.

An investor (probably landlord) might see it as a reasonable long-term gamble.

Not sure dad's rights if he did sell.  That brother owns other property is irrelevant imho .  Suggest you and dad go talk to a Scottish solicitor who claims expertise in this sort of issue.

Dad's will might change soon....

Interesting insight into why such shared ownership cunning plans might not be seen cunning.

Sorry, hope it works out with dad happy.

Brie

Frankly I'd be telling brother to gift back the 50% share and add £10k to the package.

Why should he be profiting from your parents' bad decisions.  Has there been any coercion in him getting these gifts??

And does brother realise that these gifts will be looked in to should there be any investigation about deprivation of assets?  That if your parents need any council funded care at any point they will look to him to pay for it all.

Emily_Joy

Brie said:

Has there been any coercion in him getting these gifts??

He definitely never asked for a share of the house as he was in no state to request anything like this. At the time our parents just wanted him to own a share of the house where he lived. He probably doesn't worry about deprivation of assets because the most likely scenario is that my parents will come to live with me and my husband should they need care.