Proper handling of will property trust for tenants in common

Oxford1977

My situation is as follows:
My grandparents set up a tenants in common trust for their home in 2005.
My grandfather died in 2017, placing his share of their home in a property trust to benefit my aunts, my brother and I.
My grandmother asked that I act as executor of his will. I estimated his share of their home at £175K. There was no inheritance tax to pay on his estate.
My grandmother was named as the main trustee, my brother an additional trustee. No will trust has been registered.
Their home was sold shortly before my grandmothers death and the proceeds placed in a savings account. ~£340K.
My grandmother died two weeks ago. I’m named as executor of her will. I’m about to apply for probate.

I have two questions:

1. When I apply for probate for my grandmother’s estate, I should value her share of their home at £170K?
2. Do I need to register a trust for my grandfathers share of their home (and if so what kind of trust, how do I do this)? or am I free to distribute his share of their home to his beneficiaries?

I’d really appreciate any guidance!

Keep_pedalling

Your grandmother would have been the beneficial owner of her husband’s share of the house and as such it forms part of her estate.

Did you need to apply for probate for your grandfather’s estate?

Oxford1977

That's interesting.

I applied for probate for my grandfather's estate back in 2017 to allow me to deal with his pensions and bank accounts. Valuations at the time included a bit of cash, plus his share of their home.  The money passed to my grandmother as did the trust. 

So, this being the case, he didn't use any of his inheritance tax allowance. Presumably this can be used when applying for probate for my grandmother?

Keep_pedalling

Oxford1977 said:

That's interesting.

I applied for probate for my grandfather's estate back in 2017 to allow me to deal with his pensions and bank accounts. Valuations at the time included a bit of cash, plus his share of their home.  The money passed to my grandmother as did the trust. 

So, this being the case, he didn't use any of his inheritance tax allowance. Presumably this can be used when applying for probate for my grandmother?

Thanks, just wanted to check that none of his NRB was used on the trust in error, but you seem  to have that covered.

Oxford1977

Just to conclude this thread:

1. When I apply for probate for my grandmother’s estate, I should value her share of their home at £170K? - Yes
2. Do I need to register a trust for my grandfathers share of their home (and if so what kind of trust, how do I do this)? or am I free to distribute his share of their home to his beneficiaries? - Yes. It's more than 2 years since is death. This is really easy to do at the TRS website.  I'll close the trust once I've distributed the proceeds from his share of the property per the instructions in his will.

Willeri

1. If property was sold BEFORE her death then  it did not form part of her estate at that date, so its value not relevant, but her cash balance is on that date. Technically at that point his share of sale proceeds should have passed to his trust beneficiaries it was being held for as the trust then ended by its sale, unless his proceeds still held in trust for them. 
2. The 2 year trust registration requirement only came into play more recently in 2023 via TRS and before that was income bearing trusts only, so don’t see point in registering a trust that may not or doesn't  exist any longer.