Life interest in property and selling home/buying new

absolution007

Hello please could i ask advice/guidance/thoughts on the following.

My parent and partner bought a property as tenants in common 50/50

My parent is now deceased but left their partner lifetime interest in the property

The partner now wishes to sell and use part of my parents 50% share of current property sale to buy a new property.

Trustees are all in agreement and no problems so far.

Partner understands they are responsible for the upkeep/bills/maintenance of new property just as with their current joint home.

Who bears the costs/fees of the estate agents/solicitors for the sale of the joint property/buying of the new one? Are they split between the trustees of my parents portion of the sold property and the partner, or is the partner responsible?

Many thanks for your input.

poseidon1

absolution007 said:

Hello please could i ask advice/guidance/thoughts on the following.

My parent and partner bought a property as tenants in common 50/50

My parent is now deceased but left their partner lifetime interest in the property

The partner now wishes to sell and use part of my parents 50% share of current property sale to buy a new property.

Trustees are all in agreement and no problems so far.

Partner understands they are responsible for the upkeep/bills/maintenance of new property just as with their current joint home.

Who bears the costs/fees of the estate agents/solicitors for the sale of the joint property/buying of the new one? Are they split between the trustees of my parents portion of the sold property and the partner, or is the partner responsible?

Many thanks for your input.

Unless the Will trust document specifies to the contrary, the presumption is 50:50 between life tenant and trustees.

However, will there be cash leftover from this change of property? If so what does the Will state should happen to the trust's half share?

On the other hand if the replacement property is going to be more expensive, I assume there is no cash in the trust ( just 50% of the house ) so clearly the trustees will have no money to make up any difference. In that situation the trust's share of the replacement property  will be proportionately less.

absolution007

poseidon1 said:

absolution007 said:

Hello please could i ask advice/guidance/thoughts on the following.

My parent and partner bought a property as tenants in common 50/50

My parent is now deceased but left their partner lifetime interest in the property

The partner now wishes to sell and use part of my parents 50% share of current property sale to buy a new property.

Trustees are all in agreement and no problems so far.

Partner understands they are responsible for the upkeep/bills/maintenance of new property just as with their current joint home.

Who bears the costs/fees of the estate agents/solicitors for the sale of the joint property/buying of the new one? Are they split between the trustees of my parents portion of the sold property and the partner, or is the partner responsible?

Many thanks for your input.

Unless the Will trust document specifies to the contrary, the presumption is 50:50 between life tenant and trustees.

However, will there be cash leftover from this change of property? If so what does the Will state should happen to the trust's half share?

On the other hand if the replacement property is going to be more expensive, I assume there is no cash in the trust ( just 50% of the house ) so clearly the trustees will have no money to make up any difference. In that situation the trust's share of the replacement property  will be proportionately less.

Thank you for your response,
The will states that the life interest is in the property only, and allows for all or part of my parents half share to be used for a future property to suit the partners needs/requirements until their death.

The partners intention is to use 50% of my parents share - with the remainder set aside and the annual interest paid to them until they pass away.

The future property is slightly less than the current one, with 2/3 of purchase price  being met by partner and 1/3 met by parents share. 

Would the conveyancing costs etc need to come from the residual funds in the trust or is that ring fenced for property purchase only?

Thanks once again

poseidon1

absolution007 said:

poseidon1 said:

absolution007 said:

Hello please could i ask advice/guidance/thoughts on the following.

My parent and partner bought a property as tenants in common 50/50

My parent is now deceased but left their partner lifetime interest in the property

The partner now wishes to sell and use part of my parents 50% share of current property sale to buy a new property.

Trustees are all in agreement and no problems so far.

Partner understands they are responsible for the upkeep/bills/maintenance of new property just as with their current joint home.

Who bears the costs/fees of the estate agents/solicitors for the sale of the joint property/buying of the new one? Are they split between the trustees of my parents portion of the sold property and the partner, or is the partner responsible?

Many thanks for your input.

Unless the Will trust document specifies to the contrary, the presumption is 50:50 between life tenant and trustees.

However, will there be cash leftover from this change of property? If so what does the Will state should happen to the trust's half share?

On the other hand if the replacement property is going to be more expensive, I assume there is no cash in the trust ( just 50% of the house ) so clearly the trustees will have no money to make up any difference. In that situation the trust's share of the replacement property  will be proportionately less.

Thank you for your response,
The will states that the life interest is in the property only, and allows for all or part of my parents half share to be used for a future property to suit the partners needs/requirements until their death.

The partners intention is to use 50% of my parents share - with the remainder set aside and the annual interest paid to them until they pass away.

The future property is slightly less than the current one, with 2/3 of purchase price  being met by partner and 1/3 met by parents share. 

Would the conveyancing costs etc need to come from the residual funds in the trust or is that ring fenced for property purchase only?

Thanks once again

Does the Will Trust specifically state that any capital cash released from the property should be invested to produce income for the life tenant or is this merely an informal agreement between trustees and beneficiary?

As for conveyancing costs, appears the Trustees are on the hook for 1/3rd to be paid from the remaining cash set aside as you indicated.

As for investing the remaining funds, how much will it be and how old is the life tenant?

If life tenant relatively young and might easily survive another 20 years or so, trustees should consider whether mere interest bearing deposit accounts would be fair on the capital beneficiaries bearing in mind the effect of inflation over that long period.

In any event they may find it challenging to find a bank to deposit trust funds ( all the high street banks have abandoned this sector), and most of the remaining banks who offer an option are not especially competitive with their interest rates, which will no doubt  diminish as the Bank of England rate falls.

Yours is the 2nd recent query where investment of life interest trust funds has arisen. The thread below may therefore be of interest.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81489736#Comment_81489736