Changing Joint Tenants to Tenants in Common for Will

Giggidy

My father in law wants to get his affairs in order but just needs help with clarifying a few issues with regards to making a will.

He has a few pensions, assets and savings in the UK which he wants to split between his children and grandchildren. He also owns a house with his current partner, joint tenants and mortgage paid off. He wants to leave his half to his children which of course is not possible being joint tenants as it will of course pass over to his partner if he passes first. FIL is concerned that his partner could then leave the whole house to her own daughter in her will. Quick google suggests that he can complete a Joint Severance in Tenancy form to change this to tenants in common. He also needs to notify the land registry that the property is owned outright now that the mortgage has been paid in full.

Is this a simple process of just filling in the form (both are in agreement to change it) and posting off to Land Registry. Does a solicitor need to get involved at this point?

Secondly, FIL shares a property with his brother left to them by their father (once his wife passes on) in Barbados, which he wants to leave to his children. Does he need to get two solicitors (one in each country) to sort or can solicitors in the UK deal with overseas property?

Keep_pedalling

This would be a good idea for both your father and his partner, otherwise her daughter could lose out if she died first. The normal procedure is to give the surviving owner a life interest via an immediate post death interest trust however IHT can complicate things if either or both of them have substancial assets. This is especially the case if they are unmarried. They should both seek advice from a STEP qualified solicitor who will be able to draft suitable wills for them. 

He probably needs separate advice with regards to the Barbados property and a separate will to cover it. 

Giggidy

It absolutely would be in the best interest of both to make sure their respective children are covered in any eventuality. They're not married and don't think his assets would exceed the £500,000 IHT (as he will be leaving the house to his children.

Thanks for the info, really useful

Keep_pedalling

Giggidy said:

It absolutely would be in the best interest of both to make sure their respective children are covered in any eventuality. They're not married and don't think his assets would exceed the £500,000 IHT (as he will be leaving the house to his children.

Thanks for the info, really useful

There is a problem here, to provide security for the surviving partner it is best to make use of immediate post death interest trusts, however if they are not married then that loses the ability to claim the residential NRB so that would result in an IHT liability on the first to die. 

Leaving a share directly to the children creates different tax issues, one is CGT when the house is eventually sold and if either or both the children do not own their own home it will lose them their first time buyer status and an additional 5-8% tax on their first home purchase because it will be classed as a second house purchase.

If they married or became civil partners then this would overcome those issues.