Selling part of flat to my mum without conveyancer.

longdistancemum

My husband bought a flat for my mum so she could move nearer us before she sold her own flat which was difficult to sell. My mum has been living in the flat near us for a year and now she has sold her flat she is keen to buy 50% from my husband which has been the plan from the start. In hindsight we should have asked the conveyancer to put the new flat in joint names of my husband and mum at the start. Now we are being quoted £1400 fees for my husband to sell 50% and £1000 for my mum to buy 50%. There is no mortgage and no need to redo all the searches, so I'm researching doing the paperwork for land registry ourselves. It is leasehold but I have email from freeholder Taylor Wimpey that because it's a maisonette they do no management and charge no service fee, we just spilt any costs with the flat upstairs and this is in the deeds. Looks like we'll need to pay a professional to complete the ID checks that land registry require. I know about capital gains tax. What I can't figure out is, can my mum just transfer the money into my husband’s account? It would be £80k and she would then have £20k left in savings and no other property.

silvercar

You can research ‘transfer of equity’.

Mgman1965

Deprivation of assets springs to mind, as it will the LA'S if your mum needs care.

Transfering large amounts of cash or giving assets away (or for pennies) never goes unnoticed

People still ask if mum/dad can sell them their 300k house for a £1 (and even still live in it) to avoid having to sell it for care home fees.

FreeBear

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81967427#Comment_81967427

If the mother is buying 50% at (or close to) market rate, there is no deprivation of assets.

Paying a total of £2400 for a simple transfer of equity is taking the pee in my opinion. Doing the paperwork yourselves and getting a solicitor to check the documents would be cheaper if you can find one willing to do the work.

GrubbyGirl_2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81967427#Comment_81967427

How is it deprivation of asests when she is selling 1 property and buying another? As long as she's not buying 50% of the property at 100% of the market price it's all completely legit

longdistancemum

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81967427#Comment_81967427

It wouldn't be deprivation of assesses if she's buying somewhere she'd be living, surely. She'dstill have an asset.

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81967960#Comment_81967960

Correct, and if she had to go into a care home, the local authority would take into account she owned half the maisonette.

mills112

when i did an equity transfer i found that you need to have solicitors involved because they need to do AML checks on the money and to ascertain the stamp duty payable. without their vetting / putting their name down to it, you can get into trouble with HMRC and the land registry.

so i think you can't avoid it and i found that you need two solicitors as well as one can not do the transaction for both party.

mills112

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81967512#Comment_81967512

£2,400 is the fee for them pretty much checking the forms as there isn't really much to complete!

it is their fee for putting their name to it but they have to carry out ID checks and AML checks as part of the service. i had a ridiculous amount of AML done for savings the money i used to buy the equity in a house that I already own half of! not only did I need to prove where the savings came from, i had to prove where i got all my other money from as well, which has nothing to do with the equity transfer!

sheenas

working with the land registry is a pain and if all the proof and documentation does not line up they will reject the transaction.

I guess the question is why does she want to own a 50% share other than security. It’s about inheritance planning and may be there are better options?

mills112

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81968152#Comment_81968152

my solicitor had terrible trouble with the stamp duty form for the transfer notice for the land registry as i was buying the equity from my ex so stamp duty gets a bit complicated. they said without this form done correctly, it is not possible to register the purchase with the land registry. so without the solicitors involved, the land registry may not accept the transfer as there has been no independent AML checks or stamp duty liability assessment by a professional solicitor.

the land registry will want to satisfy themselves that all these legal aspects have been dealt with before they will accept the transfer.