Questions about inheriting a house

Keep_pedalling

Another option would be to sell up and purchase him a smaller and cheaper to run house. This would be a better option than for him to carry on living in a large money pit that many older family homes can be. If not maintained by lake of money houses quickly become run down and not pleasant to live in.

gplion55

What you do depends greatly on what is actually written in the will and the wording.

Unless it stipulates in the will that your brother may remain in the property (for a fixed time period for example) then, (under normal circumstances) the property must be sold and the shares split. In this respect it is important who holds the position of executor of the will and that this is actually enforced.

Even then, getting them to move out can lead to enormous legal battles. In addition, having little or no income can actually give your brother other entitlements such as an 'estoppel' ruling allowing him to stay in the house, especially if he has had any kind of financial help from the parents.

You could have your parents remove you from the will entirely by just having them make a new one at the solicitors. That would be a clean break and not tie you up unnecessarily to any obligations in the future.

Get some proper legal advice.

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81992716#Comment_81992716

Forget any idea selling your half of the house while your brother still lives in his half - it's just not possible. You would both have to agree to sell, with your brother perhaps having the option buying something smaller with his share of the proceeds?

I suppose another way/half way house would be for the OP to say if the house was sold, the brother would get half + an agreed extra amount. A sort of incentive for the brother, and the OP at least gets some of the house value cash.

Could be a messy compromise but at least another option.

otb666

If either of them need care the LA will put a charge on the house and it would have to be sold.

Keep_pedalling

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81993209#Comment_81993209

If you mean either of the OPs parents, that is not true. While one of them lives there it will be disregarded, it will also be disregarded if the oPs brother is over 60.

Spendless

Assuming your parents both still have capacity, why not just open up a conversation about it. Along the lines of 'Im aware your wills say this, have you taken into consideration .......'

I once had a convo along those lines with one of my parents and in doing so discovered that said parent had left me a property that they didnt own! Even if parent had, the property had been sold several years earlier to pay actual owner's care home fees. Some nonsense about Grandchildren attaining a certain age (over 18) before accessing money. I know from stories on here that would have unwittingly created a trust so the older ones couldnt have their money until the youngest reached said age (still under that age now) and even down to confusion over a jewellery piece where I as executor would have been expected to guess which one of 2 nearly identical pieces was meant. Parent said 'I bought the other after making the will'. Ok and I was meant to know that how??

Result was parents returned to solicitors with what needed changing and sol said 'I think we'll start again'

What me and DH were told when we made our wills was you should look to update every few years. Maybe thats the way to lead into the convo.