Deed of Variation

apsmx

I am posting this to clarify the 2 year rule. I and my sister inherited a house from my father who died 3 years ago. I am the executor of his will. I have the probate of my father. The house is still in his name. My sister, who was married with no children, died 6 months ago with no will.
Information obtained from Land Registry and other sources has led me to believe that I can make a Deed of Variation to put the house in my name. I have the consent of my brother-in-law. I have all the certificates and forms (AP1, AS1 etc) to send off. I am aware of the 2 year rule and have been led to believe that this is ok as my sister only died 6 months ago. Am I correct?

poseidon1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6676541/deed-of-variation

To be clear, are you saying that following your sister's unfortunate demise, her husband as sole beneficiary under her will has agreed to give up his legal entitlement to her half share of the property in your favour?

If so a detailed deed of variation of her will ( not your father's) would have to be executed by the husband to that effect , in order for you to then step into her shoes and become sole beneficiary entitled to your father's house.

However, even though your sister had no children, I am curious to learn her husband's motivation to give away the inheritance in your favour unless he is so wealthy in his own right he has no desire to add to that wealth.

Reed_Richards

Your sister lived in England (?) and died without leaving a will? As your sister did not have children then everything will go to her husband. This includes the half share of your late fathers house and anything else that your sister would have inherited had she lived. Is a deed of variation even possible if there isn't a will to vary? Oh, it says here https://www.weightmans.com/insights/deeds-of-variation-a-quick-guide/#what-is-a-deed-of-variation that you can.

edited because at first read I missed that the OP's sister had no children.

Keep_pedalling

It is not possible to make a DoV on your father’s will, but if your brother in law wants to give up his inheritance from his wife then he can do so. He will have to get a DoV drawn up the DoV not you.

What is the value of her share of the property? If it exceeds £325k then it complicates things as an IHT return will be needed and IHT will be payable. Is your BiL administering her estate?

apsmx

Thanks very much for the replies. They are a great help. Don't know how to reply to an individual comment though.

The house was valued at £250k three years ago. I would be lucky to get that much now. My sister inherited half. I live and will continue to live in the house alone until it is sold.

All we want is to get this over with. We've been through enough. I've been asking these questions to various legal people and the Land registry for nearly a year and no one gives a straight answer. I had the same issues when completing the Probate for my father. But in the end I did myself. No problem.

So my brother-in-law is the one who has to do the DoV and sign it etc. He then passes it to me and I am the one who sends it to the Land Registry with all the necessary documents (Probate, Death Certificates, AS1, AP1, ID1 etc) and fees?

I read the guide suggested by Reed-Richards. It says an alternative is to make a Disclaimer.. Would this be simpler? Would this allow the house to be put in my name?

What the overall objective? To put the house in my name so I can sell it without any further complications or delay and without causing unecessary stress to my brother-in-law.

Any further clarification, help or guidance would be gratefully received

.

Keep_pedalling

If the idea is to sell it rather than carry on living there then there is no need put the house in your name to sell it, it can be sold and transfered to the new owner without that intermediate step. What will be needed is letters of administration for your sister which presumable your BiL will be obtaining. Once he has that the two of you can sell the property and the DoV will allow the proceeds to be passed to you by the conveyancing solicitor.

Reed_Richards

If the house is still valued at £250k and your brother-in-law makes the deed of variation you want then in effect they are giving you the £125k that would have come to them when the house is sold. That is a very generous gift on their part; do they really want to do this?

I don't know this for sure, but I think your brother-in-law could only disclaim the entirety of his inheritance from your sister; the half share of the house and everything else that wasn't jointly owned.

apsmx

Yes, well as I said, I want the simplest most straight forward option. I was hoping to save my BiL the hassle of dealing with letters of administration.
I can’t understand the is preoccupation with the generosity of my BiL. His generosity to me and my generosity to him in the past is completely irrelevant to my question.

Reed_Richards

You will be asking your bother-in-law to willingly sign-away £125k. Many people would not do that so it is not at all irrelevant to make sure that your brother-in-law knows what he is doing. If it's all about avoiding hassle, then employ a solicitor to do all the paperwork.

Keep_pedalling

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82074182#Comment_82074182

Please don’t let that upset you, a lot of the threads on here involve major financial fall outs after a death so some people are somewhat cynical when it comes to relatives who are not total money grabbing leaches. You BIL sounds like one of the good guys.

If your sister had made a will leaving you her share of your parents house then probate would not be required, but thinking about out a DoV might also do the same, but I am not sure if that would be acceptable to the LR perhaps @Land_Registry could comment on this ?

RAS

If you want to make things easy for BIL, you can do the research and paperwork for the administration, and BIL can just sign it off. It's not fully POA, just administrative convenience.

Ask him if he'd like the help or prefer to use a lawyer?

As K_p mentioned a lot of family strife features here. It doesn't sound like it's an issue but the rules on benefits and deprivation of assets often complicate DOV situations. People can't alter wills or intestacy if they receive benefits or have foreseeable care needs, without major complications for their own future.