please could some one help

diane118

hi i am asking of behalf of my friend she is 55yrs old and she has lived with her mum all her life and been her mums carer for the last 5 yrs her mum has died now and has not left a will her mum had no money to leave just her house which my friend lives in.

According

to the law my friend and her sister own 50 50 share in the house as there is no will. Please could some one help does my friend have to pay her sister her 50% of the houses value so she can stay living in the house?

Some one that she might not have to because of The Inheritance provision for family and dependant act 1975. my friend only payed a small amount in board per week in all the years she lived with her mum.

If my friend has savings enough to pay her sister 25% of what the house is worth and still have a few thousand left to live on. Would the dependant act 1975 make her pay that 25% out to her sister? thanks Diane

clutton_2

you really need proper professional advice for this - if there are other family members - even cousins - this can get very complicated if there is no will. Ask CAB if you can talk to their solicitor

martinman3

There is also the possibility of Inheritance tax to consider if the estate exceeds £300,000, this is complicated so your friend should see a tax expert if she does not know if it is payable or not.
e.g.
Assuming that your friend's mother died after 9th October 2007, was the house jointly owned by her mother and father when he died ? And did he leave all his estate to his wife ?
If so, his nil band allowance of IHT, £300,000 would have been passed onto his wife, giving her a nil band allowance of £600,000 when she died.
If the circumstances were different, she may have had a smaller allowance when she died with IHT payable at 40% of that part of the estate's value which exceeds the allowance.
See http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/cto/iht/tnrb.htm