Husband died intestate, is stepson entitled to share of house?

Brenny

Hi

I am posting here for a friend who has recently lost her husband in a car accident.

Quite a complicated story but, basically, the husband's previous marriage, in which he had a son, had broken up quite a long time ago. His divorce came through about three years ago and he walked away leaving the house to the ex-wife. He kept a small pension that he last paid into in the 80's - not expecting much from it.

He then moved into friend's house (paid for from her previous divorce) but never paid anything towards mortgage as his money was going towards supporting son until he was 19. Son was estranged from father until last year for various reasons, but were then reunited and had a very happy relationship.

They married 2.5 years ago and were blissfully happy. They then decided to move to another area of the country and friend sold her house and bought another one out of her money, but in both of their names.

Last month they made an appointment to see a solicitor to make wills but, before this could happen, he was killed in the car accident.

Friend now believes that she may be in a position where she is only entitled to the first £125,000 of the house, with stepson having a claim on some of the rest.

Is there anyone out there who can give some advice as to how she can proceed?

Thanks.

mountainofdebt

I guess the first question is how is the house held - joint tenants or tenants in common?

I can never remember which is which but one means that the house is passed over to the other automatically and the other means that each person owns a percentage and if one was to die then that percentage forms part of their estate. (if the house was held in the former way there is nothing to worry about, as far as I know, as it wouldn't form part of his estate)

As far as the pension is concerned, a form should have been completed in which your husband's friend stated how he wanted his pot distributed in the event of his death - has your friend been in touch with the fund's trustees?

Any benefits payable from his pension shouldn't form part of the estate but as he got married to her recently, the trustees may decide to over- ride his wishes, especially if there is no provision for your friend.

hth

Brenny

I believe they were joint tenants but I still seem to recall that, if there is no will and children (albeit adults) are involved then there are set criteria for "distributing" the estate. I have also googled this and what I found seems to confirm this.

Nicki

If they own the house as joint tenants then it doesn't form part of the estate, and therefore the stepson cannot claim any part of it. Owning a house as JT mean that both parties own the whole of it, and if one dies, then the other automatically becomes the sole owner. If they were tenants in common in equal shares, then each owned half, and on the death of one, half the value of the property would form part of the estate. HTH

Tim_L

Why does she not just ask her solicitor? Well meaning advice on a bulletin board is really not very useful, get proper legal advice.

localhero

Hi Brenny,

Irrespective of whether the house was owned as tenants in common or joint tenants, it would still form part of his estate (for tax purposes etc).

However, whether there was a Will or not, a property owned as joint tenants will pass automatically to the other co-owner(s).

Assuming it was owned this way, the laws of intestacy will only consider the rest of the estate. Therefore the first £125,000 will go to the spouse in addition to the house.

A simple (and free) way to check how the property was owned is to phone the Land Registry at their HQ (tel number 0207 917 8888) and they will be able to tell her.

margaretclare

Brenny wrote: »

I believe they were joint tenants but I still seem to recall that, if there is no will and children (albeit adults) are involved then there are set criteria for "distributing" the estate. I have also googled this and what I found seems to confirm this.

Hello

It's on the HMRC website:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/cto/customerguide/page14.htm

As they were legally wed, she is the 'spouse', but the son was the deceased's, so he comes into it as well.

HTH

Brenny

Tim_L wrote: »

Why does she not just ask her solicitor? Well meaning advice on a bulletin board is really not very useful, get proper legal advice.

Whilst I appreciate what you are saying, Tim, this thread will hopefully highlight to others the importance of making a will because, as happened to my friend, horrible things can and do happen.

Debt_Free_Dreamer

Tim_L wrote: »

Why does she not just ask her solicitor? Well meaning advice on a bulletin board is really not very useful, get proper legal advice.

Be careful of Solicitors, when my dad died without a will we had no idea what to do.

The 'helpful' Solicitor told us he would have to get our dad's money out of the bank, deal with Probate and all his other correspondance at a cost of 1.5% of the value of the property and 1% of cash/shares etc., plus £12 for every letter he wrote.

As my dad had about 10 credit cards alone (he was into moving for the 0% deals!) this would have been £120 alone. Plus all the other letters.

In the end my brother searched the web, we found the Probate site and did it all ourselves. Even dealing with banks, which although was a pain, we managed it without cost. The only expense was selling the house, which was a nominal charge as I was in the process of buying another house and my solicitor did it on the cheap.

Get the Probate forms, the documentation tells you all you need to know. The forms you have to complete help work you through the 'maze' and if there are any concerns you can ask them direct (without having to pay anyone).

Here is the link for applying for Probate.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/RightsAndResponsibilities/Death/Preparation/DG_10029716

Amanda