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Putting Family Onto Deeds Of House
16 Answers
Hi...need some advice please...Mum is 75 & on her own now after we lost Dad 2 years ago...My mum is thinking of possible adding both myself & my brother's name on her deeds to the house, so as to make things easier for us when Mum does pass away... Please does anyone have any information or advice to if its a good idea or not..or any problems that it could cause.. We are a close family, so i almost certain we won't be falling out or anything... many thanks for any answers or advice... x
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A few points:
1. The actual physical deeds to a house are now largely irrelevant; it's the Land Registry's records that are all-important.
2. Adding the names of yourself and your brother to the title document is a fairly straightforward process, which involves little more than filling in a form. Even so, your mother would need the services of a solicitor to ensure that everything was in order, so some cost would be involved (but not a particularly big one).
3. Properties can be owned by more than one person either as 'tenants in common' or as a 'joint tenants':
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From what you've written, your mother needs to ensure that the title document is amended to show you all as joint tenants (and not as tenants in common).
However that means that when she dies first (assuming, of course, that she does) you and your brother will then be the surviving joint tenants. When one of you then dies, the whole of the property will pass automatically to the survivor. (i.e. neither you nor your brother will be able to leave your 'share' of the property to anyone, since you won't own any such share. It will be your legal 'partnership' that owns the property, with the surviving partner automatically owning the whole of the property upon the death of the other).
4. If your mother dies within 7 years of effectively gifting part of the house to you and your brother, the value of the gift (decreasing on a sliding scale as time goes by) will still count as part of her estate when calculating any liability for inheritance tax. However if the total value of the estate comes to less than £325,000 there won't be any inheritance tax to pay anyway. (If the whole of your father's estate passed to your mother on his death, she also gets his inheritance tax relief, so her estate could total up to £650,000 without any inheritance tax needing to be paid).
5. Even with the house transferred into joint ownership (as joint tenants), I'd still strongly advise that your mother should write a will.
1. The actual physical deeds to a house are now largely irrelevant; it's the Land Registry's records that are all-important.
2. Adding the names of yourself and your brother to the title document is a fairly straightforward process, which involves little more than filling in a form. Even so, your mother would need the services of a solicitor to ensure that everything was in order, so some cost would be involved (but not a particularly big one).
3. Properties can be owned by more than one person either as 'tenants in common' or as a 'joint tenants':
https:/
From what you've written, your mother needs to ensure that the title document is amended to show you all as joint tenants (and not as tenants in common).
However that means that when she dies first (assuming, of course, that she does) you and your brother will then be the surviving joint tenants. When one of you then dies, the whole of the property will pass automatically to the survivor. (i.e. neither you nor your brother will be able to leave your 'share' of the property to anyone, since you won't own any such share. It will be your legal 'partnership' that owns the property, with the surviving partner automatically owning the whole of the property upon the death of the other).
4. If your mother dies within 7 years of effectively gifting part of the house to you and your brother, the value of the gift (decreasing on a sliding scale as time goes by) will still count as part of her estate when calculating any liability for inheritance tax. However if the total value of the estate comes to less than £325,000 there won't be any inheritance tax to pay anyway. (If the whole of your father's estate passed to your mother on his death, she also gets his inheritance tax relief, so her estate could total up to £650,000 without any inheritance tax needing to be paid).
5. Even with the house transferred into joint ownership (as joint tenants), I'd still strongly advise that your mother should write a will.
In addition to Buenchico's excellent answer, there is the additional hook that should your mother require care in the future, she may be held to have deliberately disposed of an asset in order to avoid care charges. She won't be "fined" for this but it may be that the value of the house would still be taken into account in assessing what her resources are.
Thank you for your advice on here...much appreciated.... Yes Mum does have a Will and was wanted to have both myself & brother as joint tenants. I know it would cost as mum has looked into the cost etc, but I wanted to find out the bad points about doing this... In mums Will it does state that the house would be sold so that the estate would be split between myself, brother and the 3 grandchildren... I worry incase I have to pay tax each year as owning part of a additional property, or if my brother was also going to say he didn't want to sell when Mum passes,,,just think it would be more trouble than its worth... thank you for all your comments and time...much appreciated x
>>>In mums Will it does state that the house would be sold
If your mother adds you and brother as joint tenants, that part of her will becomes invalidated. As the property will then be owned by the 'partnership' of the three of you, it will remain owned by the 'partnership' (then of just two of you) after her death. It would be up to you and your brother to then decide what to do with the property (with your mother's wishes, as expressed in her will, being irrelevant).
If your mother adds you and brother as joint tenants, that part of her will becomes invalidated. As the property will then be owned by the 'partnership' of the three of you, it will remain owned by the 'partnership' (then of just two of you) after her death. It would be up to you and your brother to then decide what to do with the property (with your mother's wishes, as expressed in her will, being irrelevant).
Thanks for your advice Buenchico...yes I think it may cause problems and also my Mum having to change her Will etc... Also my brother is in a very good financial position and would probably want to rent house, where i would want to sell house etc if it came to it...I think it would be best left alone and get a solicitor to deal with it all when the time comes... Thanks again x
We have decided to let things stay the same...no need to change things... I will deal with it when time comes...The only reason we were going to try and change things to make it a little easier, as we went through changing land registry & loads of other things etc when dad died... I am the executor of the Will, but will just get a solicitor to deal with it when time comes...thanks for all your help and advice x x
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