Legal Eagles - Help Needed!
Discussion
I'm going to get some leagl advice on this but I need a fist pass so that I'm talking sense.
Unfortunately it seems my Dad is precariously close to death at the moment. He's been in intensive care for three weeks and the Dr's are etting twitchy. He an my Mum own a house together. I have one sibling with whom I get along well with.
The house has a great deal of potential and my parents wanted to do quite a serious extension. The house at the moment is worth 450ish. The work would cost about 150 and the resultant house would be worth about 750.
Parents have a mortgage of 150 now, poxy endowment of about 50k so for older people you can imagine the finances are a bit flaky!
Anyway. My Dad doesn't have a will. My parent own the house jointly and today no inheritance tax would be due.
If my Mum wnts to carry on and do the extension at some point in the future when our current nightmre is over one way or the other, then we probably would start to fall foul of InhTax.
So the question, after that long winded run in is, what should be do now, like today regarding the will, the mortgage, ownership of the house etc so that we don't get hit by a big bill in the future.
p.s. the idea probably would be that my brother and I would aim to get a long mortgage on the house so we can look after Mum and probably finance the extension in this way.
Would appreciate your best thoughts!
Unfortunately it seems my Dad is precariously close to death at the moment. He's been in intensive care for three weeks and the Dr's are etting twitchy. He an my Mum own a house together. I have one sibling with whom I get along well with.
The house has a great deal of potential and my parents wanted to do quite a serious extension. The house at the moment is worth 450ish. The work would cost about 150 and the resultant house would be worth about 750.
Parents have a mortgage of 150 now, poxy endowment of about 50k so for older people you can imagine the finances are a bit flaky!
Anyway. My Dad doesn't have a will. My parent own the house jointly and today no inheritance tax would be due.
If my Mum wnts to carry on and do the extension at some point in the future when our current nightmre is over one way or the other, then we probably would start to fall foul of InhTax.
So the question, after that long winded run in is, what should be do now, like today regarding the will, the mortgage, ownership of the house etc so that we don't get hit by a big bill in the future.
p.s. the idea probably would be that my brother and I would aim to get a long mortgage on the house so we can look after Mum and probably finance the extension in this way.
Would appreciate your best thoughts!
Not my area of law but I didn't want to read and run.
I'm really sorry for what you're going through, it's not easy losing a parent.
I know the tendancy is to want to try to "do" something but I'm not sure you need to worry about this kind of thing right now. Tell your mum you and your sibling will sort it all out and she doesn't have to worry about her future. But deal with this stuff later, it'll wait.
I'd be interested in the legal suggestion though, I need to do something similar with Dad's house as he is going to run out of money pretty soon.
I'm really sorry for what you're going through, it's not easy losing a parent.
I know the tendancy is to want to try to "do" something but I'm not sure you need to worry about this kind of thing right now. Tell your mum you and your sibling will sort it all out and she doesn't have to worry about her future. But deal with this stuff later, it'll wait.
I'd be interested in the legal suggestion though, I need to do something similar with Dad's house as he is going to run out of money pretty soon.
olf said:
Anyway. My Dad doesn't have a will. My parent own the house jointly and today no inheritance tax would be due.
Would appreciate your best thoughts!
Would appreciate your best thoughts!
Do they hold the house as tenants in common or Joint tenants. ? Are they married?
Get you dad to make a will asap. It will save hassle later.
IHT may not be due now but his allowance is being wasted. He really does need to make a will. A solcitor can come out to the hospital
Good luck
Transfers between spouses are IHT-exempt so there will not be any liability on his death. As joint tenants, it will vest in your mum's sole name immediately on death.
It's a complex area (and not one I practise in) so you really should give some serious thought to trying to persuade your mum to take advice on (a) preparing a will of her own and (b) estate planning so that the will can be drafted in the most tax efficient ways.
As I understand it, it is possible to put property in trust so that it, strictly speaking, doesn't belong to your mum any more but gives her a life residency interest and it will then pass to nominated beneficiaries in death. Unfortunately, the Revenue keeps moving the goalposts and changing the rules on these kind of tax avoidance trusts so it's vital that advice is taken from a specialist who keeps up with this area.
It's a complex area (and not one I practise in) so you really should give some serious thought to trying to persuade your mum to take advice on (a) preparing a will of her own and (b) estate planning so that the will can be drafted in the most tax efficient ways.
As I understand it, it is possible to put property in trust so that it, strictly speaking, doesn't belong to your mum any more but gives her a life residency interest and it will then pass to nominated beneficiaries in death. Unfortunately, the Revenue keeps moving the goalposts and changing the rules on these kind of tax avoidance trusts so it's vital that advice is taken from a specialist who keeps up with this area.
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