Does wife have any assets in her will if property all in husband's name? What if he refuses to become tenants in common?

[pumpkinpatio]

My mum wants to make a will leaving her assets to her two children, rather than her husband, who is our father. She is not sure whether she has any assets at the moment as their property is all in his name.

He brought two adjacent properties to the marriage, one of which has been the family home, and the other rented out and the money forming a big part of the family income. My mum didn't bring any financial assets to the marriage and was a stay at home mum. They have been married for several decades. The two houses were partly paid for by a loan in my father's name which was paid back during their marriage, but he paid for the majority of the properties with money he had accrued before their marriage.

As things are now, with everything in our father's name, does she have anything that she can give away in her will?

She is worried that if she dies first he may leave everything to someone else, e.g. a new partner, and disinherit their children. She is planning to ask him to make her a tenant in common of both properties, but is worried about what to do if he refuses this, as he is likely to want to retain all his assets in the event of her death- does she have any other options?

[Youdontneedacriminallawyer]

I think she should see a solicitor. With or without her husband.

[poshfrock]

It sounds like she doesn't have much/anything in her name. Does she have a bank account of her own or access to a joint account ?

She should still make a will because if your DF dies first then presumably he will leave some/all of his estate to her and she can then leave it to you. However, if she dies first then she is right that he could potentially disinherit you. Do you think that's likely ? Are you estranged from him ?

If he does transfer half the properties to her and she then leaves them to you he could challenge her will on the grounds that reasonable provision has not been made for him, particularly if he is reliant on the rental income to maintain his standard of living. I would suggest that they both need to see a solicitor.

[JaneParker]

If the property is in his name not hers then he has no legal obligation to put it into her name. If he dies and the children are not dependent he can leave it all to the cat's home. The only way to get the properties is to divorce him and a court could force a transfer of perhaps half the assets into his name. I never understand how married couples don't put the house in joint names - even my parents did that in the 70s!

[Sneezecakesmum]

See a solicitor but essentially she needs him to put her name on the deeds of both houses as tenants in common and then write mirror wills which leaves their share to the other for their lifetime use and then split on death according to their wishes in their wills.

If she divorces I would think she has a fair case for splitting both properties probably 50/50 because of the long marriage. So this may be a bit of leverage on her H to add her to the deeds

[pumpkinpatio]

Thanks for the advice, yes I am encouraging her to see a Solicitor. I don't think she had considered the ramifications of not having her name on the deeds before, so I will step up the encouragement.

JaneParker- yes, I had always assumed she was on the deeds, I was very surprised to find out that she isn't.
poshfrock- would maintaining the same standard of living involve staying in a property of the same size? Or if he moved into a smaller property but had a similar disposable income, would that be sufficient?
sneezecakesmum- she actually wants her share to pass to us upon her death, necessitating the sale of the two houses, or at least one of them. I don't think he would agree to this, and if so maybe that is not possible if he opposes the sale.

If it sounds like she is being callous towards him, there is a lot of background here which makes her actions more than reasonable!

[NoArmaniNoPunani]

This situation sounds like my parent's marriage. My mum got 50% of property and pension when she divorced my dad. The courts do take into account length of marriage

[JaneParker]

If they don't divorce then he can leave it to whoever he likes and the children never see a penny. If they do divorce property transfers can be ordered. That's it.

If he is worried about being homeless it is very easy to provide that the children don't inherit her new half or his half until he dies - he has rights just for life to live there. However he can't be forced. He might also consider putting the property now in the joint names with the children. My father did that when my mother died (my mother owned half the house) to reduce lawfully inheritance tax when he came to die - in effect he was giving away her half of the house to us early and if the parent then survives 7 years that half it outside the 40% inheritance tax.

Again this just proves how much good value you can get from seeing a solicitor about these kinds of things. You can save thousands of pounds.