AIBU - inheritance sad story

Mmm, but I'm not sure OPs description is entirely to be trusted. I agree that it was stupid for them not to look ahead, or DGF at least. But then people have a remarkable capacity to bury their heads in the sand.

Your grandad thought he was a clever man. He thought he could dodge his responsibilities to his children by leaving them and starting fresh. Then he thought he could dodge paying tax by fiddling the system. Well now his “cleverness” is coming home to him. He gets what he deserves.

Are they planning to give the youngest half sibling her share?

I think it does sound all a bit rubbish

Obviously I don't know but it doesn't sound like he was trying to avoid nursing home fees etc.

So she lived in the house for free for 25 years.

Rent free? Her husband paid for the house. Come off it.

This.

How sad. In a world of any morals, the house would be signed back over. The wife would live in the house until her passing and then the proceeds would be split between your dad’s 6 children.
I’d be horrified with my mum.

Yanbu. Your mum and her siblings’ behaviour is awful (in any circumstance, but especially as they don’t need the money).

Sadly I don’t think there’s anything you can do as it’s already legally theirs but yes they’re behaving very badly. I would understand more if this woman has swept in a few years ago, right at the end of his life, but the fact is she’s been a caring wife for 25 years and they have a child together.

Does GF wife and child number 6, know he doesn’t own the property and that children 1 and 2 are the joint owners?

Have I missed the explanation as to why children 1 and 2 own the property and children 3,4 and 5 were excluded.

How nice for that woman to be living rent free in the house with her daughter for 25 years with a part time job. That must have been lovely for her.

Now she wants to keep the house that belongs to his children? I don’t think so.

Could a compromise be that the wife gets to live there for life (but not if she moves or remarries), then the house is sold and the proceeds split between all 6 children?

It would need to be drawn up by a solicitor and made legally enforceable, of course.

It might be worth the two older siblings being reminded that, without the new wife, the father might be spending his final years in a horrible care home (council choice if council funded), unhappy and far away from loved ones.

Sorry for my stupidity here but is this a will, or did he gift the house to his children already?

If he gifted the house to his children then he can’t have it back, him and his new family have lived there rent free all these years?

Thats tough luck and he made his decision, his children were given a gift and he can’t just take it back.

if it’s a will, then he can’t just do a new one.

If he is as good a person as OP says, it's hard to imagine that he never told her who owned their home. I also don't know why they didn't look ahead when they married and had a child; prior families can complicate matters like this.

Edit, didn't mean to use past tense.

There's clearly a lot of info missing to this. His kids obviously don't think much of him and also feel as though he didn't care about them when he started his new family. Maybe there's plenty of good reasons why they don't care what happens to his wife.

Just to add to my previous post post, if your Mum and her siblings are all in their 60s, they will have factored the money from the house sale into their retirement financial planning. It's not like basing their financial planning on a vague promise of inheritance. They already own the house. There are a lot of apparently comfortable 60s living on savings pre-pension age who couldn't easily swallow a sudden £50-100K hole in their finances (assuming 1/5 of average house prices). To keep family harmony, they all need to do some serious thinking and get advice to work out a way of ensuring everyone's future security as far as they can. It's not just whether they give back the house or not. It's not your problem to solve though. They are adults, some if whom will be financially savvy.

Because he would have gifted it to child 1 and 2 and subsequently lived for the necessary 7 years AND as such it is legally belongs to child 1 and 2.

It would be interesting to know whether she did or not!

Of course he will now receive less due to his Mothers stupidity, he did not even sign anything.

1. how did his name get on there if he didnt sign it - was it fraud?
2. he owns an asset - is it worthless? (edit) does owning half take it below IHT?

(edit) I'd be more worried about Stamp Duty on a second home than CGT to be honest

These things are happening more and more as people go on to have long second marriages which are sometimes longer than the first. The desire to give the home to the children of the first marriage then gets supplanted by the length of time and offpring of the second- and everyone feels morally they are due something (two long marriages, two lots of children).

I agree with the person who said seek legal and tax advice as at the moment, you are all opining in the dark. All parties need this advice, it sounds like the grandfather has taken it and doesn't like what he heard, but perhaps he does not appreciate what it would cost his children to give it back.

As your Mum and siblings are in their sixties there was very little in the way of welfare when they were children. It would have been a very tough upbringing. People are horrified that people have to go without heating these days, at that point in time many only had a fire in one room if they were poor.

He needs proper legal advice as pointed out CGT could be due. my DH is a joint owner of his Mothers house and has been for 35 years, he was a student then. Of course he is now liable for CGT when sold and yes she was trying to avoid inheritance tax. Of course he will now receive less due to his Mothers stupidity, he did not even sign anything.

Legal v Moral

Sounds like legally he doesn’t own the house anymore.
Morally your mum and her siblings stance is unacceptable to him and you, but not to them.

Not a great situation for his wife, but assuming she knew the arrangement for the last 25 years.

Yep, if anything they've been very generous. Two years free rent and transfer of some of the value to an adult child who doesn't own the house is a considerable kindness.

Why? She's not giving up anything - very possible her mum and her sibling would be just as willing for the OP to give up her own money as she is for them to give up theirs.

All this squabbling and speculation about motivations and who the OP is and whether someone's being a dick is totally irrelevant.

The first and only thing anyone in that family should be doing right now is taking legal and tax advice.

You need to understand the current position and potential liabilities, and what options are available.

Until that point, everything else is useless chatter.

Your father, his wife, and your mother / aunts and uncles MUST take professional advice.

Because the new wife has no rights. She’s not a tenant.