AIBU - inheritance sad story

There's a lot of filling in blanks going on here. We've no idea whether the eldest two made any contribution to the house, or if they've paid for any maintenance and improvement over the last 30 years.

If he hasn't paid rent over the past 25 years whilst expecting his children to bear the responsibility and additional costs, and now expects them to fork out CGT to give the house back I'd imagine it would do the opposite!

Is it?
<Looks around in bewilderment>
Anybody seen the OP in the last 48 hours?

Yes, on paper and legally it belongs to the two daughters but it is the house that he bought and paid for not them.

And chose to transfer to them. We don't know why but trying to dodge tax/selling for care fees seems to be the likeliest option. He chose to transfer it, it's theirs.

What if his second wife, who has lived in the house for 25 years, is turfed out two years after he dies with no where to go?

Well, why didn't she and her husband make any arrangements in those 25 years? His daughters aren't responsible for their father's new wife! Lots of people live in rented accommodation, were they even paying rent?

He can't just keep switching assets around to dodge taxes when it suits him and then have the asset when that suits him! And it's not his daughters' responsibility to take an unplanned hit to their long term finance planning because he didn't give his second family the right consideration.

Also, what about the fact that he presumably did not pay rent over the past 25 years, doesn't that muddy the waters for the two heartless bitches?

Why on earth would that muddy anything for them? I truly don't understand your point here. If he didn't pay them rent then they haven't been getting a cash flow from the property (was it owned outright or was there still a mortgage?). He's the one who benefited if that was the case, from 25 years of rent and mortgage free living. Sounds amazing, why didn't he use that advantage to set up his younger wife who was always likely to outlive him? If he was living rent free, he benefits, the daughters don't. Why on earth does that create an obligation on them? You're not making any sense.

And since OP isn't coming back... does anyone else think there's something a bit off here? It's obviously nice if she likes her step grandma and half aunt, but it does seem unusual that a person would side so much with her grandfather's second wife and their child over her own mother and blood relatives, actively wanting an asset to pass out of her own line because the second family are so very very amazing. I'm not saying it can't possibly happen but it does seem as if there's more to the story.

There totally is. If there's any truth to this, I'd bet on OP being the youngest child.

“Yes, on paper and legally it belongs to the two daughters but it is the house that he bought and paid for not them.”

The only thing that’s relevant here is that it legally belongs to the two daughters. It doesn’t matter that he bought and paid for it - he chose to give it away.

It hasn’t been his house for over two decades. If the two daughters really were ‘heartless bitches’ they could have evicted him and his family at any point from the date it became their property.

“What if his second wife, who has lived in the house for 25 years, is turfed out two years after he dies with no where to go?”

Then she’ll be turfed out with nowhere to go, I guess. She’s had twenty five years to secure her own housing, and the daughters will be giving her a grace period of two years upon the death of her husband (which they don’t need to do) to sort out accommodation. She is and will be responsible for herself.

“Also, what about the fact that he presumably did not pay rent over the past 25 years, doesn't that muddy the waters for the two heartless bitches?“

Why would it? No matter what they do he’s managed to land them with a bill, but at least in keeping the house they’ll have an asset to show for it.

In his scheme to avoid IHT he’s spectacularly failed to avoid IHT AND lost a house. He may be a lovely grandparent to OP, but he’s also a fucking idiot.

This happened to cousins of mine. The house was theirs (they had inherited from their mother), when the dad died they allowed the wife to continue living there as long as she wanted.

Was she paying rent?

Absolutely. The OP is apparently keen to ultimately disinherit herself for perceived moral reasons. Hmmm, right...

If I was your mum, no way would I be signing the house back over. I would also be speaking to a solicitor about getting a tenancy drawn up, and peppercorn rent would be asked for.

He can cry all the tears he wants, so can his wife and the half sibling. They wouldn’t be getting anything. On death they would be evicted.

Men need to stop having multiple children, especially when they fail as fathers to the children already here!

This is worth a watch for gifting property

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNjO9fiscu0/?igsh=MXZ4MzhteDdqZXRkcg==

No, as it's not owned by her husband.

Have you thought of him having an assessment as a vulnerable Adult via social services? Just a thought it may help as his circumstances have changed

They actually haven’t changed. He hasn’t had a house to leave to his wife at any point during their relationship. Social services aren’t going to be able to help with that one.

Why is he a vulnerable adult?

And even if he is now, he wasn't 25-years-ago when he chose to give away his house.

Indeed. It won’t retroactively nullify the decision he made to give his house away 25 years ago. By that logic, if he wasn’t competent enough to do that, then he wasn’t competent to marry again either.

if you are financially secure and dont need the money and she does then thats really understandable but also really decent of you - not many would do that.

He has done something very foolish and now regrets his actions.
Also to leave the house to only two of his children was shortsighted to say the least.
But, it was his decision and he has gifted his house.You don't ask someone for a birthday present back do you, so why would you ask for a house back, just because its worth more,its no less a gift.
Sometimes parents do odd things: mine gave my brother their house and half their money in their will but shared my half out with my children then when advised by solicitor that families argue over such unfairness, mother said my brother and I would never argue over money. She got that wrong.

They should let grandads wife live there for the rest of her days then solit the hoyse proceeds between all his children.

Thank God you're here. We've been waiting since November.

I don't think he can do much about the house and it won't help you getting involved and falling out with people. Where you could help is making sure he has a proper will in relation to everything he owns including bank accounts, furniture, cars etc and who he wants to have it. He should check insurance policies or pensions and who they pay out to - and change the recipient if required. They should not spend any more money on maintenance/upkeep of the house apart from absolute essentials. At least that way he can make some provision for his current wife and then his daughter with her may benefit from that. It doesn't take away from your mum being spiteful and mean but might help reassure him that he has done what he can in all the circumstances.

🤣🤣

I never look at the dates but distinctly knew I'd heard this before.

The bottom line is you don’t know the reasoning of why he chose to sign his house over to just two of his five children when he was in his 50s. This is an unusual thing to do and all he needed to do to prevent his money going to charity would have been to write a will! So surely there is more to this story than you know? However, he did sign it over and this alone would have had a financial consequence to your mum and the other sibling as it would have been classed as owning a second property which does not get the same tax benefits and any stamp duty they had to pay would have been double the normal cost etc. Then there is the matter of tax on any rental income … assuming granddad paid rent? If he didn’t then that is another financial consequence in terms of inheritance tax but also means Grandad and new wife have had a place to live rent free for the last 25 years? It’s not a simple case of just returning the house back to him.. there will be lots of financial penalties for doing this and still inheritance tax to pay at some point. Also even if the house was returned to Grandad, assuming he dies first then the house would automatically be left to his wife … and what’s to say she just leaves everything in her will to her daughter and cuts the other five siblings out? So your Mum doesn’t get anything! (A clause could/would need to be written in grandad’s will to prevent this from happening). But it is a whole can of financial worms before you even start on the morality of it!
Even if you think your Grandad is not being treated fairly … it was a really odd thing for him to do and if he was worried about where his wife is going to live after he dies why didn’t he try to sort it after he remarried, or on the birth of his 6th child rather than wait until he’s 85?
Something is not adding up here, I think you would be best to put your energy into enjoying time with your grandad and staying out of this!