Using child’s inheritance to get on property ladder

[Wanttobeontheladder]

We are in our late 30’s with 3 children and have been renting all our adult lives

We are desperate to get on the property ladder but I am SAHP and DH is sole earner.

After the loss of a parent recently there is a considerable inheritance that was left directly between our children rather than coming to us.

Using this money would mean we could finally get on the property ladder (just)

Seeing as the children benefit too we feel that we should use it.

Would we be unreasonable to consider this?

@BarbaraofSevillle But assuming the rules stay the same, that £23k is £2k short and inflation will have much reduced the worth of it. Plus what children do you think would then go 'Oh, £23k left, we'll split that and leave the parents penniless'? They just wouldn't get it back.

Just checked the bank of England's inflation calculator. Even just back to 2000, there is a huge amount eroded off of the value, let alone in however many decades time.

Can it be done legally? Probably.

Should it be done morally? Not without a crystal clear plan on how the children will get a like for like financial lump.

If the OP and her partners earnings are such they can't get a mortgage then are we expected to believe that £300 a month will make it into savings to pay the children back? Or will roof repairs, boiler troubles etc mean that some months they can't out that into savings? Then maybe they want to decorate and do other home improvements and that's just another couple of months not saving. Or ill health strikes and their income drops?

The OP doesn't sound like they are in a financial place to safeguard this inheritance for their children (and if they were then there'd probably be little need to use their inheritance).

DSis and I did inherit after they died but if we hadn't I really wouldn't have been thinking "where's my money".

what if you had been in my dd's situation and needed that money for training that was not eligible for a student loan?

if it was something that you knew you had a talent for and was what you wanted more than anything else in the world- how would you have felt if your parents had told you that you couldn't have it because they had spent your money?

the only reason dd is able to do the training that means everything to her is because we didn't spend the money her grandmother left us

she would not have forgiven us

Absolutely outrageous - if the person who left the money to your children had wanted you to use it to add to your previous inheritance of £45k to put a deposit on a house, they would have left it to you and your husband.

I can't believe this would even be a thought.

If owning was so important to you you would have ensured you got the deposit together pre children when no commitments and the flexibility to work all hours.

I can see why they decided to skip a generation.