Is Mother being unreasonable regarding inheritance?

[GoingSlowly]

Is my mum being unreasonable regarding the inheritance that may become available following my dad's death.....

My dad is unwell at the moment, and my mum has always had it in her head that he will die before she does. They separated about 20 years ago and now have new partners. When they split up they separated all of their possessions - she had one house, my father had the other, and because her house was worth less she had a cash lump sum to make up the difference. She also recieves just under half of my Dad's lucrative pension. At the moment she is renting out her house because she is living with her boyfriend.

The complication is that both of their names are still on both of their houses and they are still married (I know, ridiculous). They just never finalised it. My mother is now denying that she had a cash lump sum and said her settlement was 'unfair'. We know for a fact how much money she had, so this is untrue. She is telling my brother and I that when our Dad dies, she will inherit his money and house and we will have nothing.

Is it normal for someone who has been practicaly divorced/separated from someone for 20 years, to expect to then inherit from their ex? Dad does not want her to inherit and wants the house to go to us, but he is too frightened to challenge her (divorce) and she evades attempts to change the names on the houses so that they legally have one each.

I'm on the phone so can't link, but on the gov.uk website, it clearly says you can change joint tenancy to tenants in common without the other person's agreement. There's a form to complete and send off.

but I thought you could terminate joint tenancy without the other person's agreement and would then become tenants in common

Between a married couple? I very much doubt it and certainly hope not

I'm pretty sure I know someone who has done it, though I could be wrong. They were a married couple. the mum wanted to make sure that she could leave her half of the house to their (adult) DS as it looked like her DH was going to disinherit the DS (they had a strained relationship).

The mum won't agree to a divorce or any thing now will she, because she will know that it would mean her getting less.

You need legal advice OP, I'm sorry you're having to go through this.

In your position, I'd get legal advice now. My friends mother passed recently, the solicitor visited her on her death bed in hospital for her to sign papers to change her will (tax purposes btw). What your mother receives can change but you need to get some expert advice and fast. The first step would be to change the will now. Choose the best and pay for it yourselves.

Link here about changing from joint tenants to tenants in common, and yes, it's actually quite a straightforward thing to do: www.gov.uk/joint-property-ownership/overview

Please don't mind me asking, but I'm wondering just how ill your DF is? If he changes his will now, is there any chance she could contest it by claiming he didn't have capacity to do so?

Yes, you can sever a joint tenancy, so that the property reverts to being held as tenants in common. However OP's father would need to do it - she can't - by serving a notice on his wife and registering it with land registry. He could then see a solicitor and make a good will.

Whether he is too frightened/can't actually be bothered or whatever seems to be the actual issue here, though.

My grandmother had been seperated from my grandfather for years when he died they sold the house they shared and split the proceeds when they seperated.

When he died he left a will for his money to go to his daughter DGMs step daughter and her son.

DGM contested the will which was invalid due to a technicality and was awarded the quite substantial full inheritance as his next of kin. Daughter got nothing legally but DGM gave her a small portion of the money because that's the kind hearted type of person she is

Get your dad to make a will and do it through a solicitor.

And this from Citizens' Advice www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/relationship-problems/relationship-breakdown-and-housing/if-you-live-with-your-partner-relationship-breakdown-and-housing/if-you-live-with-your-partner-and-you-own-your-home-relationship-breakdown-and-housing/relationship-breakdown-and-housing-rights-if-you-own-your-home-jointly-with-your-partner/

If you own your home jointly as joint tenants and are splitting up, you might want to consider ending the joint tenancy and becoming tenants in common instead. You can do this by giving a written 'notice of severance' to your partner at any time. You don't need your partner's agreement to do this

He needs to:

1. Terminate the "joint tenancy" of both houses, and convert both to "tenancies in common". That way he can leave his half of each house to you. He absolutely does not need her consent to do this, it's his choice and she does not need to sign anything. Look on the land registry website for information about methods of ownership, they have guides that will explain it all.

1. Write a will! Again, he absolutely does not need her consent, and she does not need to sign anything. A lawyer will be able to talk him through which property is joint and which is his to leave as he chooses.

Your mum is being unreasonable here, but equally your dad is being unreasonable to ignore the situation, he can do a lot to make sure at least some of his assets pass to you.

I just feel very disappointed with her, that she wants to keep all the money, when they've been apart for 20 years, and she hates him.

I would feel massively more disappointed in him - he's had 20 years to sort HIS estate out but has left it open to her. Get him to sever the joint tenancy on any property and rewrite his will sharpish. Guess he won't bother though.

He needs to see a solicitor and to clarify the situation. He can divorce her very easily on the grounds of living apart for so long. She can't contest it. Even after 20 years there must be some bank records of the transfer of funds and this may be taken into account. If not then he may need to pay her another lump sum from the equity in his larger house.

The option of doing nothing is not an option! Unless he wants her to get everything? Surely after all this time he can't be afraid of her.

He should at the very least sever the joint tenancy then mae a will leaving everything you his DC. That way you will get half of each house. She will have benefitted form the lump sum but ot much you can do about that unless he goes through divorce

An hour with a solicitor would sort out all three of his problems.
The joint tenancy/ownership issue
A new will
Setting the divorce in process.

Sounds to me as though this would be the best , and cheapest solution, trying to sort out houses and inheritances if he dies before the first two are in place will be painful and extremely expensive.

I don't think just severing the joint tenancy and making a will would necessarily be enough, BTW. If he doesn't divorce her she might be able to contest the will on the grounds of him having a legal obligation to financially support her at the time of his death, especially as you say there are no records of prior payments.

Depending on how much property df leaves (apart from the jointly owned houses, that is) it would not necessarily all go to his spouse - intestacy rules in England and Wales here: www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/death-and-wills/who-can-inherit-if-there-is-no-will-the-rules-of-intestacy/

You mention that df has a partner - depending on the financial position, might s/he be able to make a claim on the estate? See the same link as above.

As other pp have said, would be a very good idea for him to take legal advice.

The rental thing sounds like another complication as well - has your df looked at the tax rules where property is jointly owned by spouses?

He needs a will stating his wishes. If he dies intestate and they are still married - whatever their agreement she is right.

Get a lawyer to come out to him to firstly explain the situation and secondly sort out his will as he wants and make sure he is verified as of sound mind as well given she seems to be being a bit of a slippery character

*An hour with a solicitor would sort out all three of his problems.
The joint tenancy/ownership issue
A new will
Setting the divorce in process.

Sounds to me as though this would be the best , and cheapest solution*

100% agree. And it's really quite a simple solution too. Something so simple that if he's not willing to do it, then I'd question whether he actually cares about the whole thing at all.

If he doesn't divorce her she might be able to contest the will on the grounds of him having a legal obligation to financially support her at the time of his death, especially as you say there are no records of prior payments

She could but the fact that she is living with someone else etc and the testimony of their children would make that quite difficult, especially if he had made these legal changes specifically to make it clear that they were not together. Expensive for her to, I think?

That's a good point somerville - particularly if dm is getting rental income from jointly owned property. And does dm's half of the pension carry on after df's death? I have no idea what happens in those circs - but again, legal advice may clarify.

User But he currently supports her financially, even though they have newer boyfriend/girlfriend:

She also recieves just under half of my Dad's lucrative pension.

So as things stand it looks likely that she would have a case.

He must sever the joint tenancy and change it to tenants in common as others have already said. No other consent is needed.

Ideally, he should set up a will (properly done and lodged with his solicitor) at the same time.

Perhaps he should think about finally finalising the divorce too.

Whatever the eventual decision, your Dad needs proper legal advice now to limit the damage. He really can't afford to procrastinate further on it. Otherwise, what your mother predicts will come true.

True, it would depend whether that outweighed the rest of it. But afaik its expensive and difficult to challenge a will, and rarely worth it for most people.

In relation to the houses he can apply to court to sever the joint tenancies then he can leave his half share in each property as he thinks fit. With regard to divorce he doesn't need her consent as they have been separated for way more than 2 years so he can divorce her even without her permission. He should see a solicitor ASAP to arrange this.

"User But he currently supports her financially, even though they have newer boyfriend/girlfriend:

She also recieves just under half of my Dad's lucrative pension."

Yes, and df also allows dm to receive rental income from one of their jointly owned properties.

Which raises another point - is df technically a landlord with landlord's legal responsibilities eg to ensure the premises meet safety requirements, comply with any licensing requirements, declare profits to HMRC etc? A complicated situation - definitely needs legal advice.

Oh, and yes, sometimes a surviving spouse does get half of the deceased spouse's pension.

I think it continues until either they themselves die, or they remarry. Not sure what the situation would be if they have a live-in partner. All worth checking.