Do you own your house as tenants in common or joint tenants?

[PaddingtonStareBare]

Curious really, as we've just served the joint tenancy on ours and had it changed to tenants in common.
We were having our wills done and we both wanted to be sure that our dc would inherit our 'half' should one of pass away, their inheritance then goes into trust until the surviving spouse passes away or downsizes. It was all done by the solicitors.

Is this a common thing to do? I just read so many stories about one parent passing away, then surviving parent remarries or changes the will so a new partner benefits leaving the DC with nothing :(

We are joint and it made sense for us as we are young, not married and have no children. In the event one of us dies we wanted to make sure the other gets to keep the house and it wont go to someone else.

Tenants in common reflecting my larger share.

Best thing I ever did as now we are divorcing and he wants half but he cant.

It seems that both have advantages based on individual circumstances.

I don't know how aware people are, but one joint tenant can sever the joint tenancy, without the agreement or possibly even the knowledge of the other joint tenant.

My husband did this two weeks before being diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour. And left his fify per cent to our children via his will. He felt very ill and blamed me. He thought a divorce would make him feel well again.

He died within months. We weren't divorced, but the severed joint tenancy and the will stand.

So now my autistic son and I are being forced to sell the house, because I did not have a life interest in the property, by way of his will. He made my other autistic son his executor, and he is keen to follow his father's wishes, as well as being legally obliged to settle the debts my husband accrued.

I am fortunate that half of the value of the house will get me a small property. I was a SAHM to two autistic sons, and very likely, an autistic husband. Life was very stressful for us all.

I am sad that the law is so black and white. It doesn't allow for more nuanced family circumstances.

Joint tenants.No blended family scenario here. If I die first, DH can do what he likes with the house even in the event of a 2nd marriage. We met at uni and everything we have so far has been built together. I might feel differently if this wasn’t the case from the beginning and wanted to protect my initial share but that’s not the case.

I’m not impressed if DC feel such entitlement/resentment or live their lives in the expectation of a significant inheritance. In practice, it’s a barrier to ambition/aspiration in that there’s less impetus to graft if you have it handed to you on a plate or think that it will be.

Sometimes, I think that our DC have it too easy and maybe as a result, don’t have enough drive to work really hard.

We're in the process of buying and the solicitor asked us how we wanted to arrange the purchase. We opted for joint tenants.

DH is a lot older than me, but we only have our DC, no blended family. I wouldn't ever marry again (cynical rather than romantic reasons) but I hadn't considered the possibility of dementia.

Care home fees - recent experience tells me that a charge can be put on the property by the council, even if it's tenants in common. Once the remaining person sells, the fee can be claimed back against the proportion owned by the care home resident. But that's only after most of the savings have been ploughed through.

It feels a bit of a minefield tbh.

I wouldn't have a problem with the house having to be sold for care home fees either - why should other people have to pay for my care so that my kids can get a massive pot of money they haven't earnt?

It’s very east and cheap to do
My parent changed the tenancy of their house so that they owned it equal share 50’-50
This was done party for care home fees and so that the kids / grandkids would inherit something

When my mum passed in her will it was left to me and my sister with my dad having the right to live there .
After his death it goes to me and my sister
After probate was sorted I paid a solicitor to sort out my mums part of her will so setting up a trust and trustees and changing the deeds on the house to reflect the new ownership
It cost less than £300 to do although with covid it took from May to Oct to get it all sorted out

With care home fees they can only take what the person in care owns
So in my dad case he only owns 50 percent of his house
They couldn’t touch the other half as that technically belongs to my sister and myself as it was left to us in my mums will through a trust although my Dad has the right to live there

@im5050 This is the same as us, we changed the tenancy ourselves, solicitor said they could do it for us for £200, but I found we could do it ourselves for £25, guess which option I chose....
The expensive part what having the trust and life interest put in our wills.
We have it so that if either of us predeceased the other before DC is 18, then the surviving parent gets all the contents of savings and bank accounts, but their share of the house goes into trust for DC and surviving parent can live there and move using funds of house, even after DC is 18 at no point can the sale of the house be forced due to the life interest.
We have it so her grandmother will be guardian, if we both predecease her before her 18th birthday, she will have an immediate lump sum as a gift but the full estate would be hers on her 18th.

We initially had her 23rd birthday but I think this is a bit late, I do worry about the suitability of an 18yr old inheriting the sums we are looking at, but I also figure I can't worry about that as I'll be dead .

Yes I've just done my will as we live together and changed it to tenants in common so my dd gets my share of the house. Wise thing to do.I did it through the same solicitor who did my Will.

I'm surprised by this, I thought joint tenancy was the more common option. We are tenants in common though with unequal shares, to reflect the much bigger chunk of deposit I put in, and because we're not married.

The most important thing is having a will, if you don’t, even if Tenants incommon - your half (up to £270k) automatically goes to your spouse, if married. If you are not married then it throws up all kinds of problems.

Life insurance should always be written in trust too, it then falls outside your estate and is paid direct to your nominee so doesnt have to follow intestacy rules.
DD has a friend who lost her partner at 28, His life insurance was paid out to his family, not his partner, So she had to sell their house.
You could also have the situation that any payout might be put in trust for your children and you could lose your (and their) home.

PaddingtonStareBare
They did my parents when they did their wills so including the will it’ was about £300
Then when my mum passed and the needed to change the deeds and set up a trust it get under £300

@PaddingtonStareBare

Curious really, as we've just served the joint tenancy on ours and had it changed to tenants in common. We were having our wills done and we both wanted to be sure that our dc would inherit our 'half' should one of pass away, their inheritance then goes into trust until the surviving spouse passes away or downsizes. It was all done by the solicitors.

Is this a common thing to do? I just read so many stories about one parent passing away, then surviving parent remarries or changes the will so a new partner benefits leaving the DC with nothing :(

We did exactly the same about 10 years ago for the same reasons.

Tenants in common. We have grown up dc each and aren't married. It's in our wills that we can live there if the other one dies. Also if I die then he needs to go in a care home my dc's inheritance is protected and vice versa. We have other investments to leave dc so they will just have to wait for the house proceeds. Tbh they're all doing ok own their own homes and one has a rental, others have received inheritances etc.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

It's good for inheritance tax to not leave everything to the surviving spouse.

If you're married, you can roll over the unused tax-free IHT threshold from the first to die to the surviving spouse, doubling theirs, so there is no difference in how much tax is paid when the second spouse dies - unless, I suppose, there's a big gap between the two deaths and the value of the house goes up significantly (IHT thresholds could also be periodically increased to take account of this, though).

Yes, my parents did this after my father had a heart attack at 58, my mum's parents lived into their late 90's, so it was a consideration.

Pyewhacket, he sounds so spiteful

Joint tenants because if one spouse dies then we don't want added grief and paper work over the house. However for a second marriage I think it's the right thing to do or as someone said perhaps change it much later on for care home fee protection.

My DH died 12 years ago. Whilst he was ill before his death we severed the joint tenancy we had and so owned the house jointly when he died. Therefore I now own the house outright. When I die there will be double inheritance tax threshold, (£650,000), which is why we took the decision to do it that way. I haven't, and don't intend to remarry so my two DC will inherit my estate equally. There is unlikely to be any inheritance tax due.