Challenging my sister in an inheritance

[BillER]

Hi everyone,

I will try to keep this as brief as possible. My mother added my sister to the title of the family home in 2015 (50% share and tenants in common). Our mother passed away in June 2022 with no will. Under the intestacy rules, I understand that my sister will also gain a share of mum's half of the house. Can this be challenged?

I also know that my sister did not pay any rent to our mother over the years and contributed little to bills etc. Can this fact be used as a basis to a challenge?

As a family, we have just had the house valued and will be instructing a solicitor shortly to manage the administration process.

Thanks for your comments and thoughts.

It depends when in 2015 she amended the deeds, things are different if there is less than 7 years between her putting her on the deeds and when your mother died (some people try putting their children on the deeds to avoid inheritance tax). I definitely think it's worth getting a solicitor to advise as I don't know if you can change the deeds but the estate might be liable for inheritance tax on the whole value of the house.
mgfwills.co.uk/should-i-transfer-my-house-to-my-children-to-avoid-inheritance-tax/

You would need to seek proper legal advice but my understanding of it, based on FIL dying, is that you would need to show you would be caused financial hardship or that the estate has not been fairly distributed. Your sister could then argue that it has been fairly distributed as you're each getting 50% of the estate. Who paid what bills will be irrelevant as it can't be proven.

The inheritance point is a red herring ref the distribution of the Estate.
If your mum made your sister tenant in common without duress (for which there is a high bar ref proof), then there is no realistic prospect to challenge that gift.

That leaves the 50% share passing under intestacy. This would be split between you and your sister 50:50 unless either of you had a valid claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 where the deceased has failed to make reasonable financial provision for either of way. Any action shouldn’t be taken lightly and is expensive.

Sorry should say

The inheritance TAX point is a red herring ref the distribution of the Estate.

Just to clarify - is the situation that your sister may receive 75% of the house and you'll get 25%? So she would keep her 50% and your mothers 50% would be shared between you?

Have you discussed this with your sister?

I think it can depend on how the deeds are worded - when my FIL passed away, that would have been the situation with my MIL and my DH, but my MIL allowed my DH the full 50% and we took out a mortgage to buy her out of the property.

In the absence of a will, what are you challenging? The intestacy laws?

You seem to be working on the misunderstanding that the whole house is your mothers (e.g. your sister should have been paying rent). If she's a 50% owner, then this is not the case, and your mother's estate only comprises her half of the house - assuming it is tenants in common and not joint tenants, in which case the whole house would now be your sisters.

What doesn't ring true to me in this story is that your mother has thought about what happens at the end of her life, and part of that has been to transfer ownership of 50% of the house. I'd be surprised if she wasn't advised at that point to also make a will. Have you approached the solicitor who helped with the house transfer whether they're also holding a copy of a will?

I agree. I don't understand why your mother would remain without a sil when she's made that big decision UJ sign over fifty per cent. The fact that she did kind of implies she was happy with what ends up being 75/25 split. Do you have a property? Is it possible she felt your sister needed resources more than you? I know it is unfair but I urge caution against you taking this further. You will rack up significant costs and farm family relationships further. Is it worth it? If it's a low value property then you're only talking about a relatively low sum. If it's a high value property you will still be left with a decent inheritance.

It means that legally, half of the house belongs to your sister. The remaining half would be split evenly, between the deceased's children including your sister.

On what basis are you wanting to challenge it? Why would your sister pay rent for a house she owns half of?

The question is, why did your DM add your sister to the deeds? Surely your DM realised that she was giving away half of her house. Did she do it to ensure your sister stayed to care for her?

This situation happened with my grandparents' house, except that there were more siblings to share the 50% between (the other 50% all went to one sibling, who still wanted her share of the other 50%). Since the sibling who owned 50% doesn't have any children, the others would have been happy to let her live in it until her death and then split it between the remaining families (who all have children), but that didn't work because one sibling needed the money to be sorted as part of a divorce settlement (even if he didn't receive it immediately). It took years and years and very expensive lawyers to eventually agree that it had to be split evenly between all the siblings equally, including the one who already owned 50%.

Does your sister have a family? And do you need the money urgently? If no to both, I would be inclined to come to an agreement with her, that she can live there in her lifetime and then you or your family will inherit the whole house from her. And that she can't sell in the meantime without your permission.

I think you're lucky your DM only signed away 50% of the house to your sister. My DF signed the whole 100% over to my sibling, then apparently there was no will as no assets anyway, so I was left with a big fat nothing 😒

Trying to challenge this in court would mean you'd lose a lot of the 25% you would otherwise receive. If your mother wanted things to be different she should have made a will.

Who paid the bills makes no difference.

If the disposal of 50% of the value of the house was within 7 years there will be a taper on inheritance tax liability www.gov.uk/inheritance-tax/gifts.

Was your sister your mothers carer?

Just reflecting on how great families are... OP, nobody is ever entitled to, nor should they depend on anything. Your mother did what she wanted. If your are intent on ripping the family apart over this, just be aware that it won't easily be fixed - and the costs will probably mean that you end up with almost nothing. Have some respect for your mother and stop now

Actually a very interesting point about your mother possibly having made a will when transferring the 50% to your sister. Worth checking as a solicitor probably advised on the transfer.

If there is no will then there is nothing to challenge. Your sister half owns the house - why should she pay rent - and whether or not she contributed to any bills has nothing to do with it. You are entitled to half of your mother's half of the house as I see it, nothing more.

There's nothing to challenge though.

Do you need the money?

What are you challenging? Why?

This. I wouldn’t challenge. Focus on finding your peace with it. Inheritance can be a bad thing to my mind, people shouldn’t expect to get money off their parents yet so many people think it’s their right. Sounds like your sister had a reason to be living there?

I don't think you have anything to challenge as there is no will. You'd be challenging the law itself?

If there’s no will the rules of intestancy apply. I would look into it, what has your sister actually said?

Honestly you need very strong grounds to challenge this.
The grounds include

1. your mother was mentally unstable at at the time of transfer
2. your mother was coerced into hanging over 50%
3. you are owed a bigger share of your mothers estate because you were her carer / gave up your career etc

It's worth paying a solicitor for a proper consultation but beware that the bar is set very very high in challenging and if you lose you are liable for legal bills and even if you win the legal fees come out of the estate so you could end up worse off.

This this a reverse?

You seem to have a lot of threads around a similar theme, but in most of them you’re the one who owns part of the property (varies from 50-60%), and we’re either added to the deeds seven years or ten years ago. Plus you have either one sister or two.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/legal_matters/4662228-buying-out-my-siblings?reply=

www.mumsnet.com/talk/legal_matters/4660486-potential-family-dispute-with-our-mothers-estate?reply=

www.mumsnet.com/talk/legal_matters/4570544-not-a-having-a-will?reply=

Maybe post the real scenario and people can give you advice based on the actual facts?