Recently widowed dad selling family home

[cambridgecoral]

My mum died in February last year. After starting dating before her funeral had even taken place, my dad almost immediately got himself a replacement servant from the OurTime dating website.

He is selling our family home, she is selling her little house, and they're going to buy a million pound house together.

He says he will put in his will that me and my brother are entitled to a quarter of the house upon the second death - the other two quarters being owned by her two grown up children.

He says he's 'protecting our inheritance' by putting it into property.
Is this true?
As far as I see it, my brother and I have gone from half each in the family home, to potentially a quarter in a house that half belongs his new girlfriend, who'll probably sell it to pay for her care costs in the end if dad dies before her.

How is this protecting our inheritance?
Does anyone know anything about the law on this?
I feel totally betrayed. I have a young son who now has no grandma, and she'd be devastated to know that everything she worked for was essentially being given to a family of near-strangers and not protected for her children and grandchild.

Feeling hopeless and hurt.

Undoubtedly - 'I won't inherit anything - so why should you?'

blueshoes · Today 20:41

I suspect there is unspoken jealousy of people who will get a decent inheritance that is informing some of the 'grabby' accusations.

It is very unfair though. I get it.

I think you have hit the nail on the head.

The trouble is the people on here who are criticising the OP. would hate it if their children did not inherit their house.

It is very easy to criticise someone else but it's different when it comes to yourself.

There's always someone with the "no one is entitled to inheritance rubbish ".

It is not incorrect. There are various ways to own a property and it depends how it is owned.
Sole ownership- The house will pass to the person/s named in your Will. If there is no Will, your house will be passed on in accordance with intestacy laws, which, in most cases, means your spouse/civil partner and/or your children will inherit it.
Joint tenants- Your half of the property will automatically pass to the joint tenant under the Right of Survivorship, regardless of the Will, unless you sever this agreement and become ‘tenants in common’.
Tenants in common- Your share in the property will pass to the person/s named in your Will, or if there is no Will, passed on under intestacy laws.
Trust Interest- If your share in your home is subject to a trust, the terms of the trust determines your rights to the property and what happens with your home in the event of your death.

So in other words if he needs downsize, to free up money for care, or to pay care home fees he cannot easily do so. And if he needs more spent on care than is covered by the equity in the house and his remaining assets, the kids might or might not contribute from their share. And that’s the problem. It’s possible to split inheritance between spouse and kids, but not generally in a way that doesn’t inconvenience the spouse.

I agree that it would have been very difficult indeed to effect in an abusive relationship, which compounds the issue.

I don’t expect anything from strangers or the law, what an odd idea. I do expect OP to be given respect that she knows her mum better than anyone and if she feels she would be gutted by how things transpired, she’s more likely to be right than anyone on the thread.

Yes it’s a fact you have 2 live parents. It’s also a fact that it’s very easy to make these kinds of grand claims on a keyboard but it’s merely empty virtue signalling.

It's hard to swallow.
MIL and SFIL had mirror wills, whoever was left behind would stay in the house then half to each child. She died first. Stepfather rewrote his will - all went to his own son. Not sure how this was done but she'd have turned in her grave.
FIL died intestate. DH was not contacted by the executor and it went to the legitimate heir (DH was illegitimate but still had FIL's name on birth certificate).
DH probably could have staked a claim against both estates but didn't want to be seen as mercenary so let it go big mistake, huge

I think we pretty much agree then.

To clarify, I didn't mean "you" as in "Mirabai" in the last paragraph. I meant "you" as "one". "One cannot expect..."

I actually agree with you that the OP probably knew her mum best. I believe in this case what is happening is not what her mum would have wanted. But as loads of others have pointed out, that's not a good enough reason for the law or anyone else to now take the money from the husband and give it to the daughter.

one person does not "drive another into an early grave" - that is pure fiction

We are not talking about a man who locked up and starved his wife here, are we.

We are not talking about a man who locked up and starved his wife here, are we.

No - that would be murder.... Driving someone to an early grave is a figure of speech which covers some of the examples I gave in my earlier post.

if your dad is putting in 2/3 of the cost of the property, they need to own it as tenants in common and reflect this in the declaration.
it is vital it is held as tenants in common and not joint tenants as otherwise it will pass automatically to her by survivorship (and not under the terms of a will).
it is important to note that marriage revokes a Will (unless a declaration is included in the will that it is made ‘in contemplation of marriage’)
His Will could then create a trust to allow her to live in the property for the rest of her life and then on her death, his share is split between you and your sibling. She can leave her share to who she likes. He should under no circumstances leave everything to her and trust that she will leave a share to you when she dies (even if they made wills on similar terms together) as she can change her will after he dies.
he should see a solicitor to put this in place and should consider using a professional executor perhaps in addition to you.

Tenants in common rather than a joint mortgage will mean you inherit df’s half.

Only if his Will says this and isn’t revoked by subsequent marriage. Tenants in common can specify any share doesn’t have to be half. So if he is contributing 2/3 this would be more appropriate.
also if he leaves directly to children, where will she live? She would potentially have grounds to claim against the estate. Hence the suggestion of a life interest trust for her.

@WonderingAboutThus that's not a good enough reason for the law or anyone else to now take the money from the husband and give it to the daughter

That’s not even thing. OP’s question was whether DF’s claim to be protecting her inheritance with a 25% share in his property was true, which it is not.

You can drive someone to an early grave, especially if the other person is elderly and already in poor health and poor mental faculties. This is a sly and underhand thing and very difficult to prove.

For example, feeding a diabetic lots of sugary things, stressing them or tiring someone out, not letting them sleep enough or disrupting their bedtimes. Not taking them for medical appointments or giving them regular medication. Not giving them enough exercise or stimulation.

We are tenants in common.

But are sorting things out properly (finally) via a will.

Portion
Not necessarily half

@LuluBlakey1 Can trusts be changed? My deceased father left our inheritance in a trust, step mother has benefit of living in house and moving which she has done. I’ve never got his Will trust looked over by a solicitor, I try not be bitter about it, very similar circumstances to OP. In the trust in the event of my death, my share will go to my DC or I believe I can pass to them directly if I’m still alive. Step mum 15 years older than me but was 15 years younger than my DF, I have a roof over my head, it’s my DC that would really benefit from it and I’d just like to know if they definitely have something coming. Thanks

Who are the trustees for her life interest trust? This should have been dealt with when your father died. They should be on the title to the property which would make it very difficult for her to take the share destined for you. Provided what you have posted does in fact reflect the Will, She has a life interest but what happens after her death is fixed by your father’s will. Having said that if both the life tenant and remainder beneficiaries all AGREE, it is possible to apportion the trust so she would receive a capitalised value of her life interest and you would receive funds before she died. This would likely be a lesser amount than after she died but you would get it sooner. It would be calculated by an actuary. It should also be noted that if she needed care, as she does not own the house only a right to live in it, the value should not be taken into account for assessment, the capital is protected for you. Again the title to the property is important to illustrate this point. The apportionment can only happen if everyone agreed, whether she would agree or not may depend on how much she wants to live in the house and what other funds she has.

This is incorrect. A property owned as joint tenants passes automatically by survivorship to the other joint owner whether married or not. It passes by right of survivorship and outside of the Will or intestacy.

to pass under a will or intestacy the house must be owned as tenants in common.

if people are advised by a competent solicitor it is common to use a trust to ensure that on death, after the life of the surviving spouse/ partner the value passes to children.

however many people do not seek advice or just don’t for see a situation where the survivor may disinherit the children. This can happen accidentally with a parent just not realising the legal implications. eg if H&W jointly own house, each have a Will leaving everything to each other on first death or the children if they die second (very common). If H dies first, all his assets go to W. W then remarries, not realising this will revoke her previous will. She therefore died intestate and so the intestacy provisions apply and new husband gets first £322k and half the rest. Children get the other half of the rest of there’s anything left. If W and new husband had owned a property as joint tenants then as that passes outside of the intestacy it would not use up the 322k. When new H dies he leaves everything to his own children.

all of this does not mean that H who died first did not want his children to inherit, it doesn’t mean that W didn’t WANT their children to inherit, it means they did not realise and didn’t get appropriate advice at the right time.

Advice is: take advice, consider using trusts.

@22mumsynet - the solicitors along with stepmother have been appointed executors and trustees.

Thanks for any reassurance.

No problem (I’m a wills and probate solicitor). Do you know if the solicitor is on the property title as trustee? You can check by downloading a copy of the title direct from the land registry if you don’t want to ask them. How long ago did your father die?
As a beneficiary you would certainly be entitled to ask for a copy of the Will and trust documents. If you don’t want to engage with them you can get a copy of the Will from the probate registry.

Whilst it’s not your right to expect inheritance I get the annoyance. There are ways to protect - my husband and I have created a trust where if one of us dies the other has a life right in the house but when we die it goes to the children. We have an age gap between us and it’s been done to avoid the issue of remarriage and our children ending up with nothing. It’s not cheap but totally worthwhile.

He’s selling HIS House not yours.

providing the will is correctly drawn up you won’t have a problem

AS your mom left everything to him then I am afraid you have absolutely no legal claim to anything.

If your dad wants you to have a share of the house then it needs to be written into his legally binding will