To ask you about property and wills

[LolleePop]

My DF lives in a house with his partner. Let's call her Tilly.
They have been together 55 years.
The house is under Tilly's name. She bought it outright with her own money (unexpected inheritance) whilst she and my DF were very first together as a couple. The deeds are solely in her name. My DF did not buy the house with her.
They are not married. They both had previous marriages with children, both divorced then met each other, and both decided not to marry again.
They have gone on to live a very happy life together and love each other very much. They are now in their 80s and have lived together in Tilly's house for 55 years.
DF has refurbished the entire house over the years, and has ploughed tens of thousands of pounds of his own money in to upgrading the house and making it lovely for them to live in.
I know that Tilly has made a will, which leaves her house To DF if she dies first.
Tilly has 2 adult children (from a previous relationship, they are not my DF's biological children), and my DF has me.
Here's my question:
If Tilly has left her house to DF in her will, can she state within her will that after he dies, the house then gets passed on to her 2 children?
B

If Tilly hasn’t been smart, her will simply bequeaths the house to OP’s father.

Then when OP’s father passes, if he doesn’t have a will or if he just has a will in favour of OP, then it’s possible 100% of the house will go her way.

Unlikely, but possible.

or even that her DF would want her to have it given he’s done the square root of zero for the op for more than half a century

this Tilly has been smart. She bought a bought in her own name more than fifty years ago and kept it that way!

i’m guessing Tilly’s adult children are very much his children too given he raised them with her

Perhaps your father has been putting money into savings which will go to you?

Or perhaps not.

Maybe he couldn't afford to buy his own property; so instead of formal Rent (because: unromantic) he put what he would have paid in rent elsewhere into doing up his partner's property. She (and her estate) gets the full benefit of those renovations, same as she would if she used the profit from a lodger to pay for them. Fair and reasonable.

Let's be optimistic: he might have a life assurance policy that pays out to you.

Or you might get nothing. Them's the breaks. One of my grandmothers had a stroke 7 years before she died and most of her assets went to a nursing home. Plenty of people live out their days in rented property on a state pension.

Wot @AmeliaEarache said

Your DF is the person who has let you down, prioritising his relation with his partner over you. Spending crime with her at the expense of his time with you.

He had 'poured' money and time into her asset. and presumably lived rent free, too. His life has been facilitated by his partner. He has chosen to live like this.

Understand that it's easier to blame his partner. The person in whom the responsibility rests is your father. Sorry.

this.

with bells on

I will never understand these kind of threads

Its ‘Tilly’s’ house
Why do you think you deserve some inheritance ?

Yes your father made improvements etc BUT he has lived rent / mortgage free for all those years

Some people’s entitlement is rather astounding

You'll just have to accept that seeing as your father doesn't own the property you won't be getting any inheritance from it.

If, by any chance you do get a share, then that will be a pleasant bonus.

He may well have ploughed tens of thousands into the house, but he's lived rent/mortgage free for half a century so he's still going to be up financially. He presumably could've bought his own property of investments but chose not to.

You're not missing out on an inheritance in terms of the house as that's not your dad's asset. If DH died I'd never remarry and would leave my assets to my children regardless of whether I had a partner or not (I'm not sure about the life interest idea, I'd expect any partner I had to be self funding with their own assets).

He definitely sounds like a shit father though so you have my sympathies for that, but your ideas about an inheritance being due from Tilly are well off the mark.

But the house doesn't belong to your df at the moment, so you aren't missing out on anything?

If a lifetime trust is in place, your df will never actually own the house, he will just be allowed to live there before the house passes of to Tilly's dc. So nothing's being taken from you.

Of course your df should have done more to protect you from Tilly's negativity, though. You should have been treated better.

Imagine if Tilly started a thread about how she was financially independent with her own house, had a partner who'd contributed to home improvements but lived rent free for 50 years, and now his DC were kicking up a stink about not inheriting the property?

Think about how that would go! My advice to Tilly would be to kick him out now to secure her DCs inheritance

oh he won’t be doing anything for the op
hasn’t done for more than half a century
and no doubt sees tilly’s children as his own in many respects

IT's correct but not well expressed. She's meaning you can't leave something to your partner with the proviso that he leaves it or a share of it to his child or anyone else, you can only express a wish that he do this. But you can leave it, as she says, to your children (or anyone else) but give your partner a life interest.

Fully agree

As others have said its probably a trust, your DF may also have made provision in his estate for you? Me and DH (no joint children) have created a trust so that our assets are enjoyed by each other for life then pass to our side of each family upon the 2nd death.

Was I quoted? No expert, so probably really poorly expressed! Just been through it all with my estate planner, he's extremely thorough!

I agree... It's Tilly's home. OP will have to make her own somewhere else.
There might be a reason her and Tilly never caught on after all these years that we don't know about. If OP assumed she would be receiving inheritance just because of her father's relationship, it might have rubbed Tilly the wrong way.