To leave my house to my children and not my husband

[Moiraroseee]

I have two children and my main priority is ensuring they are always well taken care of. I am married to a lovely man who is not their father but has been in our lives for many years (firstly as a family friend prior to our relationship). For various reasons, when we bought our family home, it was practical for me to be the only person named on the mortgage and I supplied the entire deposit. The question I have is, if I die am I able to leave the house entirely to my children? He is not named on the property (although circumstances have now changed and he could be added now) - but since we are married is the property automatically 50% his and therefore would I be unable to leave it all to my kids?

Wow (again). You actually sound like quite a nasty person now - the more you post, the worse it sounds.
Good luck to you all.

OP I think you are getting an unfair pasting for asking on MN, plenty of other people do this while waiting to see a lawyer, doctor, whatever and it's fine...I suspect it's because you have revealed you're well off!

Anyway, from reading your posts I would say death should be less of a concern to you than divorce. And I know you'll not be thinking you'll get divorced, but no one ever does!

What if you don’t have capacity to?

Including the mortgage?

You would be far better going tenants in common on the deeds, leaving your 50% in a IDPI to him, in trust for the children.

You could on top of that have mutual wills, in which he leaves his 50% to the children also - a mutual will cannot be varied after the first parties death, so he could not then will that part to a future spouse, as mutual wills do not void on re-marriage.

A life time interest would sort that and that ends if he married again
the guy paid towards the mortgage the house isn’t 100% yours to give away as you please

Who will he leave everything to?

I suggest you take out a decent life insurance policy.

But he's paying towards the mortgage payments?

Things can change; people have accidents and illness.
Other than that, it's his home. It would be very stressful to move house immediately following a spouses death. Did he know your plans when you married? It doesn't seem like an equal marriage; more he helps with household income.

The current situation is he legally owns half the house, not being on the title is irrelevant, he is paying towards the mortgage and other costs, living there and married to the OP - as far as the OP states there are no deeds of trust ring fencing anything, so he has an interest of 50%.

He would do well appending a note to the title, which he can do.

If the will has been written correctly it is perfectly fine to do this.

Typically you might choose to leave your DH a life interest in the house so that he could continue to live there but it would go to your kids when he dies. Or he could live there for xx years or until your kids reach a certain age. But you don’t have to do this.

Get a lawyer.

That could be sorted now by a mutual will, if he leaves his share to the children in a mutual will, as they have agreed, then that is how it will be after the hypothetical death of the OP

Mutual wills cannot be changed after the death of the first party, and are not cancelled by re-marriage.

Same here. Fortunately DP and I are in complete agreement. In any case, he has his own home separately from me which is filled to his own DC,
OP in your situation I agree with pp. See a solicitor.

Not if you have the words ‘clean break’ in the divorce agreement.

This is useful information, thanks you. I will raise it with the lawyer next week.

I’m in a second marriage with a child from
a previous and understand the need to ensure some of your wealth goes to your child. I was told by a solicitor that any will effectively has to pass a “divorce test” so you need to leave him the equivalent to what he’d get in a divorce - ie 50% of assets made during the marriage.

The deposit you put in before marriage would not be necessarily an asset of the marriage but equity gained in the marriage would be.

OP do you know the well known case of actor Nigel Havers?
Long ago but his wife died and left her house to her 2 sons.
He went to court and got the house claiming she had not provided for him.
He later married a very rich women. The sons got nothing.

I don’t need help with household income

Leave the house to your children with a right to your husband to live in it til death .

Exactly!

So minus the deposit he’s paid for 50% of the house. He should be annoyed that you want to give his half to your kids without any thought to him.

Do you actually love him?

No, I want the house to go towards ensuring their upbringing is provided for.

Life interest is the way to go, then your children can do what they want with the property

Would be hard to contest...any money ge paid would be looked upon as rent