Leaving house to one child and not the other?

[BabyBump1212]

Do you think this is fair? I guess in exceptional circumstances,for example if a child was no contact then maybe, but if both children were close to said parent,no falling out etc. How would you feel about this?

It definitely doesn't sound fair but we probably need more information. Is one child much better off than the other one? Does one child still live in the family home and provides care for their parent?

Unfair. Regardless if one already lives in a mortgage free mansion and the other is renting a grotty bedsit.

Definitely need more information about the family dynamics and background of help for each of the children

Inheritance can be what ever the gifter wants it to be.

It’s not something that can be controlled by the person not inheriting anything.

Do both children know about this and agree with this? Or did the parent secretly change the will and it has only been discovered after the event?

Unfair. Each child should be treated the same. If you omit 1 child, you are potentially causing a rift between them as your legacy.

Technically true but it would be an unjust parent who would leave siblings with such an awful dilemma. Very cruel.

The answer OP is it depends on a lot of factors.

Not enough information. Is this you or someone you know?

It depends on the context.

In general I would say that it wasn’t fair.

However one set of my grandparents left their house to their daughter rather than shared between their four children.

The daughter (my aunt) didn’t marry and lived with them for most of her life and caring for them both until they died, when they were well into their 90s.

The family house was her home. Her siblings had all married and had homes of their own and were very grateful to their sister for having cared for their parents for so long. They had no concerns at all that she was left the house.

Parents still alive but divorced. Both children were informed of this when updating will.
Both children equal in their finances. The child left out lives further away.

Someone I know.

It’s their money so completely down to them.

So you then.

No. That’s awful. Could never imagine doing that to my kids.

What is the reason they’ve given for doing this? There must be one and I imagine it’s relevant to whether it’s fair or not.

Children should always be treated equally. Only reasons to diverge from this would be if one child has a major lifelong disability or is in prison for a major crime. Otherwise an equal split is the only fair option.

Nope.

I would never do this. Mil died last year, two adult dc, her son my dh with 5 dc and a mortgage got nothing, her daughter who lived with her, single, childless, was left the house. While I understand that it's her dds home and she should be entitled to remain living there, its a bit shit that she inherited a house worth 500k, while her brother received nothing.

Following your update, I would say it’s unfair. You say they have similar finances, but one lives further away, is that the issue?

It’s a huge mistake and will cause damage for generations. Everything should be split equally between children or it just causes hurt.

Their reasoning was because their partner will inherit from their parents so they think that makes it ok. Like it's a given that they won't need to pay for care home fees in the future. They tried to justify why they have done this.

Possibly. They moved further away due to work.

It all depends.

It happens in farming families and royalty / the aristocracy with stately homes.

Generally it’s favouritism or misguided engineering of respective finances, or sexist stuff (leave it to the son) or something

Will the other sibling get savings, other cash and assets?

I think that without very specific circumstances parents should leave their estate in equal shares to their Dc.

When you say living away is that estranged? Does the one living away have problems? Selling the house and leaving the value 50:50 sounds more fair but it really depends, did the child living away get lots of help previously?

Just because someone has a right to make a decision, it doesn’t mean other people can’t think it’s shitty.