Inheriting a house .- some questions..

[deemented]

Just wondering if anyone would be able to help.

My mum and dad split up several years ago, and she left the family home. When she died in her will it stated that her half of the house be split five ways between her five children. Now my dad - but not my brothers or sisters dad has said that in his will it leaves me everything, including his half of the house.

My dad is still paying off the mortgage - has about another six years to pay on it - he pays most of it, but gets housing benifit for some of it. Am i right in thinking then that if the majority of the house is left to me, then if my dad should die before the mortgage is paid off then i would be responsible for paying off the rest of the mortgage?

Also am i right in thinking that once everything is settled i would own 60% of the house and my siblings would each own 10%?

There is no way that i could afford to buy them out - i live in a council rented property - so i would have to sell the house and give them their share of the money?

Also, what effect would this have on myt own benifits?

I may seem really mercinary, given the fact that my beloved dad is alive and kicking, but i know that when anything does happen to him i will be devstated and probably not up to much.

Can anyone advise?

Your dad will have a life insurance policy to pay off the mortgage if he dies before he finishes paying it off. (At least, that used to be compulsory, and I'm assuming that it still is.) So you won't have to pay it, and you will own 60% of the house.

You may not have to sell it, it might be possible for you to get a mortgage for 40% of the value - you won't know this till your dad dies, though.

Not sure about your benefits question, sorry.

I´m cnfused as to why your Mum could will her half tbh as there is still a mortgage on it.

I'm assuming your Mum's other children are half-sisters/ half-brothers, from your Mum's first wedding (correct me if wrong, my Mum was married young, had a baby son, and then her first husband was killed at sea in 1940, so years later she married again and had daughters and then me, leaving her with 5 children, my sisters and I having a half-brother - her first born).

diddl - re mortgage on house - doesn't affect the wishes of the Mum to have her half split 5 ways - just worded "ready" for when anything happened to her.

I'd think that whether the house has a mortgage on it or not, if it does end up as OP's, she might (via a solicitor) be able to draw up a deed of variation to split the value of the house (depending on whether she wants to / how well she gets on with 'siblings' / whether benefits would be adversely affected).

It's potentially complicated but not impossible. Our Mum did this when her first son died, without a will, because otherwise our Mum would have received everything from his estate, and his partner for 40 years {never married} would be left homeless and without any of his 200K of cash and shares - she ended up with 75% savings, plus house

Mum's grandchildren, ie his niece and nephews, each had 5% of the cash to put in savings - OK 10K isn't massive as a deposit towards a house, but useful and without leaving his partner feeling bitter.

I would have thought that if you get a 60% share in a house your benefits will be affected.

Yes they were married, but never divorced - mum died before that could come through, and my siblings are from a previous relationship my mother had.

TBH there's been a lot of bad feeling between one sister in particular and my dad - she was trying to force my dad to sell the house - it's the home he lived in for almost seventy years - to give her her 'share' of the money, but because she couldn't get legal aid the matter was dropped. She has a copy of mums will but isn't really forthcoming with it, but i do believe there's another copy being held by a solicitor.

I'll look into that then, thank you.

Does it matter at all that the house belonged to my grandparents and they willed it to my dad, and then my parents took out a second mortgage on it?

I second babybarrister's advice. Dh's dad thought that he was leaving his half of his house to his children, but the deeds showed it was Joint Tenants so it was passed directly to his wife (although the children were more than happy about that, it was just a surprise to her as she thought she would have to sell it and move).

Have you seen your mothers will?
Find out who was the executor of your mothers will.

If you know the date of death of your mother, go to your local probate registry and ask for details of your mothers will. You need to read it.