How to put house in my name only

[Okkitokkiunga]

We own a house which we rent out as moved away for DH's work. I am a SAHM. We only have a small amount of mortgage left to pay on it and have the savings to pay it off, which are currently earning rubbish interest. We are considering paying it off and transferring the house into my name.

I have briefly looked into it and believe that as no money is changing hands we can just do a transfer of ownership through land registry and pay a fee.

Also, is it correct that as we are married, it doesn't matter whose name the house is in as if we split up it would be considered a marital asset so we would both still have an equal claim on it? And if I die DH will inherit it as my spouse with no inheritance tax to pay? It's currently worth about £250k

Are there other implications we should consider?

Thanks.

No answer but watching with interest (similar problem here)

You seem to have the right idea. On divorce it would still be a marital asset, but when you do come to sell if it remains in your sole name then you can only offset one CGT annual exemption. I suspect the income tax situation more than makes up for that though.

Pretty sure that if the house is just in your name the state/local authority could put a charge on it and potentially take the whole thing if you were to be admitted to a care home at any stage. You may be too young to be concerned about this but life changing accidents can happen. If half is is DH's name that half would be protected.

Eleanor I assume you mean to cover the costs of my care. What would stop me selling it to do so? TBH I am a bit young to be worrying about that yet esp as we still have young children at home, though is certainly something I will factor in.

Collaborate my understanding of CGT is next to zero but when I looked it up it said that as we had moved for DH work we wouldn't be liable, but I guess with an change in ownership that may change. Hmmmm

@okki - yes that is what I meant. You are right, there would be nothing to stop you selling it yourself - though you might not be capable of making that decision if you were in the position of going into a care home as the result of old age or after a serious accident. But the whole sum could still be eaten up by care home fees.
Many couples choose to have properties in joint names to ensure that in the event of one partner having to go into a care home, half the value can still be preserved as an inheritance for DC. The assumption is that as you both age one partner will die at home, cared for by the second partner - so no/lowcare fees. They can then leave their share of the property to the DC in their will to be handed over when the second partner eventually dies. So even if the second partner needs residential care, the council can only take 50% of the value.
I would actually get professional legal/financial advice before doing anything definitive.

Also, is it correct that as we are married, it doesn't matter whose name the house is in as if we split up it would be considered a marital asset so we would both still have an equal claim on it?

This is definitely true. My ExH took a mortgage on a house, we moved in at the same time, later got married had 2 kids. I worked PT, him FT (I was main carer for the kids). When I told him I was leaving he told me I'd not get a penny from the house. His own solicitor advised him otherwise!

Eleanor that all makes sense. But we don't actually live in the house so if we still own it then hopefully rental income and cash reserves etc would cover the care. We could always change it back to joint names in the future if needs be. TBH one of the main reasons is to reduce our tax burden now and to get a better return on investment that we are currently getting.