What happens to property if no will left?

[Mrstrumpalot]

My DP and I live in a property of which I have 80% ownership and he has 20%. This was drawn up legally in a declaration of trust and we are tenants in common.

We are not married. I have a will which stipulates if I die then my adult Dds will get my 80%. I know he will need to sell up as he will not have that sort of money to buy them out , if he wanted to stay in the property. I have not made provision in my will for him to stay there until he dies as he is a lot younger than me and my dds would have to wait years to benefit.

He is not an organised person at all, and sees no reason to make a will himself. He has no dc of his own, only a df and some nieces.

If he were to die first would I have to pay his 20% share to his df ( next of kin) to enable me to own the house completely?

In short, yes.

Yes. If you are not married you cannot inherit under the rules of intestacy. If he has no children or adopted children his parent(s) are next in line.

There's a tool you can use to check on the .gov website
www.gov.uk/inherits-someone-dies-without-will

Cuts both ways.

You should take out life insurance to enable each of you to buy out the other's estate.

I had not thought of taking out life insurance on each other.
But how do we work out what cover we will each need as naturally as prices go up then our percentages will be worth more in monetary terms and we will need more cover to pay off each other’s families. ( if that makes sense).

Plus I have told him he needs to make a will otherwise if his df dies then DP’s share will go to his brother who he never sees.

Hopeful bump re my life insurance query?

Not sure on that one, but isn't he quite vulnerable if you die first? He will be forced to sell and will only get 20% of the value. What happens to him after that?

@specialsubject ..I know I have a dilemma. I put 80% of the deposit into the house and my dp only 20% and he agreed that this was a fair proportion split should we separate or one of us dies.

I realise that normally if one partner dies and there are stepchildren involved the surviving partner is often provided for in the will by being allowed to stay in the house until their death.

However as I mentioned originally my dp is a lot younger than me and I would be afraid that my dds would not benefit until they themselves are getting on in years.

I really don’t know what to do for the best.

May I ask are you also paying 80% of the mortgage repayments/interest payments?

You could probably get a decent insurance policy which would pay out 20% of the value of the house in the event that he dies first, to allow you to buy out his dp's share.

I very much doubt that there is any insurance policy that he could sign up to which would cough up 80% of the value of the house in the event that he needed to buy out your dd's share if you die first. That would be a quite astonishing policy and the premiums would be enormous.

He would be better off ploughing all his spare money into building up a decent deposit until he can buy a small flat in his sole name. Renting it out at first, in the event that you die before him, then he has somewhere to move to. You could perhaps write into the will that whichever of you survives the other should be allowed to occupy the shared home for a year before the legatees inherit?

Alternatively maybe you could buy this small additional property and hold it jointly (that is you both wholly own it so it does not form part of the estate on the first death but becomes the sole property of the survivor) - then it acts as your insurance policy too. If he dies first then the second property is sold to allow you to buy out his NoK and if you die first it is kept by him as his home when the current house is sold.

I'm not saying you should change this, but perhaps he needs to wake up and think about his future, given that he is likely to outlive you.

Time he grew up and got organised. Also looks like some possible ideas in the post above.