Advice regarding house deeds please

[Bubbletrouble007]

My DM signed over her house to her four children. Child A got 40% share, Child B, C and D 20% share. The split reflected childrens position in life. B,C and D all owned own homes / lived abroad etc. DM passed away 18 months ago and house is up for sale.

Child A has recently said that he has left his share of the house in his will to his grandson. This grandson has caused a number of issues within the family including stealing and being abusive to older family members. They have said that should anything happen to A before the house sells, they will refuse to sell it for a certain price. Currently the house is below market value and has been empty for a while with A B C and D happy for it to go at any price so that all can have closure.

Since finding out that he (A's grandson) has been named in A's will, he has contacted B, C and D and said should anything happen to A he wants the house revalued and he wants at least 100k from the sale (house is currently on market at 110k so his expectations are off).

I'm finding this unsettling for a number of reasons and was under the impression that should I pass then my 20% would have been redistributed to the other 3 names on the deeds and that I couldn't nominate someone to take over my 20% does that make sense?

Any advice gratefully appreciated.

If you own something, you can make a will, and leave it to whoever you like.

However, with a part share of a property, this is not always the case: it depends on whether it's owned as joint tenants, or tenants in common. Have a read of this. [[https://mindatrest.co.uk/blog/how-to-tell-if-property-is-owned-as-tenants-in-common/]].

Download the deeds from HMLR.

It's not clear how the house has been passed to the children concerned - when you say it has been signed over that sounds like each person currently owns a specific percentage of the house.

If the house has not been signed over but left in a will to ABC and D in different percentages, it depends what the will says would happen if any of the beneficiaries died (although I would say that although I am not a legal expert by any means, the length of time involved here may well mean that A is considered to have inherited, often a beneficiary may be required to survive the deceased for a period of a month or so to inherit).

It is hard to answer without knowing the details of how the house was passed on to the children though. I hope you can sort it out OP.

Hello

Apologies, my mistake I thought I'd included all relevant details :) the house was given 15 years ago whilst DM was still alive with the percentage of ownership as listed above.

Thank you for reading

Umm, not sure about that, Chiccroissant.
If it's being sold out of the mother's estate, ie the mother left it in her will, and none of her beneficiaries have predeceased her, then any money owed to them from the mother's will , should one of them die before the house is sold, will then be owed to that person's estate.

I read the OP as the house was transferred before the mother's death.

Ah, cross post.

If A is still alive then their grandson can fuck right off as it’s currently none of his business!

It sounds like you are probably tenants in common as that is the only way you can own unequal shares of the property. If that is the case, you can leave your share to whoever you want. It will be part of your estate if you die. It will not be automatically redistributed to your siblings. So I'm afraid A can leave his share to his grandson.

If you are joint tenants all four of you have equal rights to the whole property, so you would each be entitled to 25% of the proceeds of any sale. If one of you dies their share of the house would not form part of their estate. The house would be owned by the three surviving siblings.

If A is in good health I wouldn't worry about his grandson.