Inheritance nightmare - charge against the house

[DoneOver]

My step dad has died. His will leaves me and my siblings my mum's house. (She died first, house nothing to do with him.) However we have now found out that a while back he put a charge against it which gives most of the house value to his own daughter. (not my mums child.) Clearly mum stuffed up by dying before she wrote her will. But its very unfair, is there any legal redress at all?

Individuals absolutely can register charges.

Seems to me that theres not a lot we can do therefore

Not necessarily. If he only had a life interest in the house and it was expressed as such in your mother's will, the charge does not take precedence. You really need to get legal advice.

Of course an invidivual can register a charge, anyone can. A charge, or a charging order, secures a debt. The outstanding debt is then repaid from the proceeds of the sale

You can’t place accept a charge against something you don’t own. If the solicitors managing probate are saying there is a valid charge against this property then he owned it. And the daughter is being repaid from thr proceeds of the probate sale.

Op as others have said, you need a copy of your mother’s will. His trumping hers or hers not being watertight is all nonsense.

It may be that your mother’s will left him a life interest in her half share of the house, but the house was owned jointly rather than tenants in common so that part of her will failed and he was able to register the charge, it may be that the charge should never have been registered or it may be something else entirely, which is why you need professional advice.

It won’t do you any harm to ring around a few solicitors and ask how much they will charge you to look into it, and then they can advise you if it’s worth taking any further and what that will cost or if you have indeed been shafted.

I’d estimate it will take them less than an hour to look at the will and look at the docs on the land registry website and come to a conclusion, so I wouldn’t expect them to charge much at all, they may not even charge you for the initial meeting if they think they might get some business out of you.

To be honest you don’t even need to get her will, just speak to the solicitors dealing with his probate, they will tell you if he fully owned it or if there was a life time interest. It’s highly unlikely they are corrupt, plus it’s free if you speak to them.

Do you have a copy of your mothers will and your step fathers will?

My step dad has died. His will leaves me and my siblings my mum's house

I’m not a lawyer but I don’t understand this. I thought your mum, who owned it, left it to you and your siblings and her step daughter in HER will.

And that SF only had a right to live there until he died.

That means SF never owned it. So he can’t leave it to anyone.

Or your mother never made such a will. Or she did but it was lost. Or she made another will that left everything to her husband.

In which case he owned it and had the right to borrow money against it or leave it to anyone he wanted.

Mumsnet is amazing but I would get some legal advice from a solicitor. You will be able to ask for 30 free minutes and can go from there. At least then you’ll know where you stand. All the best xx

The will is pure legal gobbledygook?? Surely a solicitor was able to interpret it for you?
This is unbelievable, tbh. Either you've taken legal advice and you refuse to believe their verdict, or you have completely misunderstood.
What can anybody tell you except speak to a solicitor??
The will will not have been legal gobbledygook, that's for sure...

'

If your Mum put a life rent in for your step father the house effectively goes into trust (and is the responsibility of the executor) until the death of the person with the life rent.

My MILs house has been given as a life rent to someone. The house is in trust at the moment

You need legal advice immediately.

People do dreadful things when money is involved, and step families are very complex when it comes to inheritance.

If I was your step sister I would feel very uncomfortable about inheriting your mums house. Clearly your step dad was a pretty awful person.

Are you close to your step sister?

OP...too much confusion here about life interests & charges. You need to get proper legal advice & not go by what is posted here when posters do not have all facts & most likely in many instances (I'm guessing) no legal qualification. You need to get a copy of the title & your Mum's will & make an appointment to see a solicitor who specialises in Probate/Estate administration asap.

she has not written anything to suggest she’s being defrauded

She has. Her posts suggest that her mother's house went into a life interest trust for her stepfather to live in, with it then being divided between her children and his daughter on his death. However, shortly after her mother died her father gave his daughter a charge over the house for 80% of its value. If he was not the trustee he had no authority to enter into such an arrangement. If he was the trustee he has clearly breached the terms of the trust. It is a transparent attempt by him and his daughter to defraud the OP and her siblings.

Of course, if the OP's mother left her house to the OP's stepfather outright that is a different matter. In that case there is no fraud. But the OP needs to stop saying there is nothing she can do and get proper advice to figure out the true situation.

I have seen it and its pure legal goobledygook and I dont understand it.
This is what op actually said, so it's futile to offer any advice other than take proper legal advice. It's senseless for her to insist she's aware of the terms of the will whilst simultaneously being unable to understand it.

Was mother's first will written before the date of marriage? If so, it became void on the wedding day and her new husband would normally inherit. Be extremely careful about throwing good money after bad, on lawyers ' fees. Maybe just taking what you are given will amount to the wise move, financially?.

Contested wills are one of the many ways professions sometimes get rich while laity loses out.

Happened to me too. My mum died left house to dad. Dad remarried, died and left house to wife who is leaving it to her nephew. My mum would be devastated. But she should have left a will and not relied on the inheritance rules within marriage.

Please tell me you have a solicitor looking into this.

@DoneOver you need to get legal advice, and fast. You wrote that your mum made her will just after marrying your step dad, so his will can't over ride that.

He can't leave a house he doesn't own, and I think any charge against the house could also be invalid.

Her posts suggest that her mother's house went into a life interest trust for her stepfather to live in, with it then being divided between her children and his daughter on his death

She then changed it to he must have fully inherited, and before you posted. And you can’t accept a charge over a property you don’t own. The probate solicitors would not accept it.

It’s also highly unlikely the will is legal gobbdlygook, wills are not written like that and need to be understood by the person signing them.

As such, I’m not sure what this is about, but it’s very rare for someone to have no idea what their own mothers will said and no idea what their step fathers said particularly when they are a beneficiary.

Op, is a member of your family dealing with this and passing on messages to you and you are simply not understanding what’s being said?

@bluntness100 is a member of your family dealing with this and passing on messages to you and you are simply not understanding what’s being said? I suspect that is what is happening.

Wills can be quite long winded, especially if the will writer wants to give the impression to their client that they’re getting value for money, so if you’re not used to reading wills they can seem a bit like gobbledegook.

I think what is most likely is the house was owned as tenants in common, the mother left her 50% as a life interest to the step dad then to her children, but no one ever bothered updating the land registry when she died (surprisingly common) so the step dad has registered a charge against his 50% and the op never found out because she wasn’t named on the title as she should have been.

I had a friend whose Mother died, and shortly after my friends step brother produced a will the mother had recently signed leaving her house to his very frail and elderly dad, who had only married the mother five years earlier.

Only the house, which had been in the family for generations and was very valuable, didn’t actually belong to the mother, she simply had life tenancy (if that is he correct term).

The son had clearly arranged for a will to be drawn up ensuring only his family inherited. Unfortunately he hadn’t checked ownership of the house and his step mother (who was ill and in her eighties) seemed to have been confused or had forgotten. I had wrongly assume solicitors would check these things when the will was drawn up.

I don’t know the exact ins and outs but the step son was incredibly angry and cut all contact with My friends family, accusing them of robbing his elderly father of his rightful inheritance.

People are incredibly greedy.

And you can’t accept a charge over a property you don’t own. The probate solicitors would not accept it.

you can if you're the trustee...

you can if you're the trustee...

If there was a trust she would have known, she’d have received communication at least on her mothers death if not his from the bank or solicitors executing the trust. My husband was a beneficiary of a trust, he was notified immediately when the trustee died. He also received periodic statements from the bank on the assets.

You can also only legally accept a charge if it is to the beneficiaries benefit, as such, once again the probate lawyers would not have accepted it, as it would have been illegal for him to take a charge that only benefited him.

There was no trust.

In all likely hood he’s inherited, the daughter has bought the house and he’s lived off the money on the understanding repayment of the debt was from the proceeds of the house sale when he died.

You seem convinced of that bluntness.... given that you have not seen the will I'm not sure why.

OP should take the advice of the solicitors on this thread and show her mother's will to a solicitor to understand what it means and take action accordingly.