Two houses two people four equal shares

[Thatoldchestnutagain]

My Father passed away in November 2019 leaving equal shares to my brother and I.
We equally joint own a property that has been our home since the early 90s
Both properties are mortgage free
We have had father's properties valued and are both happy that they are of equal value, pros and cons with each and understand that the market could change and one maybe with more than the other in the future. Neither of us are looking to move for a long time or never so this is immaterial as they are seen as homes not investments.
Looking to change deeds so one that has been our joint home is to be transferred to my sole name and the other to be registered in his. Evens Stevens!
Would prefer to do this without too much hassle and expense. Recently e-mailed a conveyancing firm to do this and to get a quote. Unfortunately the person doing the callback insisted we would need to employ 2 solicitors to prevent conflict of interest. We managed to complete probate online and understand we could do this too, but would prefer both of us to sit down to ensure the correct forms are completed and Id's confirmed and obviously pay a fee to do so. Is this something that could be done or is it a definite no-no?

Don't know of the relevance, but we are both single with no dependents, we are all each other have but don't live well together! We bicker a lot having shared a house for so many years...😬

Any advice welcome..thanks

You should be able to do this yourself. The forms are on the land registry.

Sorry pressed send too soon. You should be able to do this yourself and then just book an appointment at a solicitors office to do the ID bit. The forms are simple.

Or phone round some more firms. There probably is a conflict of interest though hence 2 firms but you shouldn't be paying standard conveyancing rates as presumably you won't want searches, enquiries etc.

You want an old school firm not a conveyancing factory.

Sorry lots of replies. I would say one of you could be lead client at one firm, they do all paperwork, ID etc and then the other one goes to a different firm to have everything explained to them.

What you don't want is 2 firms writing backwards and forwards to each other.

Also be aware of the tax position.
At the moment the house that you both live in is your principal private residence (ppr) and as such either of you would pay any cgt on any sale.
If you transfer that house in full to you, then you will get ppr when you eventually sell, buy your brother won't get ppr on the other house as he doesn't live in it. So he gets a potential tax bill that you don't out of this arrangement.

As such NEITHER of you would pay cgt

It is now his ppr, and our joint house is mine. We didn't have to pay tax when we got probate as it was below the threshold and we don't intend selling either of them, they are our respective homes. If one of us sells it will be to downsize or to pay for our care. It's only his half share I'm getting back (it was previously in my name only until 7 years ago) and I'm releasing my share of Dad's to him. We basically just want to untie our joint finances

Sorry, your op read as if you both live in the original house and don't intend to move.
Given your last post, separating the ownership is sensible.
Check out whether there are any stamp duty implications.

When you transfer a share of a property there is tax to pay. Nothing to do with inheritance tax, no IHT threshold issues.

If the property is worth £100k and you each own £50k, then when you transfer the remaining £50k to the other person it counts as a sale.

If you are over the stamp duty threshold this is likely to be payable (but given the limits and current holiday to this it might not be an issue).

CGT is payable on disposals (over the threshold) but only where you have a gain, so no CGT on just giving things away.

I think you do need to check with a solicitor.

If brother is "selling" his share of the previously jointly-occupied home to sister then any capital gain is covered by his ppr.

For sisters "sale" of her share of inherited home, the cgt base cost will be probate (market) value, as thus us fairly recent there shouldn't be any gain.

Thank you