My sister has had lifelong health issues which has meant that she has not had the opportunities that I have had.
To try to compensate for this my parents and I agreed that Dsis should be the sole beneficiary of their Will.
Our parents hoped that my DC would eventually inherit the family home from D Sis , but we all felt that D Sis would probably have to sell the house at some point to pay for care and there would be nothing left.
At the moment D Sis has the house and most of the money she inherited from our parents. She is currently unwell and has been thinking of amending her Will. The chances are that she will make a full recovery, but the current health crisis means that she is thinking about the future seriously.
She intends to leave the house to my DC. Then she wants to leave bequests to two charities. She has two good friends and wants to leave them something. The first friend is comfortably off, and a bequest would let her buy something nice. The second friend's life is a lot more precarious and D Sis is thinking about leaving a liferent of the family home to her.
I'd have no concerns about a bequest, I am horrified at the thought of a liferent over the house.
I don't want to upset D Sis, so I want to clarify the implications of a liferent. Am I right in thinking that the friend would not pay rent, but that my DCs as owners would be responsible for maintenance costs? My DCs are in their early 20s, just starting out on their career ladders and anything which might cost them money would be potentially financially crippling.
DH and I couldn't afford to maintain a property which wasn't generating income either.
I don't know whether the friend would actually want a liferent of the house, or might prefer a bequest.
My question is - what would the implications of a liferent be, if the friend wanted it? The friend is in her early 60s.
If my sister did leave the house to my DCs but with a liferent, is there anything we could do? We like the friend and would be happy for D Sis to leave her a bequest.