Joint tenants and rental income after death

[saraclara]

My mum has a rental property which is in both our names. I do not see any of the rental income as it is used to pay towards her care. All agreed at the start and no problem at all with that.

When she dies I know that as joint tenant, the house pretty seamlessly becomes mine, and isn't part of the will. But does the rental income also start to come to me straight away, or does it go into her estate until all work is completed in the will?

The family have no faith in either the competence or the goodwill of the person she chose as executor long ago, so I can imagine this being a very long drawn out and difficult procedure.

To clarify, the rental income goes into her current account via the letting agent, and her care fees are then paid from her CA.

The moment your mum passes away the property becomes yours by survivorship and the executor has nothing to do with it. The rent will also be yours.

Thank you. So I just contact the letting agent with the death certificate, and they start sending the rent to me?

Yes should be fine. Also Google form DJP on the land registry website and send it to them with a death certificate. They will change the house to your sole name.

Id imagine it would be your or your mothers solicitor that will need to contact the letting agent to notify them that you arenow the sole owner and tenant?

Thank you@kerosene20 . I'm jumping the gun a little here, but mum isn't doing well, and the executor is behaving uncomfortably. I'm concerned that the relationship might break down, so I'm just trying to get a handle on how things will work.

Kerosene is spot on. The property vests in you absolutely and instantly on your mother's death, and so yes, all rental income belongs to you from that point.

Don’t rely on the executors solicitor to do it for you. That’s not part of their role.

I'm not. It seems incredibly simple to sort, given kerosene's instructions. And I'm positively glad that is something I can do independently of the executor, because we have serious doubts about their ability and attitude to us.

OP I hope you don’t mind but am going to give you some unasked for advice.

As you are joint tenants you can add your email address to the contract addresses on the Land Register - it’s free and easy to do. www.gov.uk/government/publications/updating-registered-owners-contact-address

Also sign up for property alerts - again free and easy to do propertyalert.landregistry.gov.uk

By doing these you will be notified of any changes to the register e.g. mortgage application, severing of joint tenancy, plans to sell the property.

I recommend everyone does this for their own home and the property alerts for elderly parent(s).

if you are having doubts about the Executor one thing they could try to do now is sever the joint tenancy. Your Mum would have to sign, the key point is you can’t object or stop it. Is your Mum able to make decisions, do you have POA? One thing I have learnt about money is that there are no bounds to what some people will do where money is involved.

Thank you @Seemslikeaniceday . That is useful advice. I do have lasting POA, but so does the executor. So yes, I need to know if it's used.