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Original poster

Who owns the house?

34 replies

globetrotter2887 · 03/10/2022 18:11

Who owns the house???

Just looking for opinions on a legal/ property ownership matter. Have posted it on a legal advice forum too and solicitor advice is going to be sought from both parties in the coming weeks. Will try to make this post unbiased to get initial thoughts. Post purely out of curiosity, both parties have no solid legal knowledge.

Basically-

⁃	grandfather in late stages of dementia. In a care home which is financially taken care of from pension and doesn’t run out until he passes.
⁃	Recently been discovered that grandfather does not own the house as he signed it over to his son 10 years ago in secret. 
⁃	Son passed away 5 years ago. Nothing more was done with ownership of the house 
⁃	Son left 2 adult children and his surviving wife. 
⁃	Wife remarried 3 years ago. 
⁃	Wife has since discovered that her deceased husband owned the house and says the house will be hers as it was her husbands (even though she is remarried) and wants to seek solicitor advice to sell and take money. 
⁃	Children think that as they are the only living blood relatives and their mother has remarried the house is theirs.

What does everybody think?

OP posts:
WinOutdoors · 03/10/2022 19:33

Why do the children think it should be theirs?
Why was it passed to son before his father's death?

drpet49 · 03/10/2022 19:53

Raddix · 03/10/2022 18:29

Firstly I would speak to a solicitor and question whether this transfer of the house was legitimate. There could be a case for it being fraudulent and coerced, especially as an elderly person with dementia was convinced to sign it over in secret to another individual.

Secondly the son should have been paying tax if he owned a house with a tenant in situ, even if the tenant wasn’t paying rent. The law has been broken, you may have to check if there’s a tax bill to be paid from the proceeds of the house.

Thirdly, check what the son’s will said. He may have willed it to someone or left “everything to my children” in which case the house would be theirs.

If everything is above board then the house was passed from father to son to wife. So the wife owns it.

All this

Princessglittery · 04/10/2022 11:46

How big was the son’s total estate?

The laws of intestacy apply, so the first £270k of the estate goes to the wife. The remaining estate is 50% to wife and 50% split between the 2 children.

So if the son’s estate was originally more than £270 then the house is sold with 50% to the wife and 50% split between the children.

The administrators of the son’s estate will also have to consider Inheritance Tax, CGI and whether probate needs to be resubmitted.

washingbasketqueen · 04/10/2022 11:55

Sounds like it's the wife's as she was married to the son when he died. Very strange that this wasn't spoken about sooner. Morally imo the wife should share it with her children as they are the grandfathers blood family. We're there any other children to the grandfather?

LadyGardenersQuestionTime · 04/10/2022 12:01

Wife, subject to value/inheritance rules about value.

Quitelikeit · 04/10/2022 12:06

This surely all depends what their fathers will said!

if he left a will?

if he didn’t?

and how do you know now that this house was signed over to the father?

MsPincher · 04/10/2022 16:01

Cyw2018 · 03/10/2022 18:22

I think the time limit for that is 7 years, so long past.

Show quote history

There is no time limit but from ops post it sounds like there are no care costs anyway

Kennykenkencat · 04/10/2022 21:59

BadNomad · 03/10/2022 19:16

If the house wasn't mentioned specifically in the will then I imagine it is supposed to be sold and then the money distributed as per the will. I don't think the wife gets the house as it wasn't jointly owned. It just becomes part of the estate.

But wouldn’t the wife be next of kin.

Isausernameavailable · 04/10/2022 22:04

In the great scheme, it's a fairly small asset to fight over, I'd split it rather than waste on legal fees

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