Tenants in common Vs joint tenants

[Buyingoptions]

I am married and we are both in our early 50s. We are planning to buy another house (selling our current house). We have a lot of equity relative to the size of our mortgage but we do have a small mortgage (around 10% of property value and due to be paid off before we retire).
Up to now we have been joint tenants.
I've read online that there are advantages as we get older of being tenants in common - particularly if we should develop the need for care etc.
I don't know what other issues are relevant. We have children who would jointly inherit when we die, who are currently at uni and who are likely to be independent in another 4 or 5 years. We are both healthy and I am likely to retire with a decent pension at the age of 60 whilst dh is likely to continue working longer (from choice). All our income is pooled and our joint pension will be fine for us to live on.

Could anyone advise on the pros and cons of either approach? Thank you.

Should have added - it's been a long marriage. Over 25 years.

We are older, been together 45 years but had DC late. They are now mid 20s
Last time we changed our will when DC were 18 and at uni the solicitor advised us to change to tenants in common.
When one dies their share goes to DC but the survivor has the right to stay in the house or even sell and buy another.
Have you updated wills recently? Have a chat about it when you do.

@snowsilver thanks. We haven't updated our wills for a while but it's good to know that that was the suggestion you were given.
I'm so confused though - do you not need to do something to the mortgage or can you just "decide" to be tenants in common?

We’ve changed our wills and as part of that, changed from joint tenants to tenants in common. Part of the reason was to ensure that part of our kids’ inheritance would be protected if one or both of us has to go into a care home. Talk to a solicitor as it’s not straightforward.

Yes this is pretty much what we did. @Buyingoptions Mortgage not affected but the Land Registry entry has to be changed.

Putting the house in trust when you die (giving the survivor a right to remain there until death) doesn't tend to reduce inheritence tax as married couples can now aggregate their nil rate band. I think there are tax consequences of setting up trusts like this.

Take advice from a lawyer when you make your will.

Apart from the care aspect it also protects your children's inheritance if one of you dies and the spouse remarries. See multiple threads on here (usually involves dad and step-mum) where the adult child discovers they have been left nothing at all in the will because their surviving parent has remarried and trusted new spouse "will see you okay".

Tenants in common every single time

Thanks everyone.
I think we will wait till we get the new house and then change our will and do everything at the same time. Presumably the land registry can reflect the fact that we are purchasing as tenants in common at the time of purchase and then our will can reflect that.
Thank you for the confirmation. It doesn't sound as though there are any cons to bring tenants in common.

May be best to speak to a solicitor who has all the facts. If you are married and leaving house to the children you can between you leave £1m without inheritance tax to the children. If your house is under that joint tenants might be simpler and the share automatically does to the survivor of you. On the other hand my parents severed their joint tenancy back in the day as my father thought he might die first (he didn't) and she might not leave her share to us (although of course she would have done but he was not 100% sure and he wanted to be assured we would get his share. So it can be a complex decision based on this like IHT rules at the time, your plans under wills and value of your house and other assets.

It’s only worth doing if you change your wills to life interest trust wills so the first to dies half is then potentially protected from being used for the survivors care. It’s also protected if the survivor remarries or makes another will. Most sensible people in blended families do this too so the survivor doesn’t just change the Will to benefit their own kids.

Just changing to tenants in common and not doing anything else is pretty pointless. It’s not for iht reasons the tax treatment all to spouse joint tenants / life interest trust is the same. You need advice tailored to your circumstances though there are disadvantages to life interest trust wills too.

We changed from Joint tenants to tenants in common a couple of years ago when we updated our wills. We each have a life interest in the other's half of the house.

We are both retired and the mortgage is paid off. We were thinking partly about care home fees. But I also wanted to ensure that if I died first my husband couldn't remarry and leave everything to a new wife, disinheriting our children. I think it's unlikely, but it seems to happen quite a lot.

I also wanted to ensure that, if he died first, he had made proper provision for his son from his first marriage.

It's very easy to change. See details here www.gov.uk/joint-property-ownership/change-from-joint-tenants-to-tenants-in-common

We told the solicitor we were doing it but they didn't need to be involved.