DH is a joint tenant of his mother’s house, which was purchased back in 1989 (following his parent’s divorce). It has never been his principal residence and since Dec 1999 he had a mortgage on his own home, now paid off in full.
The reason for her making him a joint tenant was to avoid inheritance tax, he did not agree to this nor did he ever sign anything, he is named on the deeds though. It mean that whenever the house is sold he would have to pay capital gains tax of ~£50k (house is now worth £450-500k). He has a sister and we believe current arrangement would deny her any share of the house. The will leaves assets 50/50.
We are aware that the joint tenancy does protect half the value of the house from being used to pay for care home fees if these ever arose. However, the new care home cap (which has been delayed to 2025, but might never happen) would make that redundant and there would be no benefit to the joint tenancy - but there is still the CGT bill that would have to be paid on the house sale. The question is whether the potential CGT bill can be reduced somehow, by taking steps now (or in 2025)? Should it be changed to tenants in common so that part of the house can be included in DH mother’s estate? Plus how would he get money to his sister without issue. It’s a total mess obviously.