Should we have notified the land registry department of my dad's death (6 years ago !)

[bizzey]

My mum is panicking about not having told the land registry department/office of my dad's death 6 years go.

They did not have mirror wills I think is the name .

Dad's half of the house "came " to us (children) as opposed to going to mum .

Will was made official by the bank.
As in we/they didn't do a DIY sort of
Will them selves .

Apparently dad's name should have been taken off the land registry?

I thought it automatically did when he died ?

Mum is getting all her information from friends of friends by the way

Should I do anything?

Sorry for confusion in post ....
Thank you.

I meant ESA as well as DLA.

I had a similar problem when a relative died. I phoned the Land Registry office and asked for advice.

I spoke to a very helpful lady there. I was sent the appropriate forms to fill in and saved paying a solicitor.
I think the first thing OP should do, is try phoning the Land registry and explain the situation about the tenants in common.

If your brother gets universal credit, he needs to declare the house ownership.

Just go and see a solicitor.
The gift of half the house can only take effect if mum and dad owned the house as tenants in common, otherwise the house will have passed by survivorship to your mum regardless of the terms of the will.
If they own as joint tenants and the house has passed to your mum, a simple form known as a DJP needs to be completed to show the house is solely in your mum's name.
If they owned as tenants in common and the gift in the will needs to be executed, you will need a grant of probate first and after that you'll need to transfer the property into the names of the owners at the land registry. But didn't the will lady set up any kind of trust for your mum's benefit in the will? Because otherwise your mum is unprotected against death divorce or bankruptcy of any of her now joint owners of her property. Plus you should all contribute to maintenance and will be subject to capital gains tax when the house is sold.
I think actual proper legal advice is probably best at this point, not a lady from the bank. But don't panic, it can all be sorted and harm has happened.

If your brother was on means tested benefits such as Universal Credit, ESA or Pension Credit than the value of the home. assuming he does not live there, could be an issue.

In practical terms the market value of his share, given it would be difficult (though not impossible) to sell would probably be nugatory. Failure to declare might however set up a 'Steward'sInquiry'

Probate needed to be done, your Dad had 50% of a house to gift

You need advice from a solicitor to get everything done correctly

Were your parents joint tenants or tenants in common? If they were tenants in common then you should have got probate. Have a look at https://www.gov.uk/applying-for-probate for info.

Might be easier to let the half of the house pass to your mother, assuming the brother is not using it as an asset, rather than get into full probate now retrospectively. Get it put only in your mother's name and she can give him half when she dies, she inherits your father's IHT allowance (I'm pretty sure) and there is an extra allowance for passing property to children so shouldn't make much difference to future probate.

If the gift was to try to avoid care home costs for your mother later on your mother needs to be paying (and have been paying) market rate rent (pro rata) to your brother so that it is a true gift, and that would be potentially taxable income for him and affect benefits. All a bit of a can of worms.

My MIL never sorted the house at land registry when FIL died, but since his half naturally passed to her it wasn't a big problem for her probate quite a few years later, just a bit of extra paperwork.

If her brother is on means tested benefits that can’t be done - he can’t just give away that amount of capital.

It will help your brother with the benefits situation if the will is clear that any inheritance is to provide for his housing needs. It may be too late for your father's will but not for your mother's. Otherwise, he will be assumed to have received the money from the sale of the house (whether sold or not) and be expected to live on it. I have been through this scenario!

One problem that you've ended up with is that your half of the house will attract Capital Gains Tax when you sell it, since you're not living in it. If you were within two years of your dad's death and depending on how likely you thought your DM was to end up in a nursing home I'd suggest a Deed of Variation to pass it back to your DM but it's too late for that now.

You'll need to get a valuation of the house at the time of your dad's death (tricky I know but not impossible using records of sales of nearby properties at the time) and hold it on file for future reference. If you spend any money helping your DM with the upkeep then keep the records.

The OP has no right to give her dads property to anybody. If she is the executor she has a legal obligation to follow the will.

The law is if a will is valid any property/cash etc is given out per the written instructions.

DB (and OP) would have to sign away his right to an asset and this option will be covered under whatever benefit he gets (If not everyone could do that)

If her dad had the right to include the % of the house in his will the mother is not involved so she is not gifting anything. In fact if dad did not include a right of residency the OP or DB could force a sale via the courts.

If the brother is on DLA then presumably he is a child. The whole system changed years ago.

He will be asked to claim PIP at 16.

(A few older pensioners are on legacy DLA but I doubt bizzey’s brother is one of them.)

Thank you all so much for taking the time to reply .
Head is spinning!!

DB is definitely still on DLA not PIP
I am sure .

He has lifelong disability and has been on DLA for years.
He is in his 50's

Unless it automatically switched to PIP ?
But if he needed forms filling I would have known about it .

Need to go and look for some paper work !

Than you all again.

yes get all the paperwork and then unpick it bit by bit.

I think it is very much worth the paying of a few hundred pounds to take the lot to a probate solicitor and ask them for help. It seems that maybe you never got formal probate? That needs someone to sort for a start I think.

Get an expert to guide at this point because it seems a bit of a mess.

Probate solicitor would cost a few grand. Unless you just want the house transfer doing then I guess under £500.

But half a house left to you and your brother is definitely worth more than £6k in assets and you might still need to go back and apply for private to have permission to transfer the names on the land registry.

Won't be a few grand for an initial conversation or two and they might be able to guide the OP as to what steps need doing.

I do think the OP needs an expert to at least take an initial look. It might be straightforward but it might need alot of unpicking. And there is a major capital asset at stake. Like a pp suggested, it might be that the house was hold as joint tenants with the mother so the father's share has not necessarily passed to the OP yet and siblings. There are alot of variables and I think the OP needs someone who knows what they are doing taking a look. Not least because she can then get some peace of mind if she knows what the actual situation is. Right now it's a big and scary problem for her. It may not need to be.

OP how much was the house worth at the time of your Dad's death? You don't say if your brother just gets DLA or ESA/UC top up. If he gets ESA he will have to declare it or it will be seen as attempted fraud.

Depending on when the house was bought/mortgage paid off the house may not even be registered with the land reg - my parents’ wasn’t.

He’s likely to also be on an income replacement benefit like ESA (possibly incapacity benefit before that) or UC.

This is more important than PIP or DLA. They are both non means tested so he could have £1 million in assets and it wouldn’t change his entitlement.

ESA it can make a difference depending on which ESA and UC it definitely would make a difference as it’s means tested.

Also where does he live? Does he live in tbt house with your Mum or does he claim housing benefit for somewhere else?

We found out last year, 10 years after she died, that my Mums name was supposed to come off the land registry entry, we honestly had no idea

Nothing came of it, we just did it as soon as we knew

The will was made by employees in the bank providing professional legal services.
if they held the original loan they would check the documents.
If there was no loan and they did not have sight of the ownership details the bank could be held liable for any fallout.
So I would be rather surprised if the ownership of the house was incorrectly listed in the will.

The only complication is DB's personal situation and discovering an honest mistake.
If they need to spend on legal advice I would spend it there

Well it’s not too late but you haven’t effectively administered his estate if you haven’t dealt with the formalities.

You need to remove your dad from the title and either buy your Mum out or add your siblings names.

There’s no panic and you’ve already got the link to PG 6 if you need it.
Sadly the death is factual so the death certificate can be provided as and when the register needs to be updated or you can apply now as guided.
If they were joint owners then probate wasn’t needed as the property didn’t form part of his estate.
The bit to perhaps think about is what happens next re your Mum and the property and what options should be considered re her will and the existing beneficiaries.
I suspect you’ve already covered that ground anyway as now 6 years on but it’s worth just ensuring you are all aware of what happens next re the property and ownership etc as appropriate
We register the outcome of such decisions/events so can’t advise on what options exist and what’s best

If they were joint owners a will writer should never have left a share of the property via their will.

The OP hasn’t properly administered the estate and has a legal duty to do so - the beneficiaries could take action against her and she could be liable for any failings.