Tenants in common and bereavement / probate question.

[Worsethingshappenatsea]

Hi just wondered if anyone had any experience in similar situation.

My DDad passed away suddenly last year he was widowed as DM passed away over 30 years ago .
He had long term partner of around 20 years but they never married house was owned as tenants in common .
They had made straightforward mirror will leaving everything in own sole bank accounts to their own children there's me and 1 DB and my DDads partner has 3 DD's no children together and no joint accounts or other real assets.

Will named 3 executors my DB , DDads partner and partners eldest DB didn't need probate to deal with bank accounts as under £50k so that was all dealt with and shared between me and DB.
The question is what to do re the house DDads partner still living there and plans to for the foreseeable my DB seems to think we just leave it all until anything happens to DDads partner or a time comes she wants to sell but I think he needs to notify land registry of my DDads death and apply for probate too to get our 50% share put in our names and surely not doing anything will delay any future sale as I know probate can be a long process .

As I'm not one of the executors I can't really do much just wanted any advice as I feel like he should at least be doing something re the house / probate and am trying to jolly him along but he's so laid back with it all is practically horizontal !
I don't really want to start paying out for solicitors or anything and all extremely amicable we all get on very well and are close family but want to plan ahead so any advice welcome sorry if complicated and for long post well done if got to the end !

Thanks

I’m sorry for your loss
Maybe post in legal matters, someone on those threads may be able to advise.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/legal_matters

Obviously it depends on the exact wording of the Will, but with my parents’ Will, the mirror aspect of it meant that the house passed in its entirety to my mother when my father died. The sale of the house and distribution of the proceeds only happened after my mother’s death. We didn’t inherit half the house when my father died.

@NewFriendlyLadybird sums it up correctly.
The legal ownership, as registered, passes to the surviving joint owner. The property doesn’t for part of the deceased joint owner’s estate so probate is not required for the property.
The ‘trust’ created by their mirror wills deals with their beneficial ownerships and I assume they applied for a Form A restriction to be registered hence your referral to TIC. The restriction protects the trust and restricts her ability to for example to sell/mortgage on her own.
Whilst the register can be updated re the death that can happen at any time. So it’s perhaps more a case of just confirming what’s registered and also that you are all on the same page with a) what was agreed re wills and beneficial ownership and b) what happens next depending on whether it’s sold, remortgaged or she sadly passes away.
If you decide the legal ownership should be changed then she’d need to transfer it as appropriate. But if everything is sorted and agreed upon re what might happen in the future then perhaps no need to do anything - best advice is to get legal advice and run through what’s in the wills and how the trust is arranged.

You need actual legal advice. Inheriting a share of a house doesn’t just mean inheriting its value, it can mean inheriting its liabilities as well.

Was the property not specifically mentioned in the Will?

If they owned as TIC then the share of the house would follow what is stated in the Will. I can't see why probate would not be needed. Legal advice would be very sensible.

My DF and step mother had this but it was specified in the will she had a lifetime entitlement to live in the house. She was also allowed to sell it and our half of the property passed to her new home.

For once, @LandRegRep1862 is wrong. What they say would be true if the house was owned as joint tenants. It is not true if the house was owned as tenants in common. Legal ownership in that situation does not pass to the surviving joint owner and the property does form part of the deceased's estate.

You don't say what the will says about the house. Without knowing that, no-one can advise.

I disagree. @LandRegRep1862 seems to be right. The legal estate can only be held under a joint tenancy. It is only the beneficial interest that is held under the tenancy in common.

@prh47bridge is correct. Also you can do the forms yourself with the help of YouTube. I did it for both probate and the ownership transfer. The only fee was £40 to land registry.

Just to clarify my earlier post. It looks like the property was held under a joint tenancy. On death the other owner becomes sole legal owner, but the beneficial interest of the deceased passes in accordance with their will.

Probabte will be needed to deal with that.

OP specifically says it was held as tenants in common.

My bad. It’s been a busy day. Meant to say TinC.