Wills

[JollyHostess101]

Right so the one person I’d ask for advice ain’t here so advice needed-

I’ve inherited my mum and dads house I’m an only child…… Probates done and dusted and now ready to put the house in mine and husbands name but been given a variety of options!

Is there much difference between tenants in common/joint tenants does it matter the solicitor has given me what I think is an idiots guide but I’m still confused 🤯

Joint tenants both own the whole house. Upon the death of one spouse the house automatically becomes the property of the remaining spouse.

With tenants in common they own half a house each (or another split and agreed in legal terms, like a third and two thirds) and the halves can be left to separate people.

I am not a lawyer but I believe it works like this.

Joint tenants - if one of you dies, the other inherits the whole house.

Tenants in common - you specify how much of a share you are each going to own. Then when one of you dies, that share of the house is passed on in accordance with your will, if you have one, or the intestacy provisions if you don't. So you can leave your share directly to your children or a dogs' home or however you choose, if you don't want it to go to your husband (and vice versa, of course). Often used by people with children from a previous relationship who marry again or embark on a new partnership so that they can protect their assets for their children.

Perfect thank you both that makes much more sense than what I’ve been sent much easier to get my head round!!

If the property is Jointly owned, when one of you dies, the other inherits the whole property. If that partner remarries they can leave the property to the new partner. Possibly disinheriting any children of the deceased parent.

Tennant in common means that each partner wills the property to who ever they wish. This means that, unless carefully worded the existing partner could lose their home if the heirs insist on a sale.

A pitful of tenants in common is, care home fees. If one of you needs a care home after the first death, the heirs could refuse to use the funds released for the fees. Meaning the existing owner may get a lower standard of care than they anticipated.

We are tenants in common as we trust our children .

In our early 30's, buying our first property together, advised to write our wills. Confused by one aspect: if we both die at the same time we want to leave whatever is in our singly owned bank accounts to our respective sibling, we have 1 sibling each.
We have been told by a will writer, not a solicitor, that we cannot simply state that is what we wish to do. She said it had to be written as percentages and account numbers supplied. Very confused. Percentages could change over time as could banck account nunbers if we move accounts to different banks or acquire new savings accounts.

Can anyone clarify please.

We have a joint account for all joint expenses by the way and we plan to marry at some point

I’m no expert but I think you have to redo a will after a marriage!!

Marriage revokes a will unless your will expressly mentions the intended marriage.

If you both died at the same time (car accident for example) and it is impossible to determine the order of death, the younger is presumed to have survived the elder (s.184 Law of Property Act 1925).

Ask your will writer about mirror wills. You can have your will say that the content of a specific bank account goes to your partner/spouse should they survive you, else be shared equally by any surviving full siblings of you both.

I suspect the will writer is concerned that there might eventually end up being more joint bank accounts, hence why they want the bank account details. The gifts in a will need to be clear to be valid. If when you died and there were 3 joint accounts for example, it won't be clear which one you meant, so the gift might fail. That said, if you provide details of a bank account and then change it, you would need to update your will else again, the gift might fail. If however, you would be happy for your siblings to inherit the balance of all joint bank accounts, that is clear and perfectly fine to say.

If you are joint tenants and one of you dies, the house does not form part of the estate and instead passes directly to the surviving joint tenant. But as already highlighted by Dottiethekangaroo, the surviving spouse decides what happens when they die and might make decisions that is completely different to what was earlier agreed.

If you are tenants in common, the deceased's share of the house forms part of their estate. However, to avoid the surviving spouse needing to move out or raise money if it is gifted to children, it can be left to the surviving spouse as a life interest (so they can remain there until they die or go into a care home) and it is then passed to the children. A life interest is a trust and is ignored for the purpose of care home fees.