Family living rent free - please help!

[EwwwwwwDavid]

I'll try to summarise and really hope someone can help, I do have a solicitor but they aren't coming back to me!

I have an aunt and her boyfriend who have been living in my second home rent free, with a view to buying it. They have been there 12 months. They have materially damaged the property.

That sale is about to fall through due to appalling, abusive behaviour on their behalf.

What is my legal position to get them out? There is no verbal or written agreement with me, they were never asked to pay rent, they were just there as I am kind.

I want them out

Ideally I also want them to make good the changes they have made but understand this may not be possible

Any advice?

We don't even know if they are going to buy it
Their solicitor is ghosting mine
To date they have not proven funds or issued instruction to complete
All emails are being ignored

How was the property valued? Given it’s being sold to family there may be questions as to why there is apparently no CGT.

When are the locks being changed?

We have piles of receipts showing a £100k extension and it was valued and put on the open market before this sale to family was agreed at the same price

@ThatIsNotMyNameSoWhyAreYouCallingMeThat been advised to give reasonable notice so 14 days; then we have to wait for them to be out before we are allowed to change locks

Sounds like good forward progress, albeit a complete ball ache. Well done OP

So how are things equalised now theyre taking it back? That money could potentially all go on care home fees and you'd be left with nothing from them, unlike your siblings. Maybe you truly don't mind if that is what happens, but most people would. Your parents shouldn't have got you involved in this messy situation with your aunt on a property that is legally yours.

Sounds like a nightmare. Hopefully you will be able to get them out soon.

How can you not have a say if your signature is on the contract which is about to be exchanged?

You have to get your mind round the fact you own this house

Not your mother

Not your father

Not your aunt

You as the owner didn’t invite them to live there rent free

Your mother had no right to offer the house to her sister

Only you had that right

Your mother and father need to let go of the idea that they own this property
They do not.
So have no right to let your aunt stay there

I think you have some bizarre issues in your family with regard to ownership and tax fiddles

Avoiding IHT like this is a tax fiddle.

If you are going to try to fiddle the Inland Revenue then you need to be a little smarter

Why on earth were all the bills for this house coming out of your mothers account?

Complete giveaway if anyone looks at this.

Why do your siblings get to keep their gifted properties but you don’t or are these just more “Here is a gift, that isn’t a gift
which will need returning if we say so”

Once again
Not a tax fiddle
When my mum moved back into the house it became liable for IHT again, because the original purpose changed
And the original purpose is not a tax fiddle either

My parents full estate will not go on care home fees. It's literally not possible.

Equalisation is currently in the will but also, tbh, I don't need the money that my siblings have had.

Plus none of this is relevant to the actual problem

If it isn’t a tax fiddle then your parents have strange ideas about gifts and ownership

(A tax fiddle can mean anything that a would be taxpayer puts in place that means they avoid paying tax)

For all intents and purposes that house is no longer anything to do with either of your parents. Likewise the houses that your parents gifted to

So saying they can ask for them back at a later date could also involve mortgage fraud if any of your siblings move to a larger property and use the money raised from the sale of the house your parents gifted to them as a deposit

What happens if your siblings find themselves getting a divorce.

Even if the house is in your siblings name then it is marital property. How are they going to ask for a “gift” back if half of the money used to buy it has gone to someone who has no reason to pay it back

Your parents are acting like they are the best parents in the world gifting their children houses. However they still seem to think they own the gifts.

Which is the only explanation for the reason your mother decided to open up someone else’s house and install her sister and her bf in to live rent free because she knew better and it was her house afterall when you refused to agree to it.

Do your parents actually see any of you as adults? Or do they think they can move you like a chess piece when they want something
and you will comply because they see you all as small children playing house.

What if they want a house back. Where is that one sibling and their dc going to live? What if a sibling or all decide their parents can’t have “their” houses back?

Your mother could be prosecuted for something like this.
She has put herself on dodgy ground as ultimately she is responsible for the damage your aunt caused.

As your mother I presume has paid the insurance on the house I would like to see what she has put down when filling out forms, Like is the house occupied, If she has said yes on your behalf then you are going to have difficulty getting your aunt out.

You can’t argue your aunt is squatting if you know and agree on forms she is living there.
I don’t even think you could be covered for the damage

You all need to be a little smarter and get your stories straight because atm your aunt is playing you all like a fiddle because she knows your mother has cut corners and lied

There does seem to be a lot of lying

They've completed

Thank fuck

My parents aren't acting like anything

My siblings lived in their houses - brother already sold his to buy another.

Siblings not married btw.

I did not live in it. I have given it back by means of selling and giving cash.

And a fiddle implies dodgy. It's not dodgy to gift a property to a child which under the seven year rule is not liable for IHT.

It's also ok for me to give it back even if avoiding IHT was the original reason it was bought.

Aunt wasn't squatting, she was an excluded occupant. And the house being occupied for insurance purposes (and council tax) doesn't change that.

The minute my mum moved into that house when she had to come back to the UK unexpectedly it became liable for IHT again.

As it happens, completion has taken place, my parents have given me £50k of the proceeds, I've returned the rest, and the 7 year clock to avoid IHT on that £50k has started today.

And it's still not a fiddle.