Mother wants to put her house in a trust. Advice?

[fishtank12345]

Hello

My mum does not want her husband to be able to sell her house as she wants my kids to have it ( im an only child) so she wants to make a trust will and name me as trustee but her husband will need to live there until death if she goes 1st ( she is older than him )

I do not like this man. He has has only ever financially abused my mother and currently has a lot of debt in his name.

This is not his home land she worries he will sell up and go back home with all the money and he doesn't deserve to be able to take it all and run.

Advice welcome ? Also if we are trustees then does he need to be as well? As I imagine that just would be crap too.

no but I am suggesting that she can receive advice about her rights responsibilities as a trust holder in those circumstance and the actions she can take should she end up owning a house with a recalcitrant tenant who has certain legal rights conveyed by that trust. I did also say "if you can afford it". Of course she has zero control over what her mother does or does not put into her will and her mother's solicitor will categorically not speak to her about this. I just wish I had taken legal advice before I got into the situation I was put into by a will. It would have saved me a lot of money and heartache.

I give up 🤣😆

No, this is completely unnecessary because there is nothing for a solicitor to actually advise OP about! A solicitor is not going to give advice about someone else’s will that hasn’t even been written yet, and will not be relevant to anything until the person has actually died. And the person is still alive and could changer her mind, her husband and her will many, many times before she dies. It is NOT for the op to trust or not trust, believe or not believe whatever her mother tells her, because there is literally nothing she can do about it.
It’s not her business, her task, her job, her responsibility, and it’s not in her control. Whether she trusts or believes her mother, is again, totally irrelevant because there’s nothing for OP to do. So OP engaging a lawyer for advice about this would be a complete waste of time and money.

Thank you for your messages. I think I just need to see what she does , when she gets round to it. Some people are not very efficient, my mum is one of them lol

No way did your mother go and see a lawyer op from what you’ve described. She’s fibbed to you hence the advice supposedly given by the solicitor not making sense @fishtank12345

So many people these days are putting their house into a trust for their children, to avoid social care fees. I should think it’s a fair percentage, as there are now workshops about it, apparently. I’m certain that some government or other will stop this happening, or prevent it from being an effective hiding place.

I'm not rich so not an issue for me but I've seen the thing about a limit if £3k a year being exempt from inheritance tax. What would happen if you went out and bought a valuable asset, say a top of the range car at £50k and a few weeks later gave it to a child/friend or someone. Would that count, would they track that? I'm a bit fascinated by the problems the rich have to contend with.

Here's the story so far as paying for care goes. Its called deliberate deprivation. https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/care/paying-for-care/paying-for-a-care-home/deprivation-of-assets/

Putting your property into trust in your lifetime is now not advisable and anyone advising you to to this for avoidance of care fees is a snake oil salesman. Firstly due to the deliberate deprivation aspect; local authorites are wise to this now. Its never going to be that easy. Secondly you are giving away your main asset to try and put yourself in the position of someone that has never worked and you will go into a state run care home. Thirdly you need to live for 7 years for any gift to be outside your IHT estate. If you give your house to your kids you need to pay full market rent and you are vulnerable to them getting divorced or bankrupt as it will belong to them not you.

The only practical solution re carehome fees is a life interest trust in your Will if you are a married couple. This means you can protect 50% of your house in the very specific circumstances of one of you having died and one of you needing care. Nothing else is really advisable or works. That's the best you can do.

Of course legal advice is a necessity.
But be careful, friend had property put in a trust when his wife died.
I think he went to a financial services firm. It was drafted so that the firm are one of the trustees and their position is now preventing him dissolving the trust.
Which he wants to do because they are charging hefty fees each year for " managing" the trust . And this seems to consist of insisting on an expensive survey every 3 years .

Im just posing an update...

Since mum wants her husband to stay there if she dies first, since she is older than him, then he will get the house to himself.

If she outlives him we can have it as there is no one else then...

She also offered to take equity out now and give me some of that as a living inheritance. I said no! I couldn't agree to that.

So we are no further forward.

I do not trust her husband so any will would need to say in the event of her death if no husband around house goes to us, because I dont want anything to do with the house if he inherits it as he is untrustworthy with money and I dont trust him not to either just sell or rack up some debt against it. He is currently in a lot of debt that he is paying back very small amounts on, bit of a mess to be honest.

Thanks to everyone who replied to this.

A grust protects the hoyse from being used for care home fees, otherwise just leave to x abd y in will, giving z a lifetime interest.

If your mother's will sets up a life interest trust, he will not be able to sell the house or rack up debt against it as it won't be his. He will have the right to live there, but that is all.

Ok thank you.

If she wants to use a will trust for her husband she can't use equity release for you. The equity release lenders won't allow it.

He can sell the house if it's in a life interest trust. It's the value of the equity that's in the trust so he could sell the house and buy another. You might be mixing it up with an occupation trust.

I admit I simplified a little. OP is concerned that he could sell the house and spend all the money. Yes, he could sell the house and buy another, but he would need the consent of the trustees to do so. Anything left over after he bought another house would go to OP's children.

That’s not correct unless they changed the rules recently, my DM left her house in such a trust to her DH in her will. She also had equity release. The house was solely in her name. The ER company didn’t mind because their interest continued to rack up when she died. When I eventually sold the house, half the proceeds were sent directly to the ER company by the solicitor.

The usual approach is that the status quo applies. Equity release companies usually dont like a change in ownership for obvious reasons as it affects who owes what potentially. So you can't assume that if you have taken out money in an equity release and then try and put your house in trust this will be allowed. Similarly any mortgage will need to be cleared.

In your case they were obviously happy to allow the trust. But this would not happen in all circumstances and advice should be taken in each case.

Maybe Because if she divorced him he would probably walk off with half what she has

She is trying to preserve her assets to pass to her children rather to her financially abusive H

OP: If your Mum goes to a solicitor and explains her objectives and concerns, she can get her Will written to support her intentions.

There is a lot of misinformation and irrelevant waffling in this thread amongst the factual info from actual lawyers such as prh47bridge .

There are a few "actual lawyers" on this thread...

Although I agree advice should be taken. Of course. Rather than the advice of mumsnetters. Always beats me why people ask for legal advice on an international forum.

because its free? I mean I wouldn't but people do want free advice.

I also wanted some feedback on the situation I suppose.

I suppose the trouble is firstly people may not be in the right jurisdiction. For example an English qualified solicitor can only usually really advise on the law of England and Wales. Scottish law can be quite different eg the law regarding Wills. And sometimes people dont tell you where they live.

And also you need proper information to give a proper view as there are so many variables depending on circumstances. People often give their opinion quite forcefully depending on personal experience, which may have completely different facts and they don't understand what the important, relevant facts are. And the effect of those facts. So its best people dont ever act on that sort of
"feedback".

I think if you are a qualified solicitor (and I can tell there are a few on these threads) it's pretty easy for another solicitor to distinguish them but possibly not for the average person.

Often law firms will give the first hour of advice free (to see if its a case they want) so it may be worth making enquiries on that basis.