What would happen if someone else inherited half of your house

[julienetmum]

If your dh had a joint mortgage with their parent and when they died the parent left their half of the house to someone else what would be the legal situation?

Would that person be legally entitled to move in/force you to sell/buy them out or what?

It depends on how the mortgage is set up. You can choose to own half each in which case the scenario you describe could happen. Or you decide that the one who lives longest gets it all. If you die together then the youngest is deemed to have died second I think.

yes to all of your questions! They are legally entitled to move in as joint owner. They can ask for the house to be sold to realise their 'share' of it, and if your DH refuses, they can apply to the Court for an order that the house be sold. Which, I am sorry to tell you, they will almost certainly get (there are certain limited circumstances which I cannot recall at present in which a sale can be deferred) and obviously if the property were ordered to be sold, then DH could buy the other half from them.

I can't comment on what the mortgage situation would be. If there is life assurance linked to the mortgage (and I assume there is) then the property would be mortgage free and the only competing interests would be those of the owners. If the mortgage company were also a party to the proceedings, then they tend not to be bothered as long as they get paid.

I thought - as threebob said - that it depends on how the mortgage is set up, i.e. whether the people who have the mortgage are "joint tenants" or "tenants in common"

Joint tenants meaning that both people own the house jointly and if anything happens then ownership passes to the surviving one

Tenants in common meaning that each person owns half the house and can leave their half to whom they choose

I'm certainly not an expert though so I'll stand corrected if anyone knows different

has this happened - or is it a case of fast forwarding and predicting what will happen.

If it is the former - then they are joint owners and have the right to sell etc if they want to .

If the latter - then get the parent and other beneficiary to sit down together with you and talk through the options. (The other person would probably be much happier not to have to deal with that sort of scenario either).

The "joint tenants" or "tenants in common" isn't anything to do with the mortgage, it's just how the property ownership is set up, but yes -- if your DH and the parent were joint tenants then DH would automatically own the house outright on the death of the parent, while if they were tenants in common the situation described by CorrieDale would arise. I think.

My parents have an agreement where they are tenants in common so that as and when one pops off, their share gets left to 2 of us (there are 4 children) BUT the remaining parent is allowed to live there as long as they wish.

I dont know if that means the 2 left with the share could insist on moving in with the parent(they wouldnt mind this though im sure ), but a sale cannot be forced.

You can avoid problems by making a clause in the Will - the half share is left to another person on the proviso that that existing occupier lives there until their death. Only then can the house be sold.

You need to find out how the property is held julienetmum. Lemonaid is right, it isn't the joint mortgage that matters, but whether DH and parent own half each (tenants in common) in which case they can leave their half to whoever they like in their will (if they don't have a will, it would go to next of kin), or both own the whole thing jointly (joint tenants), in which case the whole house automatically passes to the survivor on the death of the other. If they are joint tenants, the one who dies can't leave the house to anyone else. I guess when this was set up, it was assumed that the parent would probably die first - but this isn't certain.

It sounds like either an inheritance tax scheme, or maybe a way to help DH afford to buy a house - either way, it isn't an ideal situation - assuming that this is a RL situation for you, can you buy DH's parent out so that you and DH own the house together?

It would be a good idea to get a solicitor to take a look at the records for the house and advise you properly on the situation, so that you can decide what to do. I don't think this would necessarily cost you very much, but would enable you to make an informed decision about what to do.

Even if there are clauses in the will about existing occupiers remaining in the property until their death (this is an inheritance tax scheme I'm pretty sure), it does mean that you don't have total control over your home - and if the family falls out there can be problems.

I'd definitely look into exactly what your situation is Julienetmum.

It seems a legal minefield.

This is the situation that my sister in law may be in, in the the future. The house is ex council and her dh bought it jointly with his parents years ago. Her fil has died so for some reason the mortgagte wasn't paid off.

Sil and her mil do not get on, she is very sneaky behind her dh's back. Sil thinks that her mil is going to leave her half of the house to relatives to spite her.

They have a young child and mil has been fleecing them for years. When they married she demanded sil hand over half her wages, sil refused and so her and her dh keep their finances separate. He pays the bills and their half of the mortgage but if sil's car goes wrong or her dd needs something it has to come out of her p/t shop worker wage.

Sil thinks mil has been taking money from her dh and not paying the mortgage off. As well as paying the bills and towards the mortgage her dh gives his mum money which she is hoarding.

Well, it should be easy enough to find out if the mortgage is being paid. If sil's dh is party to it, he should know whether it up to date or not. All he has to do is ask! Otherwise, yes, I'd forgotten about joint tenancy (out of practice for a while!) Your sil's dh should know how the house is owned. It'll be on the transfer deed. If she's unable to ask him (and I can see all this would be pretty sensitive), she can ask the Land Registry for Office Copy Entries for the property. I think it's about £6 and there's a form for making the application, which is probably available from the land registry website. Or if not, she can request one from the local Land Registry. Even if they own the property as joint tenants, there could still be a problem if he and mil have discussions along the lines of 'what they're going to do with their halves of the house'. But this and other ways of severing a joint tenancy are an exam question all on their little own!