Will question

[cheerup]

When Dh and I got together a decade ago I had substantial savings, he had none. I paid off a lot of debt he had accrued with previous partner and funded the deposit, purchase cost and renovations on our house. He has one DC from the previous relationship and while I would be happy to continue paying maintenance if anything happened to Dh, I do not want my and my children's house to be on the line particularly as it was purchased with the money I initially put up without any contribution from him so its not like I have denied the SC of something that would otherwise be theirs . There is no reason to think that anything is going to happen to my dh and I am very fond of my stepchild but I do want to safeguard my family's security in our home. can this be done via our wills? If not, any other suggestions.

How is the property owned? Tenants in common or joint tenants? You can leave a property that is 'tenants in common' in a will, you can't leave a property that is joint.

I suspect that we are joint tenants but will check. Presumably we can change this if needed?

If you don't already have wills and you own the property as joint tenants (survivorship):
He dies - you become sole owner of property (because of survivorship) however step children can take proceeding s under 1975 Act if they were being maintained.
You die - he becomes sole owner of property

Sever joint tenancy (tenants in common) you leave your share in your will - doesn't have to be 1/2 can be more (stated at severance) on him for life so that he can live in the property (he has his share and life interest in yours) for life (or eg until cohabit or go into care) when life interest terminates he can leave his share to his kids and your share goes to yours

Thanks. Have done some googling and now thinking that if DH gets additional life insurance to value of remaining maintenance then in the hopefully unlikely event of something happening to him, I could offer that as reasonable settlement from his estate (his share of our home, small personal savings account and death in service benefits). Would this be sufficient to prevent a claim against our home? Is it necessary? Do we need to see a solicitor to draw anything up or can we use a cheap will service?