Joint tenants or Tenants in Common

[wellygang6]

Please can I get some advice. My husband and I are buying a house we will live in with our two young children. We will own it 50/50. I feel I would like to own it as Tenants in Common though so we will have more rights. I want to make sure if I were to pass away my children are protected so would like my share to of the house to pass to my husband in his lifetime (unless we divorce) and then on to my children, whereas if we do joint tenants he could pass the house onto anybody.
I've also been told that if for example my husband were to need care later in life paid for by the government, that they can take our house if we own as joint tenants, but they can only take his share if we own as tenants in common.
Please can someone tell me if I'm right and sensible to want to own this way? It just feels safer somehow.
Many thanks

My parents held their house so that they could will half on the first death. So,having lost Mum last year now my brother and I are guaranteed to inherit half the house when my Dad, who has a right to.live there for the rest of his life or even.sell I believe, passes away.

If Dad needs care he will only need to use his half for care.

They had to hold the house is a certain way and write this into their wills. They used solicitor to do this and we used them for probate and the new trust.

@Ohmylovejune thanks. That is what I would like to do too (unless we divorce obviously). Does that mean your parents owned as tenants in common? Sorry for your loss.

I don't know the formal description but it was the one where they owned the house half each rather than the whole together, if that makes sense.

Their solicitor advised them and did the Land Registry paperwork to make sure it was held correctly.

We are pleased they took this advice as care homes are expensive and, whilst we.own a house, so.it doesn't matter so much - my brother is in council accommodation. So when he inherits,.even just that quarter of their house, he will hopefully be able to afford a small flat or 1 bed house of his own and be able to release his council place to another family.

Ask your solicitor to advise you, not Mumsnet. If it is unclear ask them again as this is what you are paying them for. Everyone on here will give you a different view and believe me many will be incorrect! (I am a solicitor).

Tenants in common every time.
If you die first your share can be willed to your kids.

It also means, if he remarried and does a mirror will with new wifey who has kids and then he dies your share is not part of that.

Too many wives die first.
Too many men remarry & leave everything to new wife.
Too many new wives leave everything to her kids and nothing to what is her step kids, as is her right.
It happened in my extended family. First family kids got absolutely nothing.

Just to clarify, a Jointly owned house is NOT considered when needing care in later life.
Neither is half the person’s pension if they are financially supporting a spouse.
The TIC bit is very sensible if you think there is a chance of your kids being written out of a husband’s will ( or intestacy). A will needs to give a life interest for the spouse so the kids can’t sell the house from under them.
Different rules for Scotland , Children automatically inherit a percentage, they can’t be excluded by a will.

Tenants in common . Protecting half of you house if the worst happens . My in laws did that , and so I have I . Protects from using your half for care costs

A whole property is disregarded for care costs if a spouse / partner / dependant is living there, even if jointly owned.
Only a 2nd property that is not the main home would be considered an asset.

When my husband and I bought our first house we were joint tenants. It was just before we got married and we had no children.

We changed it last year to tenants in common for much the same reasons as you describe. My will leaves my half to our children, but my husband has a lifetime interest in it. His is similar.

If I die first I think it is very unlikely that he would disinherit our children, but it's a possibility and a lot of men do seem to do it, so I want to ensure that whatever he does with his half, my children will get my half.

You’re right that TIC is the safest way to ensure that your children will definitely inherit at least part of the house.

However there’s another aspect of this to consider that you may want to take legal advice on. If the worst happens and you die, your children will end up owning a share of your house. This will be counted as one of their assets. This might mean that they can’t claim benefits that they might otherwise be entitled to, and if they get divorced or become bankrupt their share of the house might be considered as part of their pot of assets to be shared with the ex spouse/creditors. I don’t know what happens when only a share of the house is owned and whether these situations might mean a sale of the house could be forced which is why I think you need to take legal advice on this, to see if there’s anything you can do to ensure that the house definitely couldn’t be taken away from your husband and other children by the situation of one of your children.

Also if held TIC with a life interest for the remaining spouse, when that spouse dies and the home is sold do the children have to pay Capital Gains Tax on the half they inherited on the first parent's death?

I would imagine they do have CGT to pay as they are selling an asset that wasn’t their main residence.