Dad selling house and giving us money, any ramifications for us?.

[Healingthehurt]

Hello,
I wander If someone could advise us please.
My father ia currently selling his house and we expect it to go for about £160000
He wants to give us the money so that we can apply for a mortgage on a house which has living accommodation for him.
He is registered disabled and struggling to get by on his own after the death of my mum a couple of years ago.
The money would serve as our early inheritance.

This has all been his idea from the outset and is what he wants to ensure that he is looked after as his health gets worse (we personally are not bothered about the money but obviously care about him a great deal and would like to look after him and make sure he is ok)
My question is this.
We are not ready to buy a property just yet. We currently live in rented and can just about make it work for a little bit as we have a downstairs bedroom and bathroom for dad.
So the plan is to pop the money away for a year or 2 and then look at buying.
I am totally clueless when it comes to investing that amount of money. Is there anything I should know about the legality of dad just giving us the money, any tax issues. Basically anything at all I should take into consideration before this goes ahead. Would it be better to keep it in a bank account in his own name until we want to buy? And then if he is giving us that as a deposit for a house is there anything else to consider.

I want to make sure I am doing everything in a legal manner and be sure of all the facts before we proceed. Many thanks.

I should say we don't recieve benefits and have a joint salary of about £70000 a year. Dad is on pip.
Thank you

And presumably your dad has paid off the mortgage but will then have to pay rent. Why should he do that?

Op says he is receiving PIP which is non means tested. He would not lose money by moving in with op unless he is also getting a severe disability premium on a benefit like pension credit which he would lose anyway if depriving himself of hundreds of thousands of pounds by putting it into a property in op's name.

btw, I'm not sure this is regarded as "inheritance" if your father is still alive - it is counted as a "gift" and rules apply. Inheritance Tax is a tax on the estate of someone who has died, including all property, possessions and money.

Gifts like this are subject to IHT, at a decreasing rate, up to 7 years after a person's death.

(Though the op wouldn't incur IHT as the amount is well below the threshold)

Not 7 years - that's IHT. Councils can go as far back as they like.

The IHT relief taper is only relevant if you’ve gifted more than the NRB of £325k 😉

If you put the money in savings make sure you don't have more than the £85,000 FSCS protection limit in any one bank or connected banks. Unlikely a bank would fail but no need to take a risk. You will have to pay tax on the interest over the savings allowance. I wouldn't put it into S&S investments for such a short period. NS&I have some good rates at the minute (I'm told) and that is all protected by the treasury.

Who is the "we" in your OP?