Can SIL keep the house?

[Edenmum2]

My DH has come back from a visit to his parents today and they told him that when they pass he 'needs to make sure that their house and assets get split equally between him and his sister'. Obviously they will lay this out in a will but they seem to be concerned that his sister will try and take the house for herself.

His sister is not a bad person or anything but she does have a bit of a history of being sneaky with money, including some actual fraud when she was a lot younger, I'm
not sure if something has happened more recently to trigger their concerns. DH and her have never really been close, just amicable.

Anyway I don't know how these things work but is there any way that she could actually do this? Could she refuse to sell the house and move in herself? Could they insist in the will that the house must be sold?

Have they made him the executor of the will?

I'm not sure, would this be the answer? I could definitely suggest it. Sorry I've never been involved in a will before so don't know much about how it works

Being the sole executor would certainly make things easier.
She can still make some things difficult but taking a larger sum of money without involving courts isn't one of them

If they are worried they need to make sure your DH is the executor of the will.
That way he will be responsible for giving SIL her stare of the estate when they die instead of the other way around.

Ok perfect thank you for your replies, will tell DH to discus this with them

Make sure your DH has power of attorney for financial and health.

A Power of attorney would cease on death of the Doner so only relevant for dealing with finances/ health whilst alive. Agree about the point about sole executor above.

Does the Sister live with parents in their house. They can put in the Will that she can stay in house for a certain period, say 1 year, then the house will be sold. But yes, parents do to do a Will making your DH executor and perhaps yourself as another, as Wills usually like 2. It doesn’t mean you do all the work, if you don’t want to, you can instruct Solicitors. When applying to do a Will, you can do Power of Attorney at the same time.

They need to get on and make a will now, with proper legal advice, and as pp have said, appoint DH as executor. The will has to be written properly, signed and witnessed correctly.

I agree with others. Your DH to be sole executor and given POA for finances so that his sister can't squirrel anything away. As long as his DP don't say in the will that his DSis can live in the house for any term after their deaths then he can get it sold.

Firstly their estate would usually pass to each other.
Then if they don't end up paying care home fees , it would get divided equally between their children ie your husband and his sister.
They need to make a will.

You never know what is around the corner. They really need to do both LPAs and a will with DH as executor soon. The LPA is important because without it SIL could access money should your PIL end up losing capacity.

Make sure to do both LPAs for each parent.

I would think it would be best for the parents to make a will and then appoint the solicitors as executors of the will because then the SIL can't make any complaints about her Brother's processing of the will / suggest he wasn't doing it by the book.

I’d caution against being Executor. I was made Executor when a relative died last year and to be honest I wish I’d passed it on to a solicitor. It’s been a bit of a nightmare sorting out paperwork and filing documents with HMRC. I’m also personally liable if proceeds from my relatives estate are distributed incorrectly which is not great. I’ve been hassled by beneficiaries who want their £££ and have had to explain that I cannot hand out any money until I’m sure all taxes etc due are paid out from the Estate.