Struggling to buy mum out of house

[Tryandtryagain02]

Hello, I'm really struggling with a solution here, any ideas would be welcome! My mum and I inherited my Grandparents house 50/50 in 2021. I agreed to buy my mum out of her half, however, I haven't got very good credit. The mortgage broker tried multiple lenders who dealt with bad credit and unfortunately I was refused. Subsequently, my mum had a contract written with a solicitor that suggested I pay her rent (£550 a month) as this is the equivalent to half of what the rent would be and so we agreed. The rent is to be paid for 2 years and if I don't buy her out within this time then it has to be sold. It has caused endless arguments and ruined our relationship. I've sought advice from a solicitor who said that it would be enforced and my partner and our 3 children would have to sell. Every couple of weeks she gets angry and insists I sell the house as I won't get a mortgage. I've searched for other properties to buy and nothing is within my price range, renting is slim to none in my area and I'm running out of ideas of what I can do. The mortgage broker told us to go back in 6 months as they declined due to a loan I had taken out - which is now paid off. But I worry every day that when we do reapply we will be declined and I have no idea where we will end up. Does anyone have any other ideas please?

Thanks

*If the uk house is 280k. You need 140k...

€61k would be about 50k sterling so 90K morgage which is much more appealing to a lender as lower ltv.*

Exactly, @TemuSpecialBuy . The OP has essentially given her Mum €61K by signing over her share of the house in Ireland so it’s ridiculous that her Mum now wants her full 50 % of the English home as well.

@Tryandtryagain02 I've not read all of the replies so apologies if this has already been suggested, but definitely make an appointment with a conveyancer about signing over the share of the house in Ireland. I work in admin in conveyancing so don't quite understand all of the legalities but there is legal ownership and beneficial ownership, even if you are no longer a legal owner you may be able to argue that you and your mother agreed between you that your beneficial interest in the property is still held on trust for you by your mother. Although I'm also not sure about how applicable this would be in Irish law so please speak to a conveyancer

This makes no sense though...

Half a house minus 40% tax is still a good chunk of money. 0% of a house is nothing at all.

You appear to have given up an asset (albeit one that you would be taxed on, possibly needing to sell the asset to pay the tax, but still ending up with cash in your pocket), in exchange for absolutely nothing.

Who advised you? Did you not involve a solicitor at all, as they would have told you that it wasn't in your interest.

28 is a grown-ass adult. Old enough to know that you need to seek some form of advice before signing away a huge asset with no payment in exchange.

It sounds as though your mum stitched you up, but your own decision making has also screwed you over frankly. You've made a lot of bad decisions here.

This is an interesting one and would explain why the OP was allowed to live there rent free. It would as I understand it only apply if the OP had been living there before the grandparent went into care and they had been classed as their carer. It would mean the house wasn't taken into account for paying care home fees. Just wondering @Tryandtryagain02 if this was the case?

What's the history with you and your Mum? Was she a good Mother to you? Has she said she won't give you any money for the Ireland house? Because the mortgage minus that extra money would be way more manageable. Maybe you should talk to a solicitor about what your best options are. Otherwise if I was you I'd put my head down and really try to get your credit rating up and try again for a mortgage. It's hard to kick someone out and would cost her a lot in solicitor fees so maybe just try to drag it out a bit longer. Block her if you have to, until it's over. I think if you lose the house it might be hard for you to get back on the ladder.

Are you married? If you end up buying her out then get good solicitor advice and make sure the deed reflects how much you own compared to your partner. You need to protect yourself from stuff like this happening again and you want to be able to keep the house if you and your partner break up.

Are you both working full time? There seems to be a sinkhole of money somewhere if you only pay 550 a month and you still have cashflow problems. Maybe seek advice in the legal section here but what would actually happen if you stopped paying rent?

Nor did he have the capacity top agree to you moving in! How come the house wasn’t sold to pay his care home fees?
You took advantage of your grandfather’s incapacity and now you're taking advantage of your mum by refusing to sell the house. And what does your partner pay in all of this?

he must have had a damned good pension!

To use the term of another poster, "There's a lot to unpack here".

There is no such thing as "the cost of his care might have been deducted from the value of the house" - when a person is means-tested for care home fees, the value of any assets they own (in this case a house) is calculated when deciding how much money they have.

Under the current rules, if you have more than £23,250 in savings and / or assets, you have to self-fund for care home fees.

Under some circumstances (and at the discretion of the decision maker), some or all of the value of a property may be disregarded when calculating someones assets/savings. One reason why this may happen is if someone vulnerable is living in the house and depends on living there. A husband & wife living in a home as tenants in common would usually mean that a property value is not disregarded if one of them went into care, as the half owned by the care home patient would be calculated.

Simply putting someone in the house and saying they live there is certainly not a way of avoiding property value being calculated, because if it was, you can bet your life everyone would do it.

You took advantage of your grandfather’s incapacity and now you're taking advantage of your mum by refusing to sell the house.

We don’t know the details. It might have been the mother who set it up, or it might have been ignorance, or maybe rules were different during lockdown.

@Thedayb4youcame "Discretion to disregard" may be applied by a council where a carer has been living in the property for some time. I should imagine it's very much based on individual circumstances.

@KnittingNeedled Exactly.

Have you tried offering your mother a deal?

140K as you mothers share, less 60K from the Ireland house.

So offer her £80,000?

I would start at £80K and see what she says.

That’s a good idea, @Scarletttulips. If she baulks at it and says that the Irish house doesn’t count, remember that you’re going to seek legal advice regarding the paperwork you signed-it wasn’t properly explained to you, OP, it sounds a bit fishy, tbh.

Yeah this is probably what I’d do too tbh…

OP’s mother might be around another 30
years as it sounds like she’s around 60!

OP, do you know anything about your mother’s will, are you set to benefit from it one day? Are you an only child?

Also you don’t mention your father, is he not around any more? Are there no surviving grandparents on his side?

@TemuSpecialBuy It’s horrible thinking that the OP may have to issue a threat like that, but her Mum does sound as if she wants more from the estate that she was originally entitled to-and that’s not fair.

They each inherited 50% of two houses so why should her Mum have 100% of the Irish house and 50% of the English one? That’s not what the Grandparents intended.

Agreed.

the polite version of what I think is “her mother is a piece of work”

I hope OP gets her game face on and negotiates hard… for her kids if not herself.

You are being very unfair to your Mum. You need to agree to sell the house to release your Mum's share of the inheritance. You will get a lump sum. You can then clear all your debts and rent for 3 or 4 months and then the 6 months would be up and you can find another house to buy, maybe a cheaper one. Be careful you don't lose the goodwill of your Mum over this. You are not treating your Mum well here.

Why would the Mum be paying council tax when it's her DD who lives there with her family? If it was empty it could be rented out and then a tenant would pay the council tax.

Her grandfather who lacked capacity didn't want that.

@caringcarer I was viewing it as them being co-owners, rather than landlord and tenant. If they both own the house 50%, I personally think that they should be sharing the insurance at least. The OP is paying her Mum’s share atm.

I’m on the fence about the council tax.

With the update about the OP signing over her share of the Irish house to her Mum, I’m less sympathetic towards her Mum, tbh. She’s trying to get more than her designated share of the inheritance.

What about the OP’s 50% share of the Irish house though? Her Mum’s got it!

I suspect that poster didn’t read that far.

My Grandparents would have wanted nothing more than for me to live in their home,

That’s not what their Will said.