Make Sure the Right People Inherit Your Home
For most of us these days our home is our biggest asset. And with mortgage interest rate rises bringing the fear of repossession to thousands of UK homeowners, it’s clear just how important it is to have a roof over our head.
As parents you’ll want the same for your children. After all, it’s impossible for many young people – and even those in their 30s – to get on the property ladder these days. That’s just another reason why it’s important to make sure your offspring inherit the family home.
And you can do that – by changing ownership of the property to Tenants in Common and getting mirror wills written up with a Protective Property Trust in them.
That way you can guarantee your children will benefit from all that money you’ve paid in to your share of the family home if you die first. They’ll also have a home in which to bring up your grandchildren. And they’ll be able to do this without fears of eviction or other problems faced by thousands of tenants in the private rented sector these days.
It’s why it’s important to look into this before it’s too late.
How to make sure the right people inherit your home
If your property is in joint names then one way to make sure your offspring inherit is to change it to Tenants in Common (TIC) and include Family Property Protection Trusts in your wills.
Another benefit of TIC is that should you require care in later years, you’ll only be means tested on your share of the property and not your partners as well.
What does Tenants in Common mean?
When you change from Joint owners of a property to Tenants in Common it means both you and the partner you co-own the property with each of you owning a specific share. That can be exactly half or some other denomination. It means that you can both decide independently who to leave your share of the property to in your wills.
With so many blended marriages these days, your children may not all live under one roof. This way you can make sure all of your offspring benefit – especially if you add a Protective Property Trust into your Will. Incidentally, not leaving a Will means you die intestate and you probably don’t want that!
Do we need Protective Property Trust Wills?
You can protect your family home even further by taking out Family Protective Property Trust Wills (PPT). That way if you die before your spouse and they go on to remarry, their new partner won’t inherit your share of the home. The danger here would be that he or she loses the home to debt or sells it on or leaves it to their own children.
A PPT makes sure your half of the family home will go to your children (or whoever else you have nominated as a beneficiary) by ‘ring-fencing’ your financial contribution. This type of trust is also sometimes referred to as a Life Interest Trust as the surviving owner is allowed to stay in the house for the rest of their life.
Even if the property is solely in your name or your partners, it’s still possible for one of you to insist, via the PPT, that the surviving partner can live there until their own death. Only then will it go to your children or other beneficiaries. This is particularly important when there’s been a family rift.
Get in touch today
If you’re worried about whether you’ve done enough to ensure your children benefit from the money you’ve invested in the family home all these years, and that your partner will still have a roof over their head when you die, then why not ring us for advice?
At Wills.org.uk, we are professional will writers and happy to have a no-obligation chat to give you – and your family – valuable peace of mind.
If your family situation is fairly standard and your want to put this type of will in place then you can use our discounted online form for Family PPT Wills.
