Adding a Son's name to the deeds of a will

[dara]

Hi can someone please help us. My boyfriend knows that he is being left the family home in his fathers will. The financial assets are being left to the rest of his siblings. The family are happy with this decision and the house is paid for in full. The deeds are in his fathers name and his late mothers. His father has recently been diagnosed with Alzeihmers and his care is priority. He lives alone at the moment. We want to move into the house and care for his father but the house needs alot of renovation and we wanted to get the deeds transferred into his name and take out a mortgage to do up the house. But some of the family are not happy with this suggestion. He won't have to pay inheritance tax as it is under the threshold. The only other suggestion he could came up with was that his name be added to the deeds. The mortgage will be in both our names. Has anyone got any suggestions as we are concerned about CGT etc.. Also now that the father has alzeihmers will the will have to be amended and will this stand in the future? We really would appreciate some feedback. Thanks

 

[ClubMan]

I think professional legal advice is needed in this case to be honest.

 

[jpd]

If the will was correctly executed and your boyfriend's father was of a "sound disposing mind" at the time, then it there would not normally be a problem with the will and its contents when the time comes.

In the meantime, I'm not so sure that it would be possible for his father to gift him the property or a share in it, because of his health - however, you need to get professional legal advice as previous reply states

 

[mf1]

His father has recently been diagnosed with Alzeihmers

Unfortunately, if that is the case,he is no longer capable of making/ altering a will or transferring property. You must be compos mentis to do so.

the house needs alot of renovation and we wanted to get the deeds transferred into his name and take out a mortgage to do up the house.

Sorry, I can see how attractive the idea is but you are jumping the gun. If the father did not transfer the house before, he cannot do so now. And if the house is not in the sons name, he cannot get a mortgage. And the father cannot now join him on the deeds. So if you move into the house, you can only renovate what you can afford to do without mortgaging.

The original will stands - its operative as at date of death and so long as father was compos mentis at the time, there should be no difficulty.

mf

 

[dara]

Re: Adding a Son's name to the deeds of a house

Many Thanks for your replies greatly appreciated.

 

[MOB]

Not intending to wholly disagree with previous post, but I would not automatically assume that the father is unable to transact business.

Do get a medical opinion; Early stage Alzheimers is not always that severe. Even with absent mindedness (and occasional odd episodes) an early Alzheimers patient can still have the mental capacity to deal with property. It is not that uncommon for an early Alzheimers diagnosis to bring about a situation where the sufferer himself says "I must deal with my affairs while I still have the capacity". Obviously, it depends on the father's current condition, but if he is still capable of living on his own it is certainly possible that he still has an adequate mental capacity to transact legal business.

Regarding the business of changing a will, this is a complex enough area. The standard for making a valid will is mostly concerned with addressing the isue of whether the person understands what he is doing: there is case law in which some guy suffered from insane delusions (specifically, he thought that his farmyards animals were consorting with each other in highly unnatural ways) but where his will was nevertheless held valid, because - despite the insance delusions - he fully understood what he was doing when he made his will. In any event, this will already leaves the house to your boyfriend, so it is fine as is.

One final comment - and please don't take offence; I have never yet seen a situation where it turned out to be a really good idea for the inlaws (or as in your case the potential inlaw) to get deeply involved in a family debate about wills\property transfers\care of parents. I accept that the mortgage (if it happens) will involve both of you, and that care of the father will affect you too. Nevertheless, tread carefully.