A pressing question often asked of the LSUK consultants concerns how a person can continue to live in a property after the owner has deceased. This often relates to a son or daughter or perhaps a brother or sister living with parents or siblings.
If, for example, a son has lived with his parents for a few years and his parents pass away. He may have a problem with finding new accommodation quickly; he may not have the finances available and if the house is sold quickly he may find himself ‘out on the street.’
In this circumstance it may be advantageous for the son to be given time, say one or two years to allow him to either build up finances towards a deposit for his own property or to find the time to find a suitable home to rent and move out, remembering this has happened at a time of great grief after losing his parents.
The way to solve this is through the Will. This involves giving a legacy of the house, via the trustees, to the intended person or persons with a clause in the will saying that he can stay in the property for the agreed period without any payment (or perhaps for a payment). He’ll be obliged to insure the house correctly and keep it in good repair.
This, of course, only works if the property can be passed on this way in a will and the house isn’t required to be sold immediately for cash for a particular reason, perhaps to clear a tax bill or to pay a pecuniary (money) legacy and the property’s funds are required to carry out that task. So this will works best when the property is going to other family members who don’t need to live in it or need to sell it themselves quickly.
The trustees of the house won’t be allowed to sell it without the son’s consent.
There may be an agreement that the son can move to another property under the same terms. If a house of less value is purchased the spare funds will go into the will’s residuary estate.
When the agreed time period is over the son must move out and the property will be passed on to whoever was named in the will. This can be before the time period has been completed if the son wishes to move out earlier.
This form of action often gives peace of mind to the parents if they have a son (in our example) living at home because he almost has to, perhaps for financial reasons. It gives him maybe up to two years to get his situation sorted out.
Filed under: Legal Advice
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