We know that you want to ensure that as much of your property as possible passes to your children so that it is protected from being taken by others. Here are some examples of how your half of the house can be taken by others:

1 - Care Home fees.
2 - Re-marriage (the new partner/spouse could end up with your half)
3 - your surviving spouse having more children, diluting the share that should go to your children.
4 - Bankrupcy (protect it from creditorstrying to get their money back)

We can do this by writing Wills for you that pass your share of the family home (providing it is owned as Tenants in Common) to your children whilst still allowing the surviving spouse to live in the property as long as they like. Such Wills are called Protective Property Trust (PPT) Wills.

Since the change in the Inheritance Tax rules, these PPT Wills are often a better way for married couples to write thier Wills, particularly if the family home is the major part of their asset portfolio.

Below is some information on Property Trusts for you to read.

This Trust is to be used for Married couples or Civil Partners (same sex marriages) or couples living together who own the same property (as Tenants in Common). This Trust allows each one of them to leave their share of the property to their children but control of the property remains with the surviving partner/spouse. They remain in control of the asset for the rest of their lives.

The basic PPT will allows the surviving spouse to sell the property and buy another whilst the trust exists.

Other benefits

A property owned as Tenants in Common can also help protect the asset from being taken to pay for the long term care of one of the owners. If a property is owned as Joint Tenants and one of the owners goes into care, the care home can place a charge against the property to reclaim the costs of that care. If the costs are large the care home can take all the proceeds of the sale when it is sold, leaving nothing for the children. If the property is owned as Tenants in Common, the care home can only take the element of the asset that was owned by the person they were looking after, typically half the property, ensuring that the children can inherit the other half.

You might also want to check with your parents if they are still alive, make sure that your inheritance is protected in this way, if not, ask them to contact us or visit this website.

Example

If a married couple with children own their property (valued at £150,000) as Tenants in Common and have very little additional assets, they can use a property trust in their wills. This will mean that on 1st death, half the property is passed to the children but the surviving spouse is given permission to live there for the rest of their lives and are able to sell the property and purchase another, larger or smaller.

If later on in life the surviving spouse wants to sell the property, buy another one, thereby releasing some equity, they are able to do this. Any equity released is from their share of the former property, the capital that forms the half owned by the children remains inside the new property, the % of ownership will change however.

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