What shall I do with my home?

Your home is likely to be the most significant purchase you will make during your lifetime.

It will probably be the most valuable asset in your estate when you pass away. It is therefore important to think about what you want to happen to your home when you pass away.

What happens to your home when you do pass away will depend on a number of things. If you hold the legal title to the property with another person, perhaps your spouse or civil partner, then it may be that your home will pass to that person under what is known as the ‘Rule of Survivorship’.

This will happen if you hold the property as ‘joint tenants’. What this means is that you both own the whole of the property together. When one of you dies, the other is then the sole owner of the whole of the property.

The other way you may hold property with other people is as ‘tenants in common’. This is where you each have a divisible share of the property. In this case, if you were to die first, your share forms part of your estate and will pass to your beneficiaries according to the wishes expressed in your will (if you have made one).

There are a number of issues to think about when deciding what to do with your property.

You may, for instance, be the sole owner of a house which you share with your significant other, who is not your spouse or civil partner. If you have children, you may to allow your significant other to stay in the property when you die, but ultimately you want your children to inherit it.

At Hutton’s, our experts will discuss your individual circumstances with you and carefully consider all of your options when advising you on what to do with your home and all of the other important issues concerning the preparation of your will.