warning to boards members parents

constitutionus

just something ive discoverd recently . most people wont be affected by this because to get a house nowadays you need both occupiers to afford it but most people over 50 I.E our parents didnt.

so your probably wondering "whats the problem?" well its not a pleasant topic but if your ma isnt on the deeds of the house then when your da passes away the house goes down as his estate and as such she's liable for around 5% of that in solicitors fees.
up untill now this wasnt really much of a problem seeing as our houses wernt worth that much but seeing as a new house in dublin is going for 400k plus then your ma could end up facing a twenty thousand euro bill off the solicitor. this isnt inheritance tax or stamp duty, its the bill.

my ma got stuck with this seven years ago when our house was worth only 120,000 and had a deal from a solicitor for only 2.5% . but it still cost her over five thousand in fees.(and in case your wondering the house is worth over 400 now) but even thatwas a hell of a whack for a pensioner at a time of grief.
i dont wish to upset anyone but this is a real problem and i just wanted to let as many of you know about it as possible because there is a way out of this. all you have to do is get your partners name (and lets face it , thats usually the mother in the last generation) put on the deeds and it only costs about 400 to 500 euros. a hell of alot less than 20k.
my uncle and several of my neighbours did this down they're local credit unions (something to do with free wills they offer to members,and the same company doing deeds transfers)

like i said i really hope this isnt something the majority of you have to deal with for years but when you consider most of the people who live in dublin wouldnt have a hope in hell of buying their houses in todays market, being stuck with a 20k dept isnt something they could afford in their sixties or seventies without flogging the house. and in my opinion thats just unacceptable

Nevyn

hmmm maybe this would be better off in the legaly issues forum.
Most people have the family home in both names these days.

hullaballoo

Thaedydal wrote:

hmmm maybe this would be better off in the legaly issues forum.

I'd tend to agree. Someone there will have a better idea what's going on in the OP.

constitutionus

ok in english.

if your dad dies tonight and your ma's not down on the deeds she gets hit with a bill of 5% of the total of your da's estate. which on a normal house is 20 thousand euro.

clear enough?

jesus, im just trying to help people out:mad: :rolleyes:

delly

Thanks for the advice OP, but you probably would have get a better response in another forum. The children are just having a bit of fun in this one.

Sponge Bob

constitutionus wrote:

my ma got stuck with this seven years ago

She could have done her own PROBATE as it is called for about €300. Anybody can.

Sleipnir

So, basically make sure you (or your parents) have a will?
Well duh.......

constitutionus

Sponge Bob wrote:

She could have done her own PROBATE as it is called for about €300. Anybody can.

yeah but do you want to do that when your partners just died? particularly when you can sort it for roughly the same money. most people dont understand leagle issues like this and wouldnt feel comfortable doing a probate by themselves.

also factor in once you go over 478k you then get hit with inheritance tax. considering the average price for a house in dublin now is rapidly getting to that its probably a good idea to get your name down on it

Eglinton

To the opening poster, your info is severely flawed. The law in Ireland was changed in the 50's to counter all that you say. A spouse is legally entitled to at least half of what their partner owned no matter what, will or no will. Also, there is no law that says a lawyer has to get percentage of anything no matter what you're talking about, be it inheritance or compensation won in court. Same goes for auctioneers. Rip off merchants, preying on the ignorant. It only depends on the contract made with the solicitor. Haggle with them. They're only selling a product at the end of the day.

constitutionus

Eglinton wrote:

To the opening poster, your info is severely flawed. The law in Ireland was changed in the 50's to counter all that you say. A spouse is legally entitled to at least half of what their partner owned no matter what, will or no will. Also, there is no law that says a lawyer has to get percentage of anything no matter what you're talking about, be it inheritance or compensation won in court. Same goes for auctioneers. Rip off merchants, preying on the ignorant. It only depends on the contract made with the solicitor. Haggle with them. They're only selling a product at the end of the day.

your right, i never said she wasnt entitled to it. i said that the probate would include the house if her name wasnt on it, and thats what happened. by having your name on the deeds the house automatically goes to the remaing spouse and isnt sent to probate.
look at it this way if you died and left everything to your wife/husband and it consisted of a 400k house and 10k in savings your total estate if theyre on the deeds is 10k. if you use a solicitor to do the probate the cost is on average 500euro.
if theyre not on the deeds the house is included and the cost is 20500euro, thats a hell of a difference

and like i pointed out she did haggle. by rights the full cost should have been ten thousand but the solicitor was tied into 2.5% instead of the standard 5%.

there may be no law on it but nearly all lawyers work on a percentage commission. this was understandable in the 80's and 90's when the average probate cost about 1500euro, and hey im not knocking solicitors they do a good job. its just the price of houses have exploded and many people wont be able to afford this cost. and seeing as this is the first generation to have to deal with houses costing circa the half a million mark many dont know this is comming

we were lucky, my dad looked after us. but many people just have the house and couldnt afford the whack this bill will give. particularly if theyre just living on a state pension.

rubadub

So you willingly are paying somebody €20,000 to do a job that I presume would take less than a week? if less than a day. And you do not think there is enough competition out there that you could have it done cheaper?

or am I missing something completely here?