Resident rights

eviltwin

If a homeowner dies and their in law has right of residence to the property what is the position for the next of kin? Can they access the house? Can the resident make changes to the house? Can they move a partner in? Are the allowed take proceeds of sale of house?

The said in law has never lived in this property. They did live in a previous property but moved out of house ten years ago.

Peregrinus

eviltwin wrote: »

If a homeowner dies and their in law has right of residence to the property what is the position for the next of kin? Can they access the house? Can the resident make changes to the house? Can they move a partner in? Are the allowed take proceeds of sale of house?

The said in law has never lived in this property. They did live in a previous property but moved out of house ten years ago.

How does the right of residence arise? Did the homeowner make a will leaving the house to X, but subject to a right of residence in favour of Y? Or something else?

eviltwin

Peregrinus wrote: »

How does the right of residence arise? Did the homeowner make a will leaving the house to X, but subject to a right of residence in favour of Y? Or something else?

Homeowners invited the third party to move in on a permanent basis. Third party agreed once right of residency was established. That house has now been sold, homeowner is in two bed apt and third party is now demanding the occupants of the second bedroom leave so she can move in.

Peregrinus

eviltwin wrote: »

Homeowners invited the third party to move in on a permanent basis. Third party agreed once right of residency was established. That house has now been sold, homeowner is in two bed apt and third party is now demanding the occupants of the second bedroom leave so she can move in.

I'm still confused. TP agreed to move in "once right of residency was established", but apparently hasn't yet moved in. So has anything been done to establish the right of residency? If so, what? Was anything put in writing? Did any money change hands in connection with the grant of a right of residency?

Was the original invitation to move in to cohabit with homeowner? Or simply to share house with homeowner, without any conjugal relationship?

Also, are there two properties here? "That house" and "two bed apt"? If there are two properties, in which property was third party granted, or promised, a right of residence?

Who owns the two bed apt that homeowner is now living in? Who currently occupies the second bedroom, and on what basis do they occupy it? Casual guests? Paying rent? Co-owners of property?

eviltwin

Peregrinus wrote: »

I'm still confused. TP agreed to move in "once right of residency was established", but apparently hasn't yet moved in. So has anything been done to establish the right of residency? If so, what? Was anything put in writing? Did any money change hands in connection with the grant of a right of residency?

Was the original invitation to move in to cohabit with homeowner? Or simply to share house with homeowner, without any conjugal relationship?

Also, are there two properties here? "That house" and "two bed apt"? If there are two properties, in which property was third party granted, or promised, a right of residence?

Who owns the two bed apt that homeowner is now living in? Who currently occupies the second bedroom, and on what basis do they occupy it? Casual guests? Paying rent? Co-owners of property?

Sorry I'm not being very clear. The people here are my in laws and the third party is his sister. The sister moved into the home back in the 80's, the right of residency was done at that time. She eventually moved out into her own place in 2005 and has been there ever since. In 2009 the family home was sold and my mother in law moved into a two bed apartment, her son moved in with her last year. My father in law had passed away by this stage. The solicitor who handled the sale told her the right of residency carried forward to the new property. Now the third party isn't happy with where she is living and is making noise about the son moving out as she is entitled to the room.

She paid rent on her room while she was living with the family but hasn't made any other contributions. My mother in law is the sole owner of the apartment, there is no mortgage on it. My brother in law is living with her for another year and he pays rent.

She has left the house in her will to her children and they are wondering if they will be able to sell it, rent it out etc or if the sister with her right of residency trumps that.

Peregrinus

OK, you’d need to look at what was done to establish the right of residency back in the 1980s. I’m a bit surprised at the suggestion that, when property A was sold and property B was bought, the right transferred to property B; that isn’t normally the case with property rights. Usually, if you have a right of residence in property A and property A is sold, either the purchaser has to let you continue to reside in property A or he has to ensure that your right of residence is bought out as part of the sale (i.e. you release your right of residence in return, usually, for getting a chunk of the price paid by the purchaser for property A).

It seems to me that what your sister-in-law is claiming is that she has an enforceable agreement with her mother (your mother-in-law) to the effect that, if the sister demands it, the mother will let her a room in whatever residence the mother happens to own at the time. That would be an unusual agreement, but not an impossible one.

If that is the agreement, it seems to me that it’s enforceable against the mother, but it will die with her; it can’t be enforced against the mother’s heirs.

The other possibility, though, is that more was done in 2005 than you have been told. Maybe the solicitor didn’t just assure everybody that the sister would have a right of residence in property B; maybe he did exactly what was suggested in the first paragraph above, i.e. he got her to release her right of residence in property A in return, not for a share in the purchase money, but the grant of a right of residence in property B. If that’s what happened, it will be documented; the sister will have a deed or document which specifically names property B and grants her a right of residence in it for her lifetime.

So I think, basically, you need to dig up the deeds relating to property B and get a solicitor to cast an eye over them and advise what rights (if any) the sister has.

eviltwin

Thank you Peregrinus, I will check that out. Your help is much appreciated.