Property rights on marriage

Roycropper63

If a couple get married in a civil ceremony and both have their own house. Can they safeguard their property if something goes belly up? Does a will over ride the succession rights? If the wife dies do her adult kids loose her home and husband gets it? Or can both parties agree before hand to protect kids succession rights?

Mods if in wrong place please move

super_furry

Probably better suited to the legal issues forum.

jon1981

So many important questions here and boards.ie while helpful is not the right place for these questions. See a solicitor.

Faith

Mod note: Moved from Weddings forum.

nuac

Legal Mod Note
leaving open for general discussion. Note rule on legal advice. Title amended for clarity

Peregrinus

After the couple marry, each will still own their own house.

If they live in one of the houses and it becomes their "family home", whichever of them owns that house cannot sell it without the consent of the other. However ownership is not changed; the other spouse can give or withhold consent to the sale, but isn't entitled to any of the sale proceeds.

If the couple separate or divorce, and cannot agree on how to deal with their assets, the court has wide powers to divide, transfer, order the sale of, etc, any or all of their assets, having regard to the financial position and need of each of the spouses.

If one spouse dies, the surviving spouse has a legal right to a certain share in the estate of the deceased spouse. If the house is the only or main asset in the deceased estate, that effectively gives the surviving spouse a claim against the house.

The surviving spouse doesn't have to enforce their claim. The spouses can agree to keep their respective estates separate, and each make a will leaving their own property to their own family, away from the spouse. But they are largely dependent on goodwill and trust for this to work; when one spouse dies, the other will still be able to enforce their legal right to a share in the estate. And of course over the course of the marriage circumstances may change so that what seemed like a good idea at the time of the marriage doesn't seem quite so good when one of the spouses dies - e.g. the spouses may have had children together, who are living in the house of the deceased parent.

Estate planning when you have blended families like this can be quite complex, and can need regular review as circumstances develop. The couple should sit down with a solicitor and discuss all this before they marry.

Victor

Step-parents are not 'the enemy'. That role is reserved for in-laws.

Roycropper63 wrote: »

Can they safeguard their property if something goes belly up?

Yes. Various options are available, e.g. gifting the property to the children, but retaining a life interest. The other side can do this also. Discuss with solicitor.

Roycropper63 wrote: »

Does a will over ride the succession rights?

Spouses (and children) have certain minimum rights, in particular to the family home, but after that the will largely takes precedence. See Succession Act, 1965 and Family Home Protection Act, 1976 - but are probably heavily amended.

Roycropper63 wrote: »

If the wife dies do her adult kids loose her home and husband gets it?

The kids never owned the home in the first place. It might go to the step-parent, but that isn't guaranteed.

Roycropper63 wrote: »

Or can both parties agree before hand to protect kids succession rights?

You can agree to anything, but that might not be binding, e.g. in the case of a divorce, the proper provision rules might take precedence.

Having wills and/or other agreements in place early on would be useful.