Father left house to my brother - do I need to take out probate?

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Longwaytotipp

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Hi I am new to this thread but wish for some help. I & my sister are executor of my late fathers will.
He left the family home to his son ( our bother - this is his home with our Mam) absolutely and his wife for the remainder of her life.
My Father was the sole owner of the family home, it was not in joint names.
My Father and my Mam made a joint Will, both leaving the family home to their son , in the way of whoever passed first the home would go to their son.
My question is
1. do we need to go ahead NOW and do Probate , in order to put the family home into my brothers name solely ( while my Mam is still alive ) or
maybe we can't do it now as my Mam is still living there and would have her own legal share OR
2. do we wait until both parents have passed and then transfer it into my brothers name. ( as this will be the same on my mothers Will)

Of note , I and my sister are not contesting any part of this will . We are in agreement that the family home goes to our brother but don't know when to process this. There are no other assets to be distributed only the family home.
Any help or advice would be gratefully appreciated.
 
Thank you for reply, much appreciate it. But can we solely transfer to my brothers name while Mam is still alive , would she still have an entitlement share regardless of my late father giving her life residency?
 
Get yourself legal advice asap. If you make a mess of all this, it will take a lot of time and money to unwind.
 
DannyBoyD said:
IANAL

Execute your fathers will now; it will save heartache in the future.
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I agree. We didn't do this when my father predeceased my mother by 20 years and when she died it just made dealing with her will/probate/estate much more complicated, long drawn out and costly than it could have been otherwise. Not least of all because the house was in his sole name. Although in our case our father's will left everything to our mother so it's slightly different to your situation.
 
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Yes I think we are going to need legal advice here, we were going to do the probate ourselves, just to get the Will active and then contact a solicitor to transfer the family home into our brothers name , but the complication really is my father and mother not jointly owning the family home and my mother's legal share. thanks for all your help so far everyone. much appreciated.
 
You can do the Executorship yourselves.

But that does not stop you using and paying for professional advice from a solicitor.

You should contact a solicitor now and tell them what you want to do.

Ask the solicitor what the fee will be for advising on the will and doing the conveyance.

I would imagine that there is some mechanism for your mother to give up her claim to ownership of the family home while maintaining her right to live there.

But I am not a lawyer either so that is why you should put all the paperwork in front of a solicitor.
 
You mother has a right of election and appropriation and notices have to be formally given to her. Either way, you will certainly have to take out a grant of probate to your father's estate and possibly to your mother's estate. Best do it properly now. If you feel you are competent to deal with the probate/tax and legal right share and election issues yourselves, you can do a diy probate. Unlikely if any solicitor will commit to a partial involvement due to insurance because it is not straightfoward. IF you do deal with the probate etc you will certainly get a solicitor who will just do the conveyancing.
 
There is another IF to consider before the OP puts in too much of the legwork.

The Probate Office can refuse to accept a personal application if the officials deem matters related to the estate to be too complicated or needing professional legal attention.

An initial appt. with a solicitor setting out the details and seeking advice would hopefully assist the OP in deciding the best route forward.
 
Thank you Zobeda and everyone else for input. That is a good recommendation of doing the Probate and awaiting to see if they will push it through or tell us to seek legal advice, at least we would know the plan going forward.

by Commencing Probate we will at least have started the legal part of our Dads Will
and a stepping stone to transferring the family home legally.

We started putting together what is required to commence Probate , hopefully reduce some of the cost of Solicitor fees and we have the probate property valuation to hand.

Our mother & brother are totally aware of what was in Dads Will and their entitlements but we wish for everything to be legal going forward So basically we need to do 1. Probate of Dads Will 2. Seek legal advice after this and then transfer the property into the correct names.

I think everyone is right , we do need to start the process of Probate & then get legal advice on how to transfer ownership of the family home
 
I agree with Brendan, there's value in speaking to a solicitor first and then proceeding with probate yourselves if that's what you chose to do. I took this approach with probate of my late Mother's will. Had a once off meeting with a solicitor who reviewed the will and advised we could progress a personal application for probate. Once probate was done we returned to her for the conveyancing.
 
Thanks Everyone for input. I have made an appointment with the Solicitor , to get them to review the Will and advise.
It is just the one area of the Will that is throwing me off , I definitely need advice. Will let you know how we get on

"I give, devise and bequeath my dwelling house at ****** to my Wife for life, with remainder over after her death to my son *** absolutely"
 
Longwaytotipp said:
Thanks Everyone for input. I have made an appointment with the Solicitor , to get them to review the Will and advise.
It is just the one area of the Will that is throwing me off , I definitely need advice. Will let you know how we get on

"I give, devise and bequeath my dwelling house at ****** to my Wife for life, with remainder over after her death to my son *** absolutely"
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That seems different to how you described it previously.

It seems like he’s leaving the house to your mother for her lifetime on condition that it be ultimately left to your brother after her passing.

Wouldn’t that mean that it should be now put in her name rather than your brother’s?
 
Thanks everyone for input. Apologies for previous wording of my query , but basically that is why I am going to a solicitor to clarify this paragraph of the Will, we just want to ensure it is all legally correct going forward, My mother thankfully is still alive and resides with my brother, so it needs to be correct for both
 
That is how I would read it too, it transfers to your mum first and then to your brother. But IANAL, so ask one. Your mum might recall how their solicitor explained it to them when they made wills together.

Otherwise would your Mum inherit a 1/3 of your Dads without the house? If the house is the main asset I doubt if their solicitor would have advised a will that did not comply with current Irish law.
 
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