gifting a house to a problem gambler

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Brenno123

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unfortunately my brother has a pretty severe gambling addiction. he is 40 with his first child on way and lives with my parents and girlfriend at the moment. he is unemployed.

my father wants to sell the family farm (dublin based) to release funds to buy him a family home that he can be mortgage free.

1. Is there any way to structure the transaction that he owns the property but can never sell it or would need authorisation from one of us (his siblings)? We are trying to protect his house so that he can never sell it for gambling.

2. Also, we are concerned if a house is gifted to him the girlfriend will soon claim half (as she a stranger relatively to us)

So I guess wondering is there any legal structures that can give him the security of his own home ( it is his in effect) but he cant sell without permission and it is protected from his girlfriend. would we better keepin it in our names and give him a right of residence?

any help much appreciated
 
The simplest thing to do is for the father to buy the house and to retain it in the father's name.

The father can let it rent-free to the son.

In his will , your father should leave the house to one of the siblings who can be trusted to continue the arrangement.

An even simpler arrangement might be for the father to simply rent a house from an independent landlord and pay the rent himself. And allow the son to live there rent-free.

If the son overcomes his gambling addiction, he can start paying the rent himself.

Brendan
 
It might be better if father buys a house from farm sale proceeds and gives gambling son a life interest in house. Son can live in house but as he doesn't own it he can't sell it for gambling or whatever.
 
They would be better buying a house for the girlfriend, as this way their grandchild would always have a place to live.
 
Gambling addiction or not, I'm sure your father wants to be respectful towards him and for him not to feel completely "Policed" or humiliated by
other family members owning the house "on his behalf"

Maybe the house could be bought in trust. The trustees could be his parents and/or his siblings. The son would be the beneficiary of the trust
Might be a bit expensive to set up but would do the job.

Its important to work with a Solicitor with strong background and experience in drawing up trust deeds
 
He can transfer it to the son reserving a power of revocation. A power of revocation is the right to revoke the transfer and take the property back.

The power gets protected by inhibition on the folio, so the father would be notified of any attempt to sell.


Either that or the father takes it in his name, and grants him a right of residence.
 
My grandmother did this in her will for an uncle of mine who was an alcholic. If I recall correctly he got the right to live in the house and right of ownership if he married, it not on his death it went to the other siblings.

I think a right of residence, and right to ownership on marriage and if no no marriage for it to go to his child on death.

I think ownership transferred to the other siblings is only going to cause trouble.

I hope someone is helping this man to deal with his problems.

Whatever is decided, it must be ensured that he can raise no loan/mortgage on the property.
 
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