Purchasing house for son

I am a first time buyer buying a house. There will be no mortgage. I have savings, combined with the falling house prices all I need is 10,000. This I have borrowed as a personal loan from AIB. There is no loan taken against the house.

I wonder about the possibility of putting the house in my son’s name. Of course I would be signing for him as he is not yet of age, but I would like the property to be in his name. Is this a problem, complicated or extra work?

Some basic information about putting the house in my sons name is all I ask. As for my reasons I would have thought to be honest that that is a private and personal matter and has no bearing on the information sought? But if you must know, it is something that my wife and I decided long ago.

We basically want to set him up for life and can think of no better way of doing it than this. We want security for him and to be sure of that. The house will not be used as an asset or collateral by either of us against any loan. And we want to make sure this always remains so. There is also no guarantee that my wife an I will be together in say 10 years time and we want there to be absolutely no issue regarding the house and our son. We are both in agreement on this. Of course we may well be still together and probably will be but we want to secure our sons home now.

Our reasons are simple and genuine. I will be paying for the house. There is no doubt about that.

Sorry but a lot of above was an e-mail to solicitor. He says there is a new law in 2009 which he doesnt know about but for him to investigate is an extra 500 euro.Also he says this is very complcated etc and I get the impression he does not want to do it.

Does anyone know about this or can it be done?

Thanks in advance.

JOHNEY

johneym said:

He says there is a new law in 2009 which he doesnt know about but for him to investigate is an extra 500 euro.Also he says this is very complcated etc and I get the impression he does not want to do it.

Does anyone know about this or can it be done?

Thanks in advance.

JOHNEY

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The conveyancing and real property laws in Ireland were substantially updated and overhauled in 2009. However, the €500 extra your solicitor mentions is likely to have been incurred whether before or after the legislation. In essence, the issue is that if you are buying a house for a minor, you need to have it held by a trustee, which entails extra documents and extra legal work at time of purchase plus some extra work when the child turns eighteen. It's all relatively standard stuff though - as long as you are not telling your solicitor that you see no reason to pay extra for the extra work, (and as long as there is nothing in your marital situation which might cause him to regard this as a transaction with which your wife might not be fully on board) there is no reason he should not be happy to deal with the matter for you.

Johneym, I see no reason why you should have to explain your moves and those of your wife to your solicitor. What you want to do and have suggested is part of the course of being a parent.

And your Solicitor wants you to pay for his own education of a profession he is meant to know in the first instance.

I really think the best thing you may do is ignore the begrudgers and find yourself a new solicitor that knows the law and his trade. If you are of the opinion that he doesn't want to do it then leave him.

Up to 1st December 2009, a child could own property (but couldn't deal with it except through guardians), but in a move that seems to fly in the face of all the positive talk about childrens rights, a minor (under 18, not the coal variety) can't own property any more. It needs to be held in a trust. In that situation, the trustee is the legal owner, but the trustee is holding it for the benefit of the beneficiary (your son).

In your situation the easiest is probably if you and your wife purchase the property in your names as joint tenants, but also (either in the transfer or as a separate deed) execute a trust, declaring that you hold it for his benefit until he reaches whatever age you decide it is to be passed to him.

Bear in mind that the implication of holding it on trust for him is that if you were to rent it out until he comes of age, any rental profit accrues to him - i.e. you put it in a bank account for him. Further, I don't know if there are any Capital Acquisitions Tax implications, so that is something you'd need to check out.

When he comes of age, then you have to do another deed of transfer transferring the legal title to him, and the trust is completed.

Hope that helps as a quick overview.

mercman said:

Johneym, I see no reason why you should have to explain your moves and those of your wife to your solicitor.

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Unfortunately Mercman it usually isn't that simple. Obviously I cannto say what specific factors are relevant in this case. But there may be factors which put a duty on the solicitor to enquire. For example, consider the following points:

1. The solicitor may well have previously acted for both OP and OP's spouse - so the solicitor may have a duty of care to the spouse as a client.

2. OP has ( at least implicitly) acknowledged that a future separation is a possibility - at least enough to factor the possibility into his thinking. Any solicitor who gets even a whiff of this is going to want to insist that the wife be separately and independently advised on the transaction. Failure to ensure this could result in the wife later seeking to have the transaction set aside. If this happened, the solicitor who had failed to 'bullet-proof' the thing by getting her independently advised would not have properly served the OP's interests ( and would be liable to be sued).

It is facile and quite incorrect to approach family property transactions from the perspective of 'I know what I want and surely the solicitor should just carry out my instructions'.

99 times out of 100, this may well work out fine ( actually I suspect it is more like 92 out of 100); in the other case(s), there will be a mess and the solicitor will get the blame if he\she has not examined the entire context of the transaction and dealt with it accordingly.

MOB, my comments were directed in the context of the OP's Solicitor been unaware of the changes in the updated laws and the requisition of additional fees, strictly and mainly for the purpose of educating the law to those that are meant to know and which forms part and parcel of his profession.

Agreeably my use of the terminology was rather loose but and without having a full detail of the proposed transaction, it is difficult to advise in a proactive manner, without changing the nuts and bolts on the basis of the informatioin that has already been provided.

Hi there,

I read with interest your post and I have some personal experience of this situation. Years ago in ireland family homes were often left to the oldest child instead of the spouse. In the case I am familiar with a couple - who were friends of our family, lived in a house. The husband died and the house was left to the eldest son.

The son moved into the house with his family (these were very small cotages) and essentially made it impossible for his mother to live there. She ended up moving out.

While I do realise you and your wife want a secure future for your son, what happens if you have more than