Your Children – How to ensure your stepchildren do not get your house! Laura Richardson’s latest article considers how someone like you can ensure that your children will benefit from your house even if you start a new relationship and gain stepchildren . . .

I was recently approached by a friend, Mrs K, with an uncomfortable dilemma in Finchingfield, Essex. She owns her family home in her sole name and currently resides in the house along with her two biological children, whose father passed away. However, she has recently remarried and her husband has also now moved into the house along with his two children. Mrs K is currently considering her options for making her Will. Her dilemma is that, should she die before her husband, she would like her house to pass to him, however, she also wants to ensure that once her husband dies, the house passes to her biological children only, and not her step-children. So, is it possible for Mrs K to legally protect her house in order to ensure that only her biological children eventually inherit the property? The simple answer is yes, but there are some issues to be aware of.

Firstly, Mrs K could write a Will which leaves the house to her husband, and she could trust that Mr K would write a Will that states that he would leave the property to Mrs K’s children, rather than his own children. However, the risk here is that Mr K may at any time decide to write a new Will that changes how the property is passed down, and this new Will would supersede any pre-existing Wills. In this scenario then, there is no guarantee that the property would be passed down as per Mrs K’s wishes.

Secondly, Mrs K could write a Will that passes the property directly to her biological children. The risk here is that if the property is passed down directly to Mrs K’s children, Mrs K has no guarantee that her children will allow Mr K to stay living at the property. In fact, as the owners of the property, Mrs K’s children would then be legally within their rights to demand that Mr K left the property, or even sell the property. So whilst this option protects her own children, it does not protect the interests of her husband.

However, there is a third option that would ensure that Mrs K’s wishes can be fulfilled. Mrs K could write a Will that puts the property into a Trust for her husband’s benefit. The Trust would state that Mr K be allowed to reside in the property until his death at which time Mrs K’s children would inherit the property.

We at Andrew Douglas Wills and Legal Services, specialise in end of life planning. Whether in Finchingfield, or the surrounding areas of Essex, contact Andrew Douglas Wills and Legal Services today to arrange a free initial consultation to discuss your Will, however complicated your requirements may seem.

If you would like to keep up with our latest posts and advice about estate planning through the regular advice that we provide to our clients in this regard, then please also feel free to –

Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ADouglasWills.
Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AndrewDouglasWills.