Discuss..you’ve been offered a lovely house by your wife’s parents. No mortgage. They are downsizing to a property in the ample garden across the road, a garden that we would have access to and share. Big enough to have distance and not be on top of each other. The house would be signed over to us with minimal payments to the inlaws. We get on really well and we wouldn’t ever be able to get a house in the area without struggling every month to pay a mortgage, let alone a house with so much going for it.

Absolutely, but…. make sure you know where you stand if you want to move. Consider that you may change jobs, relocate and consider selling this asset. If you are paying minimal possibly treat it like cheap rental and put away as much as you can into savings to be a deposit if you need to move but can’t sell the house.

Just make sure you get some legal document drawn up so everyone knows where they stand if things go tits up & one of the parties involved need to walk away

I assume there will be capital gains tax to be paid if you sell it.

Can you afford the rates and utilities?

You also need to check out the situation on whether the state still class it as the parents asset if they quickly need to move in to a home etc. I’m sure the law changed not long back to make it easier for councils to count houses as assets even if they are no longer owned by the person needing care…and for some years too.

Would the “garden” house be classed as a seperate property – ie have its own address , rates and taxes paid ?

If not look up – “gift with reservation of interest” you could be hit with a iht tax bill if the worst happens , or as funky says be liable for some of their care.,

Check out inheritance tax too – what would be the situation if they die within 7 years? Is she the only child – could there be some sort of inheritance claim from another party at a later date?

Lovely situation to be in if you all get along.

Are you prince Charles?

As others have said, make sure you get something legal drawn up so you know where you stand.

It’s not clear whether they’re giving you the house outright or renting it to you at a minimal rent?

Don’t want to be morbid but if they die within a set time of giving it to you you may be liable to inheritance tax

It would have its own address. Short reply off to work.

There’s no CGT issue but you might want to keep them alive for 7 years to avoid a risk of IHT claw-back. But there is nothing to lose. So long as it’s a genuine gift, meaning you can just sell up any time. Be wary of a free or cheap loan though.

As long as it’s somewhere you want to live.
I got a (not quite as generous) offer from my inlaws, but the house was in the flatlands around Selby and we just couldn’t bring ourselves to leave the hills.

A lot of things to think about. It definitely is somewhere I could see myself living. That would be unattainable if it were down to buying ourself!

May not be a CGT issue, but there probably would be an SDLT issue.
HMRC reserve the right to charge you SDLT on the market value of the property rather than the price you actually paid.

That said, paying x% of property_value rather than £property_value is still a good deal.

And they’d better still be around for 7 more years to avoid the IHT issue.