Case File: the house share that would have gone to the wrong person

A gentleman - call him Mr X - owned a property jointly with his sister, and wanted his share to pass to his son. His existing Will said exactly that: a gift of his share of the property to his son. He was certain the property was owned as tenants in common, in equal shares. The drafter of that Will had evidently taken his word for it.

When he came to us to update his Will - he wanted to add a newborn daughter - we checked the Land Registry as standard. The property was owned as joint tenants. Had he died with the existing Will in place, his share would have passed to his sister automatically by survivorship, regardless of what the Will said. His son would have received nothing from the property.

The fix

Because the check happened while he was alive, the fix was simple: a Deed of Severance, converting the ownership to tenants in common in equal shares. Now his share passes under his Will - to his son and his daughter - exactly as he always believed it would. (A note for completeness: a Deed of Severance needs a proper purpose - here, succession, putting the ownership in line with what the owner had always intended.)

What the case teaches

The Will was not badly written; it was built on an unchecked assumption. The gap between how people think they own their property and how the Land Registry says they own it is one of the most common - and most silent - failures we find. It costs nothing to check and everything to miss.

Key takeaways

• Survivorship beats the Will: a joint tenancy passes to the co-owner automatically
• Owners are frequently wrong about which form they hold
• Checked in life, the fix is a simple deed; discovered at death, the fix is costly, time-consuming and faces hard time constraints

Every Kinherit Will review checks property ownership at the Land Registry as standard. Book yours - complimentary and without obligation.