Severance

Many customers want to make use of trusts in their Wills to reduce their liability to Inheritance Tax (IHT) or to ring-fence their assets to protect them. Your home is very often the single most valuable asset and if you own your home jointly it cannot be included in these trusts unless the joint ownership is first "severed".

This is because joint ownership takes priority over your Will and the property will automatically pass to the surviving joint owner irrespective of anything you try to put in your Will.

Severing the joint ownership creates what is known as a Tenancy in Common, which simply means that each of you now owns a defined proportion (usually half) of the house.

As Tenants in Common, the death of one owner does not automatically trigger the transfer of the whole house to the survivor. Instead, you may now transfer your share of the house into a trust in your Will.

Gray's Group charge for a Severance is £199 per property