For a lot of people here, the family home is part of the retirement plan. It is also the thing least likely to have been talked about out loud.
It comes up at a family gathering. The stairs are getting harder to climb. The garden takes a lot to maintain. A son or daughter says, “You should think about selling while the market is good.” Everyone agrees it is worth a look, and then nobody mentions it again for a few years.
When it does happen, it happens fast. An agent is appointed, a contract is signed, and the questions arrive afterwards. And sometimes the decision to sell is taken out of your hands due to an event no one saw coming, let alone planned for.
Where does the money go? Does it change the Will? If one of you needs care later, does the other one still have somewhere to live? If a child helped with the deposit years ago, was that a gift or a loan?
None of these are hard questions. They only get hard once the sale contract is signed.
If downsizing is somewhere on the horizon, the useful time to ask is before the property is listed. That conversation is usually short, and it saves a lot of unpicking later.
Three things worth checking while you are thinking about selling the family home:
• Does my Will still match what I own?
• Do I have an Enduring Power of Attorney in place? (Just in case.)
• Who could sign a contract and act on my behalf if I was not capable, for whatever reason?
If you are somewhere in the middle of dealing with selling the family home, transitioning to retirement, or planning your Estate, send in your question and we will answer it in a future column.
