• Contract Of Transfer

    By Guest on 17th Feb 2016

    My father died leaving everything to my mother. I am now helping her sell her house. My brother and I were executors for my fathers will . My parents were tenants in common in regard to their house. Do my brother and I have to sign the contract of transfer or can my fathers death certificate and copy of the will just be attatched

  • 2 Answers

    By Guest on 17/02/2016

    Although your parents owned the property as "tenants in common" this only relates to the equitable estate, or in layman's terms the proceeds of sale. The legal estate can only be hold as joint tenants. What this means in practice is that when a tenant in common dies leaving a sole surviving tenant in common the whole of the legal title passes tomorrow the survivor just as if they were joint tenants. The difference with tenants in common is that there needs to be two selllers (what us lawyers refer to as trustees) to overreach the interest of the deceased so that the buyer takes the property free from any third party interests. So your mother wi@l need to appoint a second trustee to sign the transfer deed with her and to receive the proceeds of sale with her. She can appoint anyone but as the second trustee is jointly responsible with her for making sure that your father's share is distributed properly it makes sense to appoint one of the executors. The appointment can be made in the transfer deed by putting the following words in panel 11 "I (your mother's name) in exercise of my statutory powers hereby appoint (the second trustee) to be a trustee of the Property along with myself for the purpose of giving a valid receipt for the purchase price"

  • By Guest on 17/02/2016

    Thank you so much for your response

    Kind regards
    Ann Colson

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