FUTURE INHERITANCES

I'm going through a divorce at the moment and was wondering could somebody tell me can my wife put a claim in against my Mothers house. I know this is goulish behaviour on part of my wife but she is trying to make a claim against my mother's house which may eventually be left to me if something would happen to her as I am an only child. Surely this cannot be taken into consideration once the divorce is finalised. Surely this is looking into the future and nobody knows what is ahead of us. I would appreciate any feed back on this one.

She can't put a charge against the property as she had no rights to it, she could look for a share in the proceeds in the future if you do not get a 'Clean Break' settlement before your mother dies.

She certainly can't claim against the assets of third parties. So a claim is possible only against your prospective inheritance. However, I suspect that in your case your mother's death will thankfully not happen for very many years and if that is the case, then your wife can forget all about the idea.

In my own particular case I would declare it in the form E but my mother is 91 and suffers from dementia, but even then I doubt whether the Court would consider it. Unless the donor is already dead or is likely to die within a short time I think a Court would hold it is too speculative.

Mike 100468

A court could 'look' at the age of your mother, and the likelihood of her survival at your retirement age. They could form an opinion about your future inheritence, which could be considered in to your future needs / pension.

That's not to suggest that your wife can claim for it.

If, however, your mother has transfered her home into your name (??) often done to escape Inheritence Tax, then it will need to be disclosed, as it is legally your asset.

Just a personal opinion, but this seems crazy to me. Your mother could re-marry, or decide to leave her money to the next door neighbour or the cat. She could gamble it all away, or pile all her cash up in a heap and burn it, or sell her house and go sailing round the world, or spend it all on her toy boy, who knows? She may need to sell her house to keep herself in a retirement home if she becomes frail (more likely).

It is her money, how can a court assume you will get it? How can they assume she even intends to leave her property to you unless she says so?

I mentioned it because in my first divorce (1999) we had both been asked to disclose the information, and the ages of our parents. It didn't make any difference to the settlement though.

Inheritance expectations are not relevant unless they are "reasonably forseable" ie if your mother is on her deathbed and the inheritance is certain it could be taken into account . Otherwise ones parents property will be ignored.