property legel will question

[getpooh]

My sister and I purchased a house together 7 years ago. The morgage is jointly in our names and under the life insurance policy if one of us dies the other gets the property. Since than we have both got married, moved out and we are renting the house, the bank, council, IRS etc are aware that we are renting. We want the situation changed so that should one of us die their half of the property goes to their spouce I.e. if I die my wife gets my half of the property and if my sister dies her husband gets her half. We have spoke to the bank about this but they are insisting that we need to remortgage with their names on the new mortgage which means loads of expences. If my sister and I get a will written out can this take precedent over the mortgage?

[sammy snake]

|I'm guessing by your use of the term IRS that you are not in the UK? If you are in the US or somewhere, the aw may be different over there so the following may not apply.

Over here, it depends how the house is owned, If you own your home as joint tenants then both of you own the whole of the property, so when one partner dies, the other automatically becomes the sole owner of the home. With tenants in common, you each own a share of the property, typically split half and half.

If you own it as tenants in common, when you die you can leave your half to whoever you like as long as you make a will and specify who you want to leave it to. You do not need to remortgage.

[weekendwanda]

Two different things are confused here. Firstly the life policy if assigned to the mortgage will pay off the mortgage.
It sounds as if you own the property jointly in law and in equity. This means that the survivor inherits the property. You can change that by "severing the joint tenancy".
If you sever the joint tenancy your half upon death will go to the person you leave it to in your will or if no will to your next of kin.
The information you have received from the bank makes no sense.
What you need is a solicitor who can deal with:
1. Severing joint tenancy
2. Wills
3. Looking into the terms of the policy and whether anything can or should be changed.

Unfortunately there is no substitute for good legal advice which ultimately will save you money. These are not things you would want your next of kin to argue about after your death. It would cost far more than sorting it out now.

Remember Solicitors make more money out of people who do not make wills than those who do!

[getpooh]

Many thanks you for the info. To add to the original info I gave we I can confirm that we are both UK citizens, residents and the property is in London.

Also under the mortgage we joint own the property in equal parts.

[weekendwanda]

The mortgage is simply your loan from the bank. The way you hold the property is down to the conveyance. Whether you are joint tenants or tenants in common should be of no concern to the Bank - their concern is that you are jointly and severally liable for the mortgage.
My previous suggestion stands!

[lajohn]

Sounds like the bank is pulling a fast one on you and wants to suck you into re-mortgaging with them.