Granny annex

I think you need to enlist the aid of a solicitor as this is complex - perhaps the one who will deal with the conveyancing when you sell your property.

Luckygirl is right, you need legal advice. Any advice on here will be just personal opinion.

I would definitely get some specialist advice from a solicitor.

You should also ask about whether there are any other issues that you should consider - for example - if you needed your money because you needed to go into a care home or needed some other specialist help.

Thank you for your replies sorry if I sound a bit stupid here but what kind of solicitor will I need as in what do they deal with ? I’ve phoned a few and they have no idea how to go about this.
Thank you

I think you are taking a huge risk. If your daughter and her partner (I take it they're not married) split up you could lose your home and any money you have put into the project.

Personally I would think twice before investing a lot of money in an annex that belongs to someone who is not even a member of the family. You do specify that the house is owned by your daughter's partner, not your daughter. This sounds like a minefield to me.

Problem, a granny annexe is part of an existing dwelling not a separate dwelling, you are in effect extending their house.
If you want to benefit your other daughters an agreement would have to be made with the householder daughter.

I would suggest you don't do it because when you die part of the value of the property would have to be paid out - wether they had the means or not, this is likely to be very divisive.

It is indeed a minefield..

There is an article from Saga that lists some of the issues that need to be discussed
www.saga.co.uk/magazine/money/property/buying-and-selling/granny-annexe-7-things-to-think-about

I think one of the biggest issues relates to what happens to the house if circumstances change from either side - care home, divorce, unemployment, long term sickness etc

Also after you have gone the only way that your other dds can inherit will be to sell their sister's home

This is horrendously legally complicated, I am sad to say.

I’m not qualified in England so I can’t say any more.

If you look around for a firm that specialises in advice for older people (these are becoming more popular), you run a better chance of getting a firm that has dealt with all the aspects of this situation before (land rights, inheritance, etc)

I would strongly advise you do nothing until you have seen such a solicitor and explored all the potential issues with them.

Smiffy30, I have just put all my redundancy payoff and my 25% pension pot lump sum into a granny annexe in my daughter's garden. She paid the other 50%. The first thing I would say it was expensive - it would have been cheaper to buy a bungalow round the corner. Secondly, it's taken nearly twice as long to build as the original plan (I'm still living in her sunroom with my 2 cats). Most importantly for your question - it will never be mine. As soon as I move in, hopefully in the next week or so, I need to see the solicitor and get a contract drawn up saying that I can stay in the annexe until my death. Also a clause saying that they will repay all my investment if they split up etc. The alternative is to have the title deeds changed and my DD and SIL did not want to go down that route, too complicated and expensive as there are already title deed issues with their property. My DD is an only child so it makes no difference in that regard, also I have kept my flat down South which I will renovate and let out for an income to pay all the bills in the annexe. Obviously that would be my escape route too should circumstances change. My advice is think very carefully - I look after DGS full time but after 21 months of this stress and living in a building site for a year of it, DD and I are barely speaking ?
A general high street solicitor can draw up the contract - DD is a solicitor but corporate so she can't remember the details required in property law.

Although I agree that you need legal advice, it is of course, your decision as to how you want the financial /property side of things sorted out. The solicitor can draw up the agreement and the wills, but the basic decision is yours.

Beau's advice and experience are interesting.

I would try to leave any 'care' considerations out of it, and make no demands or have any expectations.
I would also deal with the 'possible split' issue separately to the inheritance one.
Begin by considering what value, if any, is added to the house by the annexe. This is actually difficult to do until it is built, but a reputable estate agent will give you an approximate estimate.
You don't say what kind of annexe. It may well be possible to regard it as a separate dwelling, with say, shared use of the garden, shared drive etc. - and this is easier legally, as each property can be valued separately. You can then deal (possibly with a lump sum) with the decrease in value of the main property. You will of course, be liable to separate council tax etc.

However you do your sums, please remember to divide the inheritance as a share, or 'sum equal in value to current valuation' or similar. My grandfather made a will leaving me a sum of money that would have bought half a decent house. By the time he died, it was approximately a week's wages. I'm certainly not complaining, I just know it wasn't what he intended fifty years previously!

Be aware that planning permission for a defined granny annex is granted on the basis that it is not a separate dwelling. The annex is exactly that and cannot be sold individually, only as part and parcel of the original property.

I really do think you should see a Solicitor about this as things could get very complicated.

Sorry to disagree, Nannarose but we've done this and an annexe cannot be valued separately. Usually, a condition of planning approval is that the annexe will not be treated separately from the main dwelling.

Be very careful about committing yourself to this scheme. Some years ago, I was tempted by the idea of selling my house and sharing a property with DS1 and DiL Fortunately the house was sold before they could put in an offer. I say 'fortunately' because, in the past year, they have split up and I dread to think of the complications this would have caused had I fallen in with their plans. It is, indeed, a minefield.

My SiL is one of three boys . His mother sold her house to have a granny annexe built with the middle son and his wife . They have no children and an already very large house . The mother also had a house in Portugal. It took months to build and my SiL did a lot of work towards it . Long story but once it was built she only had about a year in it as she died from cancer . ( she had symptoms for some time but didn't see a doctor). All the money was used for the granny annexe which now lies empty and the middle son has no intention of moving so no inheritance !

This should be a bread and butter job to a solicitor who specialises in property law. I find it odd that every solicitor you have spoken to has said they cannot deal with this.

Nowadays most, if not all solicitors specialise in one particular field of law, divorce, wills and inheritance, personal injury, property and so on. I am not sure where you live, but in most parts of the country, there will be several large legal partnerships where at least one partner , and often more specialise in the law of property.

I wouldn’t do it. What if they split up and you are turned out of your home because it is part of his property.