Joint Tenancy

[Bobbyboy]

My Brother in law who suffers from Parkinson's has had to go into a care home since early January.

He and his partner own their own home 50/50, but in early March he received a letter from her solicitor as below:

Please find enclosed a letter whereby our client gives you notice that she has severed her joint tenancy in equity over your home. You need do nothing with this letter as this severance is a unilateral one and an application to the Land Registry will be made in support of this.
Yours sincerely

Please can someone explain to me what this means and should he do anything about it?

Thanks.

[des8]

Up until the receipt of the note the home was owned by them as "joint tenants".
This means they each owned 100% of the property, and if one died the other was the sole owner.

By changing the ownership into "tenants in common" both separately own a proportion of the property.
That proportion is not necessarily 50/50 as it will depend on how it was purchased and who put what into the pot!
By changing the manner of the holding, if one dies their portion does not necessarily pass to the survivor.
Their share will be part of their estate and ownership will pass according to their will (or if no will according to the rules of intestacy)

This move could possibly have been brought on to protect the property, as far as possible, from the claims of the local council to cover care home fees.

There is nothing that your b-i-l can do unilaterally to change this move

[Bobbyboy]

Thank you very much for your reply, appreciated.