Leaving a House to Your Children in a Will

To leave a house to your children, the usual route is a valid will that names them as the people who inherit the property, either as a specific gift of the home or as part of what is left of the estate. Without a will, the rules of intestacy decide who inherits, and the outcome may not match your wishes.

A home is often the largest thing anyone passes on, so leaving it well means looking at more than the words in the will. It brings in inheritance tax, the extra allowance for leaving a home to descendants, whether to use a trust, and how later-life care might affect things. This guide walks through the options for England and Wales and where taking advice tends to help. It forms part of our wider estate planning guide. Figures are current as at July 2026 and are subject to change.

How do you leave a house to your children?

You leave a house to your children by setting it out in a valid will, either as a specific gift of that property or by leaving them your estate, which includes the home. The will names your children as beneficiaries and appoints executors to carry out your wishes. Without a will, intestacy rules apply, and they may not pass the home the way you would choose (gov.uk, intestacy rules, as at July 2026, subject to change).

How you own the property matters too. A home held as joint tenants passes automatically to the surviving owner by survivorship, outside the will, whereas a share held as tenants in common can be left through a will to whomever you choose. It can be worth checking the ownership before assuming a will alone controls where the home goes. For the drafting itself, see our guide on How to Write a Will.

Ways to leave a home to children

There is more than one way to pass a home to children, and the right choice depends on your family, whether a spouse or partner still needs to live there, and what you want to control. The main options are an outright gift in a will, a share left to children while a partner keeps the right to live there, or leaving the home into a trust. Each has different effects on tax, control and flexibility.

Trusts and their tax treatment vary widely (gov.uk, trusts and inheritance tax, as at July 2026, subject to change). See our note on protective property trusts for how a share can be ring-fenced for children.

Should you give your house to your children now instead?

Giving a home to children during your lifetime is possible, but it rarely works as simply as people hope, especially if you carry on living there. Where you give a property away but keep the benefit of it, such as living in it rent-free, it is usually treated as a gift with reservation of benefit and stays inside your estate for inheritance tax (gov.uk, rules on giving gifts, as at July 2026, subject to change). Signing the house over is often not the shortcut it appears to be.

An outright gift with no strings attached can fall out of your estate if you survive seven years, and tax on gifts made three to seven years before death may be reduced by taper relief (gov.uk, as at July 2026, subject to change). But giving away a home you still live in raises capital gains, family-law and later-life care questions, so it is one option some consider only after taking advice. It can be worth discussing with a solicitor, a STEP practitioner or an accountant before acting.

• Gift with reservation. Living in a home you have given away usually keeps it inside your estate for tax (gov.uk, as at July 2026, subject to change).
• The seven-year rule. An outright gift may fall outside the estate if you live seven years after making it (gov.uk, as at July 2026, subject to change).
• Loss of control. Once the home is your children's, it can be exposed to their divorce, debts or disagreements, and you no longer own it.

Leaving a home to children and care fees

Care fees are a common worry when people think about the family home, and it is an area where the rules matter. If you need care later, a local authority can carry out a financial assessment, and deliberately giving away or transferring a home to reduce what you might pay can be treated as a deprivation of assets, in which case the council may assess you as if you still owned it (gov.uk, care and support statutory guidance, as at July 2026, subject to change). There is no fixed time limit on how far back a council can look.

For this reason, planning here is about understanding and mitigating the impact of care fees within the rules, not deliberately avoiding them, which can be challenged. Whether a transfer is caught depends on timing and motivation, including whether care was already a realistic prospect. Because this is a complex area where mistakes can backfire, many people choose to take advice from a solicitor or a suitably qualified adviser before making any move involving the home.

Leaving a home to children through a will is a normal part of estate planning. Rearranging ownership to sidestep a future care charge is a different matter, and one the rules are designed to catch.

Leaving a home to children in Scotland and Northern Ireland

This guide describes the law of England and Wales. Inheritance tax is a UK-wide tax, so the £325,000 nil-rate band, the residence nil-rate band and the 40% rate apply across all four nations (gov.uk, as at July 2026, subject to change). What differs is the surrounding law. Scotland has its own succession rules, including legal rights that can give a spouse and children a fixed share of an estate regardless of the will, and it uses confirmation rather than a grant of probate. Northern Ireland has a separate but broadly similar system to England and Wales. Where an estate touches more than one nation, it can be worth taking advice in each.

Frequently asked questions