How should a couple deal with the family home in their wills?
The home is usually the estate, so the wills have to start from how it is owned. Held as joint tenants, it passes to the survivor outside both wills; held as tenants in common, each share passes under its owner's will. That single fact determines which of the arrangements below is even available. Joint tenants or tenants in common explains the difference in full.
For a first-family couple who trust each other and share the same children, joint tenants and simple mirror wills are often enough. For anyone with children from an earlier relationship, or a real risk that the survivor will remarry, a life interest trust over a severed share is the arrangement that protects both the survivor and the children.
| Arrangement | What happens on the first death | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joint tenants, simple mirror wills | Survivor takes the home automatically and can leave it to anyone | First families with shared children | Survivor remarries or changes their will |
| Tenants in common, share left outright to children | Children own a share alongside the survivor | Adult children, cooperative families | Survivor co-owns with the children; a child's divorce or bankruptcy reaches the share |
| Tenants in common, life interest trust | Survivor may live there for life; the share then passes to the chosen beneficiaries | Second families, remarriage risk | Needs trustees and a severance; sale and downsizing have to be provided for |
| Mutual wills | Survivor is legally bound not to change their will | Very rarely advisable | Inflexible when circumstances change; litigation-prone |
| Discretionary trust | Trustees decide who benefits and when | Vulnerable or unpredictable beneficiaries | Ongoing administration and tax reporting |
| Letter of wishes alongside any of the above | Explains your reasoning to executors and trustees | Every couple | Not binding; guidance only |
Are mirror wills binding on the survivor?
No. Each will is a personal document that its maker can change at any time while they have capacity, and the survivor is free to make a new will after the first death. Only mutual wills, a pair made under a binding agreement not to revoke, tie the survivor's hands, and the courts treat them with caution because life rarely stays still for the decades a survivor may live.
If you want your share of the home to reach particular people whatever the survivor later decides, the tool is not a promise but a trust: your share is severed, left on a life interest for the survivor, and passes to your chosen beneficiaries on the second death. Without it, a second spouse can inherit everything while the first family inherits nothing.
What is a life interest trust over the home?
A clause in the will that gives the survivor the right to live in the property, or to receive the income from its sale proceeds, for the rest of their life, while the underlying share is held by trustees for the beneficiaries you named. The survivor can move house, with the trust following into the new property, and the share is protected from the survivor's later will and from remarriage. On a care fee assessment the local authority looks at what the survivor beneficially owns, and a share held on trust for someone else is not theirs (Care and Support Statutory Guidance, Annex B, updated 22 July 2025, checked 20 September 2026), but that guidance is made under the Care Act 2014 and covers England only; Wales assesses under the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 and the Care and Support (Charging) (Wales) Regulations 2015. It is fact-sensitive either way, and it does not take the share out of the survivor's estate for inheritance tax, because section 49A of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 treats them as entitled to it. Where the home is held as joint tenants, the share has to be severed first, and we prepare the severance alongside the wills.