'I've left my son a £1.5million house in my will - but he won't accept it'
Inheritance can be an awkward subject to discuss - albeit a sad one too. But one woman was left miffed when her eldest son kicked up a fuss when he found out he was being left his family home, worth £1.5 million ($3 million) as he doesn't want it.
When discussing with her two sons what they will be inheriting whilst on a call, the mum revealed the eldest son will receive the family home, a grand house on an estate, and the youngest will receive the main assets - bank accounts and investment and claimed the call ended "very tense".
She further explained that the house would need a lot of maintenance and upkeep due to its size, hence why her son had no lust for inheriting it. Living five hours away, there was no way he and his wife could move into it and keep their jobs. The mum was then left hurt when her son told her "He now knows we favour his brother and will keep that in mind when elder care comes up and he's the one nearby."
Asking on Reddit for advice on whether she and her partner are a**holes, as the house can't be sold, she wrote: "My partner and I have two sons. The older is married and doesn't plan on having children, the younger is also married but with two young kids. In addition, the older lives in the same state as us while the younger is about eight hours away. Both own their own homes already and are for the most part financially stable.
"Our house has been in the family for generations. It's on an estate with a few hundred acres of land and the building itself is mostly original, a couple hundred years old. It admittedly does have its quirks and the size makes management a little difficult but is a wonderful home. Its most recent appraisal was a bit over three million dollars."
'I don't want children staying up late at weekends - I really need adult time'
When she originally proposed for the younger son to inherit the house, he admitted he didn't want it as he and his young family had no plans to move, she and her partner changed their wills, giving the generational family home to the eldest son instead. She explained: "He hesitantly admitted that he doesn’t want the house or anything to do with it. His family has no intention of moving back north and if they did it would be the other side of the state. I'll admit it was disappointing to hear since our intent was to split all assets evenly- including the house- so that it would stay in the family and continue to be the meeting place.
"My spouse and I talked it through and decided to change our wills. The house would go entirely to my older son and our other main assets (bank accounts, investments) would go to our younger. They can split the physical items between them. The house is worth more since the cash and investments are only around 2 million."
When she approached the situation with both sons, she explained how the eldest son was upset with the decision as he didn't want to move, to which she suggested "they could have someone maintain the house when they aren’t using it but he just got annoyed and said that would be a massive drain on their finances, let alone property tax and if anything breaks and needs repair," and called him a "brat", and then the tense call ended.
"My younger is pleased with the outcome but my older is obviously not. He later said he now knows we favour his brother and will keep that in mind when elder care comes up and he's the one nearby. This seems like a low blow but I don't know if it's deserved. The house cannot be sold, by us or either son. It also had a provision that the house cannot be sold publicly, if we no longer wanted the property the town will buy it for land value," she further detailed.
Many Reddit users have been quick to back up the feelings of the sons, as one user commented: "Hanging on to a fairy tale of some sort of family legacy that doesn't exist. And then compounding it by forcing it on the kids in a completely inequitable split of assets in the will. TALK TO YOUR KIDS. What you want is beside the point," whilst another simply added: "You're essentially leaving your older child a burden and your younger child free cash. The values aren't the same at all."
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