Gifting money before a house sale clears

Families often plan to gift sale proceeds to children as soon as completion funds land. The impulse is generous; the paperwork is not always ready.

Cash that is not yet yours

Until completion, you cannot gift the equity. Promising a fixed sum based on an expected sale price also risks disappointment if the final figure shifts after repairs or chain delays.

Seven-year clocks and larger gifts

Lifetime gifts above available annual exemptions start a seven-year clock for inheritance tax purposes. Making several large gifts in the same tax year as a house sale can exhaust exemptions that might have been used more calmly over successive years.

Pensions sitting alongside the house

Death benefits from pensions often sit outside the estate for inheritance tax under current rules, but nominations must be up to date. We regularly find old expression-of-wish forms naming a former spouse after a remarriage.

Bring the solicitor early

If trusts or loan agreements between parents and children are contemplated, your solicitor should draft them before funds move. Harbor Crest can prepare financial notes for that meeting as part of an estate planning engagement—we do not draft the legal documents ourselves.