Updating your Will
after a house move

Does moving house invalidate your Will?

No. A house move does not automatically invalidate or revoke a Will. Your existing Will remains legally valid after you move, and your executors and beneficiaries remain as named. In this respect, moving is quite different from remarriage - which does revoke a Will entirely by operation of law - or from death of a beneficiary, which triggers specific provisions depending on how the Will is drafted.

But "legally valid" is not the same as "still appropriate." A Will that was well-suited to your circumstances in your previous property may be subtly or substantially wrong for your situation in the new one - depending on how it was drafted, how the new property is owned, and what has changed in your overall financial picture since the Will was made.

A house move is therefore not a reason to panic about your Will, but it is an excellent prompt to review it. Several specific issues are worth examining with care.

How property is described in your Will

The first question is whether your Will makes any specific reference to your home. Some Wills do; many do not.

A Will that leaves your estate to named beneficiaries as a residuary gift - "I give the whole of my estate to..." - does not describe any specific property. In that case, a house move changes nothing meaningful: whatever property you own at death, wherever it is, passes under the residuary gift. The Will does not need to be updated for the property change alone.

A Will that makes a specific gift of your home by address - "I give my property at 14 Elm Close, Walton-on-Thames to my daughter Sarah" - is a different matter. If you have sold that property and moved to a different address, the specific gift will fail. It is what lawyers call an ademption: the asset no longer exists in the estate, so the specific gift of it lapses. Sarah would receive nothing under that clause. Depending on how the rest of the Will is structured, she may or may not receive anything at all.

If your Will contains a specific gift of your former address, you should update it - either to name the new address, or better still to convert the gift to a residuary share so that it cannot fail through ademption in future moves.

Joint ownership: the question most people miss

For couples, the most significant estate planning issue raised by a house move is often not the Will itself but the ownership structure of the new property.

When two people buy a property together, they must register as either beneficial joint tenants or tenants in common. These are fundamentally different.

As beneficial joint tenants, neither owner has a distinct share. On the death of one, the property passes automatically to the survivor by right of survivorship - regardless of what the deceased's Will says. The Will has no effect on a property held as joint tenants. Many couples choose this structure deliberately, wanting to ensure the surviving partner inherits the home outright without complication.

As tenants in common, each owner holds a defined share - usually but not always 50/50. On death, that share passes according to the deceased's Will or, if there is no Will, the intestacy rules. Tenants in common is the appropriate structure when owners want to be able to leave their share of the property differently - to children from a previous relationship, into a trust, or to anyone other than the co-owner.

The significance for a house move is this: when you sell one property and buy another, the ownership structure does not automatically carry over. The new property is registered freshly at HM Land Registry, and the default - if you do nothing - will often be joint tenancy. A couple who deliberately registered their previous home as tenants in common, with matching Will provisions to reflect that structure, may unknowingly lose that structure when they move. Their Wills may then no longer work as intended.

Check the Land Registry title for your new property. It will show whether you are registered as joint tenants or tenants in common. If the structure does not match your intentions and your Will provisions, one or both need to change.

Inheritance tax and the nil-rate band residence

Moving to a higher-value property can affect your IHT position, particularly in relation to the Residence Nil-Rate Band (RNRB). The RNRB - currently £175,000 per person - is an additional threshold available when a qualifying residential property is left to direct descendants. It sits on top of the standard nil-rate band of £325,000.

If you move to a property whose value is lower than your previous home, the RNRB available to your estate may be restricted. If the new property's value is below the full RNRB, the band is capped at the property value. Moving to a significantly smaller property - downsizing in later life, for example - can therefore reduce the IHT-free amount available on your estate.

There is a downsizing addition rule designed to partially offset this effect. But the rules around it are specific and require careful tracking of property values at the time of the move. If you have recently downsized or are planning to, your estate planning should account for the impact on the RNRB rather than assuming the full band will be available.

Other things a house move typically changes

Beyond the property-specific issues, a house move often coincides with or causes other changes that are worth building into a Will review:

• Financial position. If the move involved selling a larger property and buying a smaller one, there may be significant cash in the estate that was not there before. The Will's provisions for that cash should be considered - does the existing Will deal with it as intended?
• New mortgage commitments. A larger property may carry a larger mortgage. Life insurance arrangements should be reviewed to ensure they remain adequate. If you hold a life policy, check whether the benefit is written in trust - a policy not held in trust will form part of the estate and may be subject to IHT and delays in payment.
• Executors and their addresses. Your Will names executors by name and may include their address. If an executor has also moved, their address in the Will will be out of date. This does not affect the validity of the appointment, but keeping records current helps avoid unnecessary confusion during probate.
• Location of the Will. If your Will is stored at home and you have moved, confirm its new location. If it is held with a solicitor or will writer, notify them of your change of address so that correspondence reaches you.
• Guardians for children. A house move sometimes reflects a significant life change - a new area, a new school, a new set of circumstances. It is worth considering whether the people named as guardians for minor children are still the right choice given where you now live and what your life looks like.

When to update versus when to rewrite

A Will can be amended by a supplemental document called a codicil, which alters specific provisions without replacing the whole document. A codicil is signed with the same formalities as a Will - signature, date, and two witnesses.

Sometimes a codicil is suitable for a small change, but in many cases a clean new Will is safer and clearer, especially if there have been several life changes or the old Will is dated.

If your house move has prompted you to reconsider not just the address but also the underlying structure of your estate planning, use the opportunity to make a fresh Will that reflects your circumstances as they actually are now - not as they were when the original was signed.