Maintenance or security?

Key points * Passing on the marital home via a nil rate discretionary trust. * Putting the house in joint names gives security. * Use of deed of variation.

THE RECENT SPECIAL Commissioner's decision in Phizackerley (SpC 591) (see Update Taxation 26 April 2007 page 452 for a short report of the case) has attracted plenty of attention in both the professional and the popular press.
The facts of the case are reasonably straightforward. They relate to the death of Dr Phizackerley a fellow of Balliol College Oxford and hereafter known as Dr P. Following his retirement in 1992 Dr P who had lived in college accommodation all his working life bought a house in Oxford which he put into the joint names of himself and his wife. Latterly they held the house as tenants in common in...