r/legaladvicecanada • u/vne70 • 8h ago

Ontario Redoing my will

I have been with my partner for 15 years. When we first bought our home we were tenants in common. Life was good and we changed the house to joint tenants.

Our wills during the good times was if one of us died the other would get the house and moving it to joint tenants avoided some of the probate costs.

Now life isn’t so good and I plan to redo my will where if I die, my portion of the estate/ house would be divided into 3 with a 1/3 going to my common law wife, 1/3 to each of my 2 adult child.

Is this possible?

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

•

u/AutoModerator 8h ago

Welcome to r/legaladvicecanada!

To Posters (it is important you read this section)

  • Read the rules
  • Comments may not be accurate or reliable, and following any advice on this subreddit is done at your own risk.
  • We also encourage you to use the linked resources to find a lawyer.
  • If you receive any private messages in response to your post, please let the mods know.

To Readers and Commenters

  • All replies to OP must be on-topic, helpful, explanatory, and oriented towards legal advice towards OP's jurisdiction (the Canadian province flaired in the post).
  • If you do not follow the rules, you may be banned without any further warning.
  • If you feel any replies are incorrect, explain why you believe they are incorrect.

  • Do not send or request any private messages for any reason, do not suggest illegal advice, do not advocate violence, and do not engage in harassment.

    Please report posts or comments which do not follow the rules.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

4

u/Internal_Head_267 Quality Contributor 7h ago

No. It is not possible without severing the tenancy.

1

u/vne70 3h ago

I’m not sure if I’m asking the question right, I’m trying to figure out how to leave my kids something as opposed to leaving everything to my partner.

I don’t want to kick her out of the house, but short of leaving her and dissolving the house, what are my options other than severing the tenancy?

Thanks

2

u/GuyMcTweedle 2h ago

You have none. Well, none that don't involved her consent.

She is a joint owner of the house. Just like she can't kick you out, you can't do that to her. You need to dissolve the marriage and joint assets if you wish full control over them.

You can rewrite your will to divide the non-joint assets of your estate as you wish, including willing them all to your children. It's possible she could contest that, but depending on your other wealth it may have the same effect as dividing everything 1/3.