Liabilities when possessing a house are always there when you own a property. Usually, adults are known to have the capacity in buying a house, provided that they have jobs where they can afford to buy one or qualify for mortgages. For us adults, we always have the idea that we are privileged to purchase something because we are capable of having it, or better yet because of our understanding of legal bases for owning a house because we are the “right” age already.
Yet, you might not know it, but owning properties or houses is not only limited to adults who can afford to buy them. Contrary to the popular notion that only adults can have a house, interestingly in Australia, minors are also allowed to have so under their name. May it be made in presents or passed over to a younger generation as an inheritance, minors can have assets as much as adults can. Hence, even if a child was just born, they are entitled to having properties under Australian law.
To be able to help children own property under the legal age, here are ways where they can own such properties:
1. Buying a property for your children
We may be unaware of it, but we can give children properties other than toys. By then, you may purchase a title under their name already, but still with the proper notations on the title. However, as minors, they cannot manage the property themselves; parents or the ones gifting them the property must be the one managing it. By the time they become 18 years old, you may have the necessary title change, provided that the child is still alive and you just ought to submit evidence to your region’s property departments, and don’t forget the birth certificate of your child as well.
2. Trust
You may also opt to buy a property under a minor’s name using a trust and the parents will be the trustee of the trust. When they reach the legal age and are old enough, you can pass the trust completely to your children, provided that they already know how to handle the house and how to use it. Yet, if you still have doubts about it, you can still have a little control over the house you’re entrusting, so that you can have a say when they borrow against the property for future investments. Therefore, parents can have ample strategies to avoid their children having a spending spree over the house they have been entrusted with, and there’s a lot of flexibility when it comes to handing over properties under their name using a trust.
Nonetheless, it is worth noting that properties are still not exempted from taxes and various fees – your region’s tax department will have its share of capital gains tax and stamp duty as well, and children might not be eligible to even pay it themselves, or less understand where these taxes apply and go. Hence, parents or those wanting to have minors have their share of property have created ways to lessen such taxes, or much more, not even pay a single penny for tax at all (still depends on your region’s property laws).
Furthermore, the main point is that minors, though not knowledgeable about properties yet, can own a house under their name; yet parents or guardians must be there to manage such homes, in a way that it is well taken care of and fees are paid as well.
