My friend's father has died. In his will, he left his property to his son, who wants to transfer the property into his mother's name, as she is elderly. Can he gift it to her, and if so, what is the procedure please?

Arthur Weller replies:
Your friend can gift the property to his mother, and ordinarily someone gifting a property does so through a solicitor. However, the obvious question to ask here is why does he want to gift it to her? She can live in it just as well without gifting the property to her. If he does gift the property to her, it will be included in her estate, and this may trigger some inheritance tax when she dies. Maybe your friend is thinking of his mother benefiting from principal private residence relief from capital gains tax if she owns the property and lives in it until she dies