Gifting A Rented House To A Spouse

If a man wants to gift a house to his wife, the procedure that will have to be adopted is that the wife has to take complete possession of the house by which she will become the sole owner of the property. The bestower (husband) has to mention to the recipient (wife) of the gift that “I am giving this house to you as a gift” and the recipient (wife) has to formally accept the gift and take physical possession.

After the acceptance of the gift, In the case of immovable assets such as a house, property etc, physical possession would take place by the husband emptying all his personal belongings from that particular immovable asset and then handing over the keys and total control to the wife. Once completion of the gift takes place, the recipient (wife) can permit the bestower (husband) to live in the house and bring back his belongings as well.

In the case of a house that is being used by the couple and it would be difficult for the husband to remove his belongings while gifting the house to his wife, an alternative way would be that the husband sells the house to his wife for a nominal sum, which she will in turn accept as an offer of sale and pay the purchase price. By adopting this procedure, the complication of removing his belongings from the house will be avoided as that is necessary in a gift transaction and not in a sale transaction. This should also be documented with two witnesses attesting to it.

If a person wants to gift a house to his wife that is currently being rented out, then he should wait for the tenants to vacate the property before handing over physical possession to his wife. Alternatively, our advice is that the sale route should be adopted as explained above; that the husband should sell the house to his wife at a nominal sum. This is because it is not possible to hand over the keys and possession/total control of the house whilst it is occupied by a tenant. In the latter scenario, it is not necessary for the tenant to vacate the property. Now the rent that is acquired from the property will belong to the wife because she is now the owner of the property.