My younger brother and I equally own a buy-to-let house. I would like to sell it, but he would not, and he would like to take over my 50% share. At the moment, he is not financially stable but he could easily afford the interest-only repayments of the £400,000 mortgage. It is valued at around £700,000 and was purchased for £360,000. Personally, I would have to pay the higher rate of capital gains tax (CGT) and if I could gift it to my brother, my parents have agreed to pay me cash, so I would not be out of pocket. What do you think is the best way forward? 

Arthur Weller replies:  

If you trust your brother, you could sell to him now and wait for him to pay you. You could get the solicitor to draw up a proper legal agreement, giving you a charge on the property until you are paid in full. Or maybe your parents could guarantee the sale, or even pay you now, similar to what you yourself have written. However, because he is your brother, even if you gift it to him for no consideration, you are deemed to sell to him at today’s market value of £700,000 for CGT purposes, so you will be making a large capital gain. This is unavoidable.