House left in will

Craftercrazey

This is my first ever post please bare with me.
I am one of 12 people who are beneficiaries of a will. Some money has been distributed already but the only thing left to sort is the property which is part of the estate. It was put on the market but did not sell and now has a tennent in. The executor wants to put the property in his name(he s not a beneficiary) and one of the beneficiaries, to sell it.
He has said that no more than four pople can sell one property, we have twelve as beneficiaries. He has been in contact with the land registry and is taking on doing the transferring himself as the solicitor was not progressing quick enough.
Is this statement true, Could there be any other alternatives?

mark55man

I think you are right to be concerned althoughthe legal obligations on the executor to realise maximum value are quite strong.

Although the executor is probably just trying to do stuff that gets it all sorted as quickly as possible, this does seem on the surface to be unusual

hope you get some advice that's more informed. are you a part of any legal helpline schemes eg with your insurance, with your work/union/association - they would be better to ask to get a bit of reassurance.

You should be asking about what is the worst that can happen - although I am not sure as a beneficiary you have any influence over the executor as that is kind of the point

Better_Days

When there have been distributions from the estate has this been done via a solicitor? If so could you just ring them up and ask them?

getmore4less

There needs to be some though put into this

He has no right to the property.
Why can't it remain in the will trust and continue to be administered from there?

I don't think he should be putting the house into his name

Where there are more than 4 owners a trust needs to be set up.

There are potential tax issues if the profit from the rental is to be distributed to the benifitiaries

a house will always sell if the price is right.

Is the executor a proffesional that can charge?

What did the will actualy say?

It may be that the executors are restricted in the actions they can take like not be able to rent it out.

what do the benifitiaries actualy want to happen?

DVardysShadow

I am thinking that the executor has no real need to transfer the property out of the estate of the deceased. As I see it, the executor's options are to

• transfer the house to the beneficiaries, who must sort out any sale or renting out for themselves
• sell it from the estate of the deceased

In either case, it is job done. If the executor has not transferred the property to all the beneficiaries, then the argument about the number of registered owners does not apply. And if he has already transferred it, then it is no longer for him to be involved. So either way, he should not transfer the property to himself plus one beneficiary.

If he does go ahead with his plan, you could consider putting a unilateral notice on the LandReg that the property is not actually the property of the executor and 1 beneficiary. This will tend to complicate any sale but will put solicitors in a position where they need to address the ownership as part of the selling process.

It is true that the LandReg will only put the house in the names of up to 4 people AIUI. But this does not preclude more people actually owning it and AFAICS, this should not hinder a sale.

ognum

The executor should not transfer the property

The will trust should be the landlord and the trust will be responsible for the tax on rental payments, payment of landlord insurance etc. Otherwise if the executor is a high rate tax payer then you will be paying 40% tax on your rental income!

Richard_Webster

The executor only need sot produce the grant of probate in order to sell the property - he doesn't have to register it in his name - which if nothing else wastes an unnecessary Land Registry Fee.

G_M

As Richard says there is absolutely no need for the property to be put in the Executer's name.

What does this achieve? Nothing.

The property will sell if priced right. If there are tenants there, though, the Executer will either have to evict them (legally!), or sell to another landlord. Again, selling to a landlord will involve accepting a llower price.