A very long, despairing post

FatVonD

Gingernutty wrote: »

:(:(:(

"Dad never wanted the children to go homeless" - I think that one was bullet point number 5.

They aren't being made homeless, their parents are being given a sizeable deposit to buy a home in an area they can afford.

Gingernutty wrote: »

:(:(:(

Brother 2 surprised me by waking up and agreeing with me - it fact he even came up with a cute little compromise..:) - sell the house first, pay off the debts and fees, split the residue and Brother 1 can move back into the flat and work to build up a good deposit.

How is that a compromise, isn't that what brother 1 wanted all along? Minus you being on the deeds, of course, and him saving for a deposit (like that's ever going to happen!)

At the end of the day you don't have to do anything that varies from the 3 way split. If bother 2 is wealthy enough to be able to invest part of his share in housing brother 1 in the style to which he has become accustomed then tell him you'll take your third share (in its entirety) from the sale of the house and he can take your share of the investment in the flat in addition to his own.

I can't actually believe you're no sooner to getting this settled, this is probably the only sizeable chunk of money you're ever going to get and you are letting them walk all over you, contact the solicitor put your foot down and tell him you won't accept any alternative arrangements and that's that.

londonsurrey

At least he will now be told. You've got the solicitor, the law and the tax man to tell him. No wild pie in the sky promises from him. You just want to get it done, and he can stop demanding money to fund his weird ideas. The man has a cheek. If he wants his ideas to work, he can use HIS money and resources.

He's not a little boy, wrangling money out of his parents. He has to do what the rest of us do, which is work out what we can do with our own money. Actually, people who try to use other people's money to fund schemes that these other people have no interest in, tend to have unflattering labels in society, and these are his siblings that he's trying to do it to.

TheConways

I think you or Bro2 need a one-on-one phone call wi Bro1. Keep it short, your message concise: "Brother, this has now dragged on for four months. You are taking the p*ss. Not content with living rent free for 20years, which should have enabled you to build up a sizeable deposit, you are now actively threatening the financial stability of your siblings. Time to man up, face reality, and either buy us out of our share of the flat promptly and sell the house, or sell both properties. We have 400k to pay in IHT by the end of September, remember."

Do NOT reason here, you need to assert your position. Reasoning will let him wriggle. I would use an incentive and a pressure also to ensure you mean business.

"If you agree to this plan, we will reduce our solicitors costs by thousands saving us all money. If you do not, brother 2 and I will hold you personally responsible for additional interest owed to HMRC, and all solicitor costs from the end of August onwards until this situation is resolved. If necessary, i am prepared to use legal means to evict you fro the property which is not rightfully yours to live in as per the wishes of Dad's will"

I cannot emphasise enough how important that it is to get the incentive and pressure right and follow through on it. You need Bro2's buy in also. You might even want to appoint your own solicitor with your interests at heart.

Once againm do not reason! This will give him room to manoeuvre. Just assert your position with your incentive and pressure.

Ps. My company paid me to go on an excellent training course on this recently which taught different styles to manage different situations. Asserting is the toughest one, but very applicable in this situation.

FatVonD

Gingernutty wrote: »

:(:(:(

Ranging from "this time in five years, we'll be rich"

The property could increase in value dramatically in 5 years but that will be off no use to you as brother 1 won't move out so he'll just be sitting on it.

If you allow yourself to be bulldozed into agreeing (which I think you're going to, I really must stop reading this thread as it's making me angry now!) at the very least you should have an agreement signed whereby brother 1 pays you say, 20%, (if that' the amount of the flat you own) of the current market rental (as agreed by a lettings agent) so you have an income from your money and that if the rental falls into arrears at any point you have the right to force the sale.

Gingernutty

I suspect the five years thing is about the capital gains taper relief that Brother 1 is convinced is still running at 40%.

As I told him in my last email, capital gains tax is running at about 18% and the taper relief thing was abolished in 2008.

There's now no financial advantage to waiting for 5 years before selling to avoid capital gains - in fact, his share is not subject to capital gains as the house is his main residence.

TheConways

How's it going, Gingernutty? Best of luck on this one!

Gingernutty

Okay.

FatVonD, you're probably going to get really really annoyed.....

Brother 1 didn't realise that the laws on capital gains had changed and agrees while the tax is relatively low, it would be a good idea to shift the properties as soon as they are ready to sell.

However, we need cash. Like proper cash in our hands to pay the solicitors, the surveyors, the valuers and fees.

So, we've agreed to rent out the flat for a short six month let in order to get cash into the account so that everyone and everything can be paid.

Brother 1 will finish what he started on the house and both brothers are paying my share as well as their own for the £13,000 fee to be paid on 3rd September.

Yes, the 3rd not the 30th. The solicitor surprised us all by asking for the first inheritance tax instalment 'up front' - there is not enough in the account under the solicitor's control so we had to stump up to get the whole ball rolling.

It's still not ideal, but the properties are in a highly desirable part of London, so the prices are going to go up.

We will get there eventually.

FatVonD

Gingernutty wrote: »

Okay.

FatVonD, you're probably going to get really really annoyed.....

Okay, that's it, just give me your address and I'll be round to bang your heads together

Gingernutty

I have just received an email from Brother 1's wife telling me 'politely' to back off.

I'm putting too much pressure on them and there have been dire medical consequences.

As far as she knew there was going to be 5 years in the house and we've "u-turned" on our "agreement" made at the solicitors.

And she's not going to go into any other correspondence on the matter so there's no point replying.

I forwarded it to Brother 2 instead. Pffft! :mad:

FatVonD

What the heck has it got to do with her, she's not even a beneficiary??!

Tell her you will instruct the solicitor directly with your wishes.