Value of house contents

Miss_Marple_2

Hello - Please could someone help me. My mother died 4 weeks ago after a very short illness. I had lived with my mum for the last few years after I moved back home due to a relationship break-up, but then kind of stayed as we were such good friends.

Anyway, I am just getting figures together for probate - my brother and I are joint executors and beneficiaries. He is well place financially and is not interested in the contents of the house as he has his own house filled with lots of contents.

We are getting some people to come round and value the house, with a view to selling (the solicitor we saw when asking for advice on how to proceed with probate said that we should tell the estate agent that we are selling or else they would charge for the valuation), but I'm assuming that the house contents will need to go on the list of assets ? A lot of the contents are mine, or at least already half mine before my mum's death as we went halves on a TV and things like that. How do we go about valuing the contents ? Do we have to have an official valuer come ? There are no antiques or anything worth much, but I suppose contents do add up when taken together.

If it's relevant, we likely will sell the house eventuially s it is a bit big for me by myself, and as I will downsize, a lot of the furniture and bits and pieces will have to go into storage or be cleared.

Thanks for any advice anyone can give me.

RAS

Well, anything that was joint would probably be considered yours anyway.

Second hand furniture fetches very very little.

Anything without a fire certificate can only be binned. Anything electrical needs PAT testing. To give you a clue, the remaining contents of a 3 bedroom house sent to auction (not including white goods) fetched £1200 after the cost of removal was factored in.

We gave away loads of stuff to charities that was not worth leaving for the auction people because it would not raise the cost of transport.

Just to add there was some nice stuff in that and had I known how little it would fetch I would have held it and paid the odd £12 to keep it.

pattycake

You have my sympathy on the loss of your mother. This is a very difficult time, I know. We have recently done our own probate application for my late father. There was nothing of great value in the house and as RAS says, second hand furniture is worth virtually nothing. We too gave stuff away or it went to the tip.

My dad's house was valued by a local estate agent for free. We were intending to sell when we had probate but now my nephew is living in the house. The valuation plus savings are well below the threshold for inheritance tax. In our case, I do not think HMRC are going to be very interested in how much my dad's old bits and pieces were worth.

If your mum's estate is of a much higher value, then you will need to be more accurate with your valuations.

Trapdoor

I put a nominal sum of £1000 on probate for my mum - I didn't get a 'professional valuer' in as most just do a finger in the air value anyway, unless there is anything identifiable as having significant and/or book value ... As it happens, her stuff was worth much less than this, and factoring in the cost of the house clearance (that is happening on Friday this week) we are probably into negative figures. Clothes and linen went to charity (the RSPCA and PDSA are keen on towels and sheets) and her jewellery is being sold at auction next week with estimate for the whole lot at no more than £300. She did have 6 bottles of unopened Harvey's sherry which we sold at auction before Christmas and got £50 for!

All in all, a fairly depressing do, and I'll be glad when the house is clear and on the market.

Good luck with it, and sorry for your loss.

getmore4less

Unless there is something of value that is allready in the system from a previous inheritance so allready has a value it's normaly a guessing game

as has been said most stuff has relatively low value but supprixingly retro stuff does have a market

If you can be bothered make an inventory of stuff(that is not yours) and guess use ebay or other sites to see if stuff has value..

Bottom line is the estate going to be liable for inheritance tax.
If not then you can put a high value on and it won't matter.

If it is you need to be a little more carefull but again as has been said above most things can be consider valueless, a quote for a house clearance might even come out negative or we will do it for free.

Miss_Marple_2

Thanks for the replies everyone. We are not into inheritance tax kind of value, so I am probably worrying unnecessarily about the contents value - especially if things go for so little these days.

Thanks also for your condolences - these weeks after losing someone are hard aren't they ? It's difficult to grieve and get your head round things like probate etc.

Mojisola

Miss_Marple wrote: »

Thanks for the replies everyone. We are not into inheritance tax kind of value, so I am probably worrying unnecessarily about the contents value - especially if things go for so little these days.

Thanks also for your condolences - these weeks after losing someone are hard aren't they ? It's difficult to grieve and get your head round things like probate etc.

It is very hard but there's no need to rush to do all the paperwork - give yourself some space to grieve.

Following recent deaths in the family, the household contents have been given a nominal value of between £500 and £1000. There's no need to list individual items unless you have something of value.

Hermia

Mojisola wrote: »

It is very hard but there's no need to rush to do all the paperwork - give yourself some space to grieve.

Following recent deaths in the family, the household contents have been given a nominal value of between £500 and £1000. There's no need to list individual items unless you have something of value.

I valued the contents myself and put £500. I looked on a few forums and was advised that this is a standard figure to put in cases where the person has no antiques or expensive electricals etc.

madbadrob

With regards to the house. If you are living there and dont have another property to go to could you and your brother not come to some arangement which sees you pay him a nominal rent for the property so that you dont have to sell it unless of course he wants the money?

My sincere condolences

Rob