the house

getmore4less

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

Though you as as beneficiary have no real standing in law for at least the first 12 months after the death, the executors are trustees from the moment of death.
This legal role requires to take advice if needed and maximise the value of the estate, even if it is to their personal disadvantage.

In practice the executors should should be guided by what the benificiaries want(not always easy when there are loads) and when there are 2 that may want the same thing like a quick sale then the executors should be happy to get them to sign they accept any offers.

Speculatevly spending money from the estate is a risky business.

Also the inaction for 4months when the benificiaries want to move things forward re house content/clearing is beging to be negligent.

as probate has allready be granted inventory and valuations are done it is disposal and collections time no reason to delay making progress.

edit:
One thing executors don't need to do is spend hours oftheir own free time trying to get an extra £1 for things by ebay and car boots, houe clearence firm or all to an auction is good enough.

John_Pierpoint

I know people who have paid paid 4 figures for the clearance of a terraced home; I guess it depends where you live - don't forget commercial organisations have to pay considerable sums for disposal, plus land fill tax.

In one of my more recent efforts, I was given a long weekend between exchange and completion ( a long story) somehow the buyers were not very sympathetic to find a large pile of glowing embers in the rear garden on the day they move in.;)

I have also found out that the "I was always promised the picture of sails in the sunset" caused the lasting bad feeling, when some house clearance man gets paid to take the stuff away away. I don't want to sound sexist but there is more to clearing a house than just logically minimising the cost in time and money.
By going carefully through everything you never quite know what you might find - in my case it was the penny policy of the deceased's sister, cashed in for £25, found while trying to document photographs of long lost relatives, that had already survived at least one previous probate, plus some photographs and documentation worth very considerably more.

One of the fellows running this "Flogit" venue, came round and was very frank in explaining how the system worked for people who just gave them carte blanche to clear the property.

http://www.wellersauctions.com/findus.php

Don't forget that the Government needs to spend 45% of our money these days.

edsjad

thank you more for less and john pierpoint (is that the name of someone famous - the last hangman?) anyway, you've come up with loads of interesting stuff for me - thank you so very much; i'll try and respond to some of the things you've written.

the estate - what is left after paying for funeral and new garage doors and the bills is 5,000. obviously there will be bills still to pay from that and estate agents maybe. all relevant parties informed, including tax.

when i was down i did go through what's left of furniture with sis and more or less came to agreement about what to sell and I said i would stick most of it on ebay as way to clear it without paying for skip or transport.

we don't have funds ourselves to pay the particular payments which are 10,000 to grandson and payments of 1000 each to two male execs for their work. me and sis are left everything else. i haven't got copy of the will - just remember everything to us and things i've just mentioned but don't know wording.

me and sis agree to sell - it's when that's the problem and i suppose I'm needing to move things on cos no one else is doing anything right now but i have no rights cos not exec and doesn't help i live so far away. i am hoping that when i go down there and start cleaning sis will feel like she has some support. As i said i have suggsted turfing back garden but her oh has said no - don't really know why. he knows sweet fa about gardening. anyway, i am borrowing friends water jet machines to clean parthway and driveway - that will help i think - and it's at front and have planted some seeds for flowers for front border to take with me.

sis has gone through all papers already - i did a bit after funeral but not much - and i am pretty sure she did all the paperwork to get it through probate. house worth about 200k - commuter belt. I think my sis's OH would do the clearance/skip thing and i have made it clear to sis (and she agrees - phew) that that won't happen thank goodness. Not that there is anything of major value or anything - but it seems important. Sis did mention doing a car boot and i will see if i can instigate that. when i was down i suggested going through clothes to take to charity shop but she didn't want to. I did manage to get some kitchen stuff to charity shop - she checked it first.

Sorry if i haven't responded to all your points. All this is such a minefield - thank you so much for all your information and advice. I feel loads clearer about where i stand now. It was really freaking me out before.

getmore4less

Looks like if you and sis just keep doing what you are doing things will move along.
If sis OH is busy then a gentle reminder it's less work for him might be enough.

Issue with anything you sell or even freecycle is collections you need a plan for that.

I would look at spends carefully if in a sellable location(are houses selling?) then it may not make a lot of difference.

edsjad

Just thought i had an update. Sis has been away for a week since i last spoke to her. Phoned her today and she said she has been doing some cleaning and is planning on decorating one room! Chuffed to hear she feels able to get started on this now but a bit of me feels that she might have felt criticised by me when i talked to her about me going down and cleaning etc. Anyway, a relief things are moving in the right direction. I can't say i understand why she wants to decorate the only room that doesn't need decorating but hey ho - things are moving (sorry repeat). Still planning on going down to help - especially with front outside and selling stuff on. I first thought, as so surprised to hear how fast she was talking about doing things eg cleaning this week, decorating next, that there would be nothing left for me to do. But that actually would be fine (but unlikely) cos house would be ready to sell. thanks for all your support folks. this forum is brilliant.