Sale of property - how are conveyancing fees etc paid?

Steamrunner

Hopefully this is quick question...

I'm administering an estate. The will has been written to distribute the assets as follows:
Flat to be split 50% / 20% / 20% / 10% between beneficiaries A, B, C & D (in that order)
Everything else to go to beneficiary A.

My question is: where do the costs of selling the property come from? All the running costs of the property (rent, bills etc) have come from the non-flat part of the estate.
Are the estate agent fees, solicitor fees etc that are purely part of the normal property-selling process dedicated from the sale of the property (again, as is normal when selling a property), or will the shortfall between the property sale price and the amount received from the sale (after the solicitor has paid the estate agent etc) have to be reimbursed from the rest of the estate? The will doesn't specifically state anything in this regard.

E.g.
If the property sells for 100,000 but fees are 10,000, is the amount to be split going to be the 90,000 or the full 100,000 (with the 10,000 being reimbursed from the rest of the estate)?


Hopefully that makes sense!

nom_de_plume

I doubt this can be answered without the precise wording of the will being known.

If the will says along the lines of 'I leave my flat to X,Y and Z' then the flat should probably be transferred to them, at the expense of the estate and then they would bear the cost of whatever they decided to do with it thereafter.

If the will says the flat should be sold and the proceeds shared then my gut feeling is that the estate should bear all the costs associated with it's sale but that's pure speculation on my part only.

Mojisola

Steamrunner wrote: »

Hopefully this is quick question...

I'm administering an estate. The will has been written to distribute the assets as follows:
Flat to be split 50% / 20% / 20% / 10% between beneficiaries A, B, C & D (in that order)
Everything else to go to beneficiary A.

My question is: where do the costs of selling the property come from? All the running costs of the property (rent, bills etc) have come from the non-flat part of the estate.

Are the estate agent fees, solicitor fees etc that are purely part of the normal property-selling process dedicated from the sale of the property (again, as is normal when selling a property), or will the shortfall between the property sale price and the amount received from the sale (after the solicitor has paid the estate agent etc) have to be reimbursed from the rest of the estate? The will doesn't specifically state anything in this regard.

As nom says - it depends on the exact wording of the will.

If you take out identifying info, you could post the relevant section here.

If any of the beneficiaries are likely to cause problems, you might be better off paying for advice from a solicitor. That bill can be paid from the estate.

madbadrob

The fact the will gives definate proportions I would believe it says sale or was intended to be sold and if that is the case all costs for the sale become debts against the estate which are then taken from the estate prior to distribution.

Correct me if I am wrong but if it was not to be sold there is no way to state legally short of a formal contract being drawn up to show the percentage of the property for each beneficiary.

Rob

getmore4less

Tenants in common does it(upto 4 people can own a property) or create a trust that holds the property with upto 4 trustees.

madbadrob

Yes I appreciate that Gm4 I was assuming no trust was created in the will which from the OP's post it doesnt seem to be. However on land registry details you dont specify the share in the property that you hold unless someone can tell me differently. Over the years I have seen them held equally but never seen percentages mentioned


Rob

Steamrunner

Ok, I've spoken to a solicitor who has confirmed that it's the net proceeds of the sale that are distributed (so whatever's left after the various conveyancing fees etc). I guess that makes sense - if there was no additional money in the estate, how could a sale be financed anyway?

To clarify, the will stated that the property was to be sold and split as stated (it's a retirement property so none of the beneficiaries would be allowed to own it anyway).