Probate valuation of contents

jojo1974

Sadly I am acting as executor and main beneficiary for my step fathers estate.

I have been asked by the solicitor to get a valuation of the house contents for probate which I now have but I am completely confused what happens now.

There is nothing of great value with the most expensive item around £50. I know if I or the other beneficiary want the item then the market value is deducted from our portion of the estate, however what happens if none of us want it. Do I have to get the price shown on the valuation or for example if Mrs X offers me £25 instead of £50 can I accept that?

Thanks I'm advance for any help.

nom_de_plume

Generally, most people seem to put in a nominal sum of around £100 for the contents and this appears to be acceptable to HMRC. The exceptions would be if there are items of any real value such as antiques, etc. and perhaps put a bit more thought into the valuation if the estate will be subject to inheritance tax.

If you do not suceed in obtaining the valuations of specific items when sold, there is the facility for a corrective account to be submitted but, in the example you give, the solicitor's fees for submitting one would likely outweigh any gains but it's certainly worth doing for bigger sums if inheritance tax applies to the estate as the overpayment can be clawed back.

PasturesNew

There's little value ... and one thing I wish I'd thought of sooner (didn't think of it for 2 years) was to ask the deceased's siblings if there was any momento they wanted.... it just didn't occur to me at all.

getmore4less

There are two things

1. IHT

If that is in play then you need to be more accurate but even then unless you are widly out it won't be an issue,
all HMRC care about is are they getting the the TAX if NO HMRC it does not matter.

Distribution.

This is down to how picky people want to be on doing the numbers.

In most cases most of the stuff is not worth trying to get the money for you can't claim your time to ebay/sell stuff so it is down to the relevent benifitiaries.

Do they want stuff or are they prepared to put the effort in to dispose to raise funds. have a chat and see what thye want to do.


Value everything at nothing and if more than one person wants it then you could let them bid for the item off the estate they will get a bit back anyway

rheme

Have recently been through this and remember that the valuations you put on items for probate should be second hand resale value.

Good idea to sell items that are saleable through Preloved or Gumtree. Put the price a bit higher than you really want as people will talk you down. It is easier to come down than to go up.

It is surprising what people buy.