Probate and open market assessement help please

far2812

Hello All

MIL has sadly passed. She did not own a property so now for probate purposes we have to valued her assets.

We have taken her jewellry to a valuers - who have come back with a very low figure (in our opinion) - it states for Probate purposes only.

Is this a true reflection of the cost we would get if we sold the jewellry?

MIL left quite a few debts and we are trying to get some money together.

How do we calculate her household bits and pieces? ie crockery etc. Does that have to be included in the assets amount?

So so grateful for any help

Many thanks

RAS

We sold mum's entire house contents for £1200 and most of that was for one item of value. There were some other nice things but they acheived next to nothing.

If I had any idea how little we would get, I would have put £100 up to buy what I would have liked.

g6jns_2

far2812 wrote: »

Hello All

MIL has sadly passed. She did not own a property so now for probate purposes we have to valued her assets.

We have taken her jewellry to a valuers - who have come back with a very low figure (in our opinion) - it states for Probate purposes only.

Is this a true reflection of the cost we would get if we sold the jewellry?

MIL left quite a few debts and we are trying to get some money together.

How do we calculate her household bits and pieces? ie crockery etc. Does that have to be included in the assets amount?

So so grateful for any help

Many thanks

Values for probate are often very low and do not reflect the open market value. You need to be cautious if the estate may be insolvent. Google insolvent estate for more details. It may be worth putting the whole lot up for auction as nobody can then query the value. Give it some careful thought before proceeding further.

getmore4less

You may find the probate value is the realistic open market value,

Or acceptable value for distribution or cash injection if someone wants to keep them

the alternative is insurance value which will be a lot more.

as above decide if the estate is solvent before going to far, might be best to step back and let the creditors sort it out.

Most household contents is worth very little unless special items exist.

If a solvent estate then creditors can wait.

theoretica

You could ring the valuer and ask about sale expectations.

dzug1

Whatever you put on the probate form it's what you actually get that determines the value of the estate - so putting a high value may not actually net you any more cash and might incur you more costs.


Many household contents effectively have negative value - you have to pay someone to take them away

Mojisola

far2812 wrote: »

How do we calculate her household bits and pieces? ie crockery etc. Does that have to be included in the assets amount?

When Dad died the solicitor put down a nominal £500 for the complete contents of his four bed house and personal possessions and he said that, realistically, we'd struggle to get that if we tried to sell them.

far2812

Thanks to everyone who is trying to help.

Looks like we have to go down the insolvent route which I wanted to avoid.

Im assuming that we just write to the creditors and explain that there are no assets and no money to pay off her debts.??? Or do we need to go to court to get some agreement from the Courts?

Again grateful for any advice.

hcb42

you are not liable for the debts and there is no estate so just tell creditors that. I wouldnt do anything more, most companies are understanding IMHO