PLease Help

jem1961

Hi everyone happy new year, I need your help please, my mother passed away on boxing day and the infighting has started already.
My mother in her wisdom decided to make all 3 children executors as well as 3 equal beneficiries.
Do we all have to agree to a price for the house to be sold at or would a majority do. many thanks for your help.

thorsoak

Call in three estate agents, get sale valuations from them all - and take the average as the starting place.

It's not a case of the executors deciding upon the value of the house: it is the actual value at the date of death that is important so you need the input of surveyors/estate agents - especially if there is the likelihood of disputes in the family.

dzug1

But when the house actually comes to be sold you will all have to agree that a particular offer is acceptable. Value for probate is (or can be anyway) irrelevant

BobQ

dzug1 wrote: »

But when the house actually comes to be sold you will all have to agree that a particular offer is acceptable. Value for probate is (or can be anyway) irrelevant

True. It might help if you could agree beforehand to some method of making that decision that you all agree upon. If one person holds out for a higher amount the others need to point out the ongoing costs of keeping the house vs the availability of a buyer willing to proceed

It re-affirms my faith in human nature that a week afterwards (perhaps before she is buried) in fighting has broken out over money. My friends family took just 2 hours to start bickering about his valuables, so your family is doing much better.

amersall

Sorry for your loss.
There is nothing worse than death and money, wait for the greedy ones to keep the house at a high price so it does not sell for over a year as happened with my family when my Mum passed away, people show their true colours in these situations.
One brother tried to buy the house cheaply and still wanted his "inheritance".

jem1961

Many thanks for your help we were supposed to have a meeting today to clear the air but we can't even agree when and where, its going to be a long year.

getmore4less

One approach is the put up or shut up the ones that think its worth more buy it at the best offer and keep anything they get over that taking over all costs at the same time,

G6JNS

jem1961 wrote: »

Many thanks for your help we were supposed to have a meeting today to clear the air but we can't even agree when and where, its going to be a long year.

How about putting it up for auction?

rheme

jem1961 wrote: »

Hi everyone happy new year, I need your help please, my mother passed away on boxing day and the infighting has started already.
My mother in her wisdom decided to make all 3 children executors as well as 3 equal beneficiries.
Do we all have to agree to a price for the house to be sold at or would a majority do. many thanks for your help.

Hi Jem,

If a house sale is involved then this would suggest that you need to apply for probate as Executors.

In putting the house value down on the probate forms then it might be sensible to enter a higher value to take into consideration taxation (think it is capital gains tax) should the house sale take some time to sell (for whatever reason e.g. family issues/opinions, slow house market) and the house market moves in an upward direction. It doesn't matter if the house sells for less than the figure on the probate form.

If probate is required then do not sell the house until you have obtained the Grant of Probate. This doesn't take very long.

Have been through this process in the recent past and talked to a solicitor who gave us invaluable advice/information, did a lot of the leg work and stopped us making mistakes. Yes, it costs money but then all this comes out of the estate. You can do probate yourselves however for us to have done that then we (the Executors) would have had to take a days holiday and travel out of town to swear probate rather than a 10 minute drive up the road.

Good luck.

g6jns_2

Putting the wrong value on the probate application is very bad advice. It should be as accurate as possible. Deliberately putting a false value is an offence.

Savvy_Sue

g6jns wrote: »

Putting the wrong value on the probate application is very ba advice. It should be as accurate as possible. Deliberately putting a false value is an offence.

The difficulty is in deciding the 'right' value at the date of death. We've had valuations for marketing of between £235k to £350k. We've put the higher figure on the probate form, but recognise that could be challenged for CGT purposes.

Ultimately it's worth what someone will pay for it, but until you sell it you don't know how much that is! If work needs doing between date of death and date of sale, then hopefully it's worth more when you sell it than on the date of death.

You could pay for a professional valuation for probate purposes - although some estate agents will do this for free, so it's worth asking.