Valuation of personal effects

ferger

Simple one really: My Dad died a month ago and left a six-bedroom house packed with the collected detritus of a joint lifetime. I know that, in general, house contents are generally held to have very little open-market value - and as I wander around the house, taking photos, I'm concluding the same - with the exception of one or two things that have clear value, that have been removed, I can reasonably estimate that there are no more than a few items that would realise > £100 and a huge amount of stuff that you couldn't sell - not cost-effectively anyway.

So... what's the best approach to valuation, given that the estate will have an IHT bill? Can I rely on my own pragmatic common-sense, backed up with a photo-inventory? Or do I need to get some professional to do it, who, I suspect, will come up with much the same numbers? Do HMRC have a standard set of numbers based on house-size that define the boundaries of reasonable?

Thanks...!

GrumpyPL

Find any receipts for high-value items if they're available, if not then lookup their value online. For smaller items you usually don't need to actually tot them up - if the item value is <£25 I wouldn't bother, it's not really relevant for the purposes you need to submit the paperwork.

nom_de_plume

On an estate I dealt with recently I put a round figure of £1,000 for the entire contents. The estate was liable for Inheritance Tax so the value of the contents affected the amount payable but the figure was not questioned. That was for a 2 bedroomed property.

g6jns_2

ferger wrote: »

Simple one really: My Dad died a month ago and left a six-bedroom house packed with the collected detritus of a joint lifetime. I know that, in general, house contents are generally held to have very little open-market value - and as I wander around the house, taking photos, I'm concluding the same - with the exception of one or two things that have clear value, that have been removed, I can reasonably estimate that there are no more than a few items that would realise > £100 and a huge amount of stuff that you couldn't sell - not cost-effectively anyway.

So... what's the best approach to valuation, given that the estate will have an IHT bill? Can I rely on my own pragmatic common-sense, backed up with a photo-inventory? Or do I need to get some professional to do it, who, I suspect, will come up with much the same numbers? Do HMRC have a standard set of numbers based on house-size that define the boundaries of reasonable?

Thanks...!

The premise that household effects have little or no value is something of an urban myth. There are plenty of people making a good living out of house clearances. In the case of a six bedroom house there may well be lots of items that have a value. The problem is recognising those items if one is not an expert. My approach would be to ask a local auction house to take a look and see if there are any items they think are wroth selling.

ferger

Useful stuff guys, thanks. Does anyone have any experience (or opinion) on using organisations like this one to do all up valuation of the estate? (Found from a random Google). I ask, because one of the 'removed for safekeeping' items is a fairly extensive stamp-collection which I'm trying to find the most straightforward way of getting valued - and this org suggests that they will do so without additional cost. I'm slightly sceptical, but it does appeal...

Obviously I can go to Gibbons etc, but there is no little appeal in getting the whole lot valued for probate and IHT etc, for a fixed fee...

Pah. New users not allowed to post links... google Avery Associates if you want to see what I mean

tattycath

I once had a house clearance to sort. I initially asked someone in the house clearance business what their prices were-thinking that they would charge a nominal fee and sell on the valuable stuff and make their money that way...no! They offered to clear it for way over a grand! And they would dispose of all the stuff too! This was about 8 years ago
So myself and Mr tc did it ourselves. I wouldn't touch those clearance people with a barge pole!

pollypenny

g6jns wrote: »

The premise that household effects have little or no value is something of an urban myth. There are plenty of people making a good living out of house clearances. In the case of a six bedroom house there may well be lots of items that have a value. The problem is recognising those items if one is not an expert. My approach would be to ask a local auction house to take a look and see if there are any items they think are wroth selling.

Indeed, but try selling things yourself and it's a different kettle of fish.

My uncle was a collector of militaria and books. A buyer, supposedly honest offered us £50 for the books. It would have cost more to deliver them.

nom_de_plume

Referring back to the house clearance and valuation I carried out above, there were a number of items that could have been of some value. A couple of antiques, some jewellery plus a few other odds and end. If I had 'invested' a lot of time and effort I could perhaps have doubled or trebled the value but I could just as easily gone down the house clearance route and, quite legitimately, ended up with a zero or maybe even a negative value.

Unless there truly is a significant overall value to the contents or there are beneficiaries that are going to cause 'issues' if it's not valued carefully and professionally, I would go the simple route of putting in a sensible value that you could reasonably justify if needed.

theoretica

What are you planning to do with the stuff? If you want rid or to sell it you can and should replace the IHT figure with what it actually fetches. Many local auction houses have a house clearance offer where they provide a probate valuation and then put everything saleable into an open auction and (after their normal fees) give you the proceeds. Google house clearance auction and your area. Anything you want to keep you will need to pull out of this process.

jackyann

I agree: local, well-established auction house.

They will suggest that you seek specialist advice for any items outside their field, and make general suggestions.

It may then be that you get a house clearance company, if that is the easiest, but you will know where you stand.

It may depend on your financial situation, but you can consider donating some items to charity. Oxfam (and some other major charities) have specialists who advise.
We made the decision to donate some reasonably valuable books (we are talking a few hundred, rather than thousands!). They gave us the value to set against IHT (which we didn't need in the end). We felt that everyone benefited. It would have pleased our parents, and saved us a lot of bother, for items that would have fetched between about £500-1k. in total.

I gather that the major problem with things like stamps, books, toys etc is that value can fluctuate a lot. I also know that getting specialist auction houses to value, and accept these items can be time-consuming.
PS: this may already be obvious, but looking items up on amazon, abe, ebay etc. is very misleading indeed. Books (which I know most about) can be offered at stupidly high prices that the seller does not really expect.

Clearing a house yourself can take a fair bit of time, but is quite do-able, in chunks.