probate house sale

kazzieg

Afternoon all

After a bit of advise if possible. Aunt passed away last year and other aunt has applied for and received probate. Fast forward to today. Middle aunts property has an agreed sale of just over £100,000, the solicitor has mentioned that eldest aunt applies for something to help with the income from the property sale? She has cleared off all bills except for house sale cost with estate agent and solicitors. Whatever he was talking to her about has mentioned it will cost around £400 to apply for! Aunt is retired and only has state pension and private pension income. She is also planning on dividing out the house sale funds to various family members as she was the only person named in the will.

Can anybody point us in the direction as to what this would be and if so would it be a good thing to do

Any help greatly appreciated.

getmore4less

Ask the aunt or solicitor what is going on, anything else us speculation.

kazzieg

getmore4less wrote: »

Ask the aunt or solicitor what is going on, anything else us speculation.

She has told me the above today. We are both struggling to find out what the solicitor maybe talking about.

getmore4less

Ask them what and why.

missbiggles1

I think s/he might be talking about a Deed of Variation.

https://www.gov.uk/alter-a-will-after-a-death

http://www.probaters.com/probate-explained/varying-a-will/

Crabapple

Like missbiggles says, I suspect the document may be a Deed of Variation. It would formalise the distribution of the estate if your Aunt wants to divide the money between the family.

That said, if she doesn't have many assets of her own, there may be no particular advantage. If she has assets over or close to the Inheritance Tax threshold then it would mean she could avoid adding all the £100k to her Estate as well.

The £400 should come from the Estate though, she shouldn't need to find the money up front.

kazzieg

Thanks for all advise.

Aunt is only on old age pension and private pension. She lives in a rented property. Just wondered if it was viable to pay out the £400 if it would affect any income/tax?

getmore4less

could waste of money if it is a DOV. and there is no future IHT to save

if the Aunt is getting any benefits it will be a deprivation of assets, as a gift or a DOV.

Tuesday_Tenor

No one can answer your question until you have established exactly what it is that the solicitor is proposing. If you aunt doesn't understand it, she needs to go back and ask for a clearer explanation.

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The following MAY aid your understanding and help you ask the right questions:

If the estate value of Aunt1 is less than £325,000 then there is no inheritance tax to pay on it.

If Aunt2 is concerned that receiving her inheritance (?say £150,000?) from Aunt1 is going to make her own estate worth more than £325,000 when she dies, then a Deed of Variation, to vary the will now, may be helpful to redistribute the assets elsewhere. The estate of Aunt1 would pay for the Deed of Variation. (Typically a DoV would cost about £400, that's why people think it might be what's being proposed).

But if Aunt2 is well below the IHT threshold of £325,000 anyway then there will be no IHT to pay on her estate either. So no point doing a Deed of Variation at all.

When she has received her inheritance Aunt2 can give gifts to whoever she likes. But make sure she keeps sufficient for her own possible future care needs. It can cause problems if she needs care, expects the state to pay, but has given away substantial assets. (Google 'deprivation of assets').