Property left to charity, Wanting to purchase...

Splitty93

Hello, I have recently heard that a property could be coming on to the market. The owner who has unfortunately passed away and has left the property to a charity. The house is in need of drastic modernisation, which is what I am after. I've not come across this situation before, having spoken to a few people, some say the property may not even come onto the open market and could be snapped up by someone in touch with the solicitor etc.
Will the solicitor have to offer it to the open market to achieve the best price, therefore the most money for the charity? Or does the depend on situation to situation?
As this only happened last month, does anyone know the expected time scale?
Thanks in advance for your advice

davidmcn

The solicitor doesn't have to do anything - it's up to the charity what they do with the property they've inherited. Has anyone even said they'll be selling it? There are thousands of charities, all run in their own way, so I doubt there's any "normal" answer to your queries - though I wouldn't waste much time on this unless it actually comes on the market.

G_M

The Executer of the will (who may or may not be a solicitor) has a legal duty to achieve the best price possible.

Indeed, there have been cases (lasting years and costing £00,000s) where a charity named in the will has claimed they received less than they should have due to a property being under-sold.

But there is no definition of how the Executer achieves the 'best price'. The same happens when banks repossess following mortgage arrears, and then sell.

Obviously if it was sold, without marketing, to a 'mate', the Executer would leave himself wide open to legal action.

An auction is seen as a fair way to sell, with the property clearly going to the highest bidder. Typically with properties needing renovation.

Traditional estate agents are also clearly a fair way to achieve a market price.

as for timescales, Probate can take a couple of weeks or a couple of years, and the property cannot be sold till then.

Speak to the Executer.

edit: good point david - the property may simply be transferred into the charity's name. They may then choose to use the property to house abused foreign donkeys.

The donkeys won't care about modernising the property.....

GaggingOrder

Unless it's been left to a charity that is in the business of renting out property to raise money, they will want to cash it in quick. They can't do much with bricks and mortar to help their beneficiaries, but can use the cash. As long as they're not massively under selling they're unlikely to want to sit on it for months holding out for a top price.

ThePants999

Well I would, if I were running the charity and I thought the month would help. This is an unexpected windfall, not required to fund current projects, so if a month's delay in liquidising it raises additional funds, I'd be all for it.

AnotherJoe

It also depends if the house has been left to the charity, or the value of the house has been left to the charity, who will be selling it. I wouldn't hold your breath.

FWIW is it not executor rather than executer G-M ?

I'd have thought an executer would deal with buyers with extreme prejudice ...

G_M

AnotherJoe wrote: »

FWIW is it not executor rather than executer G-M ?

I'd have thought an executer would deal with buyers with extreme prejudice ...

OP did not say how the property owner died......

(but if we're being picky on spelling, can I point out I'm G_M, not G-M?)

AnotherJoe

touch!! (and that is indeed a law of pointing out speeling mistooks )

^^^^^ double law it seems, the forum wont let me put the accent in replaces it with an "!"

davidmcn

AnotherJoe wrote: »

touch!! (and that is indeed a law of pointing out speeling mistooks )

^^^^^ double law it seems, the forum wont let me put the accent in replaces it with an "!"

The forum assumes that anyone using an accent must be a devious spamming foreigner, hence the problems with posters referring to their fianc!e.

(also you can't refer to your feline companion as your !!!!!, or discuss properties in S!!!!horpe)

G_M

davidmcn wrote: »

The forum assumes that anyone using an accent must be a devious spamming foreigner, hence the problems with posters referring to their fianc!e.

(also you can't refer to your feline companion as your !!!!!, or discuss properties in S!!!!horpe)

On a related topic, there's a major London hospital that uses similar censorship on its email system.

Medical staff cannot refer in their emails to eg p*n*s or even br**st.......

moneyistooshorttomention

AnotherJoe wrote: »

It also depends if the house has been left to the charity, or the value of the house has been left to the charity, who will be selling it.
...

I see your point but...

Presumably the donee has got similar words to those in my own will? - ie to effect of "all my estate is left to charity x - apart from my jewellery".

The thought has crossed my mind that that means the charity concerned could decide they want to keep the house for some reason (it's been left to an environmental charity - and they might think my garden is a good example of how a garden should be from an environmental pov by the time I've finished getting it the way I want:)). But I'm expecting that they will be selling the house - with the intention of it getting the best price possible - and then using the money for whatever environmental project they have in mind next.

Really the only reason a charity would want to keep the house itself would be if they were after offices for themselves or it was the type of charity that dealt with rehousing vulnerable people and they thought it would be a suitable house for that. Both of which are very unlikely scenarios.