Valuation of household effects

cavyslave

Do I need to get a professional valuer in for my late BIL's house contents for probate purposes? Although he had a property and savings quite frankly he lived very frugally and there is nothing of any value in the property except perhaps a leather 3 piece suite that he had only recently purchased prior to his death.

Yorkshireman99

cavyslave wrote: »

Do I need to get a professional valuer in for my late BIL's house contents for probate purposes? Although he had a property and savings quite frankly he lived very frugally and there is nothing of any value in the property except perhaps a leather 3 piece suite that he had only recently purchased prior to his death.

No need to do so. Modern secondhand furniture has very little value. Unless the estate is near or over the IHT threshold then a few hundred pounds for the contents will be fine. You may need a paid for professional valuation for the property so that a there is a realistic base for any future CGT calculations.

[Deleted User]

When my father died the solicitor wasn't interested in anything other than the car and the house. He arranged for an estate agent to value the house, but there was no professional valuation of the car. I don't remember after 28 years, but I think we must have just guessed the value between us.

District Valuer was pretty hot on house value though. The estate agent valued the house at £72.5k, but tried putting in a value of £70k as it was only for inheritance tax purposes. The DV put it back up to £72.5k.

cavyslave

Thank you. He was 93 years old so didn't have a car or anything else of value. To be honest it's going to cost me more to get rid of the stuff than it's worth. Probably going to need about 10 skips!

Savvy_Sue

As soon as you're sure there's nothing there you want, I cannot recommend professional house clearance services highly enough! And can give you a recommendation for the Reading area.

it wasn't cheap, but was worth every penny ...

TBagpuss

The only reason you might need to do it would be if you know there is a beneficiry who is likely to make trouble! And even then, photos of the house before you clear it might well be enough.

But generally speaking, no not necessary and not proportionate to spemnd money from the state in getting it done.

getmore4less

If you have the time to be at the place you may be surprised at how much you can clear using freecycle type places.

upcycling old stuff is on trend and the new sofa will be snapped up if no one you know want it, the charity shops may be interested is some bits.