valuation property and contents

charb56

how thorough does the valuation have to be?
for a property in greater london estimate around £500,000 should it be by estate agent or formal valuaer/surveyor?
and for the contents, how detailed?
are the probate valuers that do both property and belongings reliable for IHT , and whats the cost?

thanks!

Yorkshireman99

For an estate that is going to attract IHT it is essential to get a paid for valuation by a RICS or similarly qualified surveyor. Estate agents will not do. The surveyor will negotiate with the Valuation Office. For the contents it is less straightforward and depends on what avluables there are.

charb56

for contents, just ikea type furniture but expensive mirror, chandelier and pictures so they will need valuing, clothes/books etc I don't know but wouldn't think anything individually was worth over £500

Yorkshireman99

charb56 wrote: »

for contents, just ikea type furniture but expensive mirror, chandelier and pictures so they will need valuing, clothes/books etc I don't know but wouldn't think anything individually was worth over £500

Unless you know the books are valuable just put a nominal sum of £250 for those and the clothes likewise things like kitchen utensils crockery etc.

Dr_Crypto

As per Yorkshireman's usual very helpful advice, we did the same.

The house was valued by a RICS surveyor who produced a detailed report which we sent to HMRC. Don't know if it has been accepted yet as it only went in last month. It cost about £250 which we thought was reasonable.

We asked HMRC about the contents. They were very helpful. They are only interested in individual items worth over £500. Remember that it is the value of the item as it is (i.e. second hand) not the new or replacement insurance value. Very few items are actually worth over £500 second hand, apart from jewelry, watches, and genuine antiques. For everything else they just want an aggregated value which is unlikely to be more than a few thousand even for a larger house as second hand furniture, white goods, etc are largely worthless.

Remember if you are donating items to charity you can claim IHT relief on these. Keep a list and get a receipt from the charity. It goes on form IHT408. We did this for the items from my old man's house that we weren't keeping.