Buying out sibling share of inherited house

-taff · 12 January 2020 at 2:12PM

If you leave the property empty it's going to keep costing you money, in council tax and utility bills. You usually get a period of six months with regards to the council tax but some councils impose up to 200% council tax if a property is left empty.

If you're prepared to be a landlord [ not a light undertaking or at least not to me a light undertaking but then I'm thinking worse case scenario as my family had been well and truly burned in the past] then have at it.
The issue with Brexit hanging over us at the moment may also have an impact on buying/selling.
Plus if you keep it you'll probably need to spend money updating it and if you have FTB status, you'll lose that.

Personally, I'd sell because I don't want to be a landlord. But that's me.

p00hsticks · 12 January 2020 at 2:13PM

lookstraightahead wrote: »

I suppose there's no mortgages where you can just leave it empty for a while before selling it either if we did it up.

Just leaving a property empty can be very expensive - insurance will be costly and difficult to find, and require frequent checks on the property, council tax will likely double after a year or two, and you have an increase risk of squatters or breakins.

lookstraightahead wrote: »

I'm just so scared of selling low (I've done it three times - a flat in London, a terrace in the Home Counties and then the house when I divorced) all of which over time went up in value so much. If we use all of our inheritance and put it into a house where we actually live, it wont increase as much. Maybe &#55358;&#56614;!♀️

If you're not going to be living in the property, then you'll be paying Capital Gains Tax on any increase in value when you come to sell, which will eat into any profit.

Whereas if you actually live in a house as your main residence for the entire time you own it then there's no CTG, so even if it doesn't go up as much you may end up better off.

lookstraightahead · 12 January 2020 at 7:30PM

Thank you all - lots to think about.

JayRitchie · 12 January 2020 at 9:49PM

getmore4less gives great advice above. Are you likely to be in the north long term or might you want or need to move back to the South? I could absolutely think of circumstances where i would keep hold of the house, make the improvements and rent it out - but I don't think I would look to buy at a huge cost elsewhere while I was doing so.