Letter of Wishes

Mojisola

Woolington wrote: »

Re. making a will, which I'll be doing soon, do you recommend NOT using Letters of Wishes? Is it more fail safe to put every instruction in a will?

Anything you definitely want to happen needs to be stated in the will.

A letter is used as an explanation for decisions made within the will or to instruct the executors to take certain actions if they can. A letter has no legal standing.

The entire contents of my Dad's 4-bed house were given a nominal value of £500 by our solicitor and he said that was an optimistic amount if they had been sold. Many people have to pay to have the house cleared because most of the furniture isn't worth anything and wouldn't sell at auction.

By the time the other beneficiaries see the amount they are arguing over, they may think again.

Woolington

On the other hand, on the basis that after tacit (or even voiced) acceptance of the arrangements, an objection was lodged long after they were set in motion, the court might take the view that the litigation was vexatious and require the complainant to pay.

aha! I wonder if this is why the legal part of it is not proceeding, we just veiled threats of it.

Along with the tacit agreement, one step sibling has already taken his choice of items from the house - so the agreement has operated as arranged, but now they've changed their minds, but there is no sign that he'll return his items to be valued.

If I called their bluffs and said that I wanted to take it to court, would I be on dodgy ground? I'm pretty sure the solicitor will recommend them not going to court... I do feel very conned! not to mention poor dad, trying strenuously to avoid this scenario with his LoW!!

Woolington

The entire contents of my Dad's 4-bed house were given a nominal value of £500 by our solicitor and he said that was an optimistic amount if they had been sold.

How can a solicitor value house contents? we were just asked if there was anything of value in the house - we all said no. House contents weren't even put down as chattels.

Ooooh £500 is a bit sad. Isn't is horrid when items you've loved have price tags attached to them. The awful part in our situation, is that the step siblings have never lived in the house - it's all just furniture to them, but memories to us.

Mojisola

Woolington wrote: »

How can a solicitor value house contents? we were just asked if there was anything of value in the house - we all said no. House contents weren't even put down as chattels.

Ooooh £500 is a bit sad. Isn't is horrid when items you've loved have price tags attached to them. The awful part in our situation, is that the step siblings have never lived in the house - it's all just furniture to them, but memories to us.

From years of experience.

We were able to clear the house in our own time and I rehomed everything that the family didn't want through local give-away sites and charity shops which is what my parents would have wanted.

getmore4less

They are probably also not happy it's taken 2 years to get the place on the market.

Council tax will kick in at 6 months after grant good job that got delayed.

2years empty won't have done it any good.

Was there anyone other than your dad living in the place at DOD or anytime after?

getmore4less

Get what you want to keep into your own houses.

Some stuff auctions won't even take

If local enough get them round to do your estimates valuations.

Woolington

We were able to clear the house in our own time and I rehomed everything that the family didn't want through local give-away sites and charity shops which is what my parents would have wanted.

I've sent most of the contents to cancer charity shops, and recycled all the tat down to nails and screws to the metal dump - it's been SO satisfying! like your parents, mine would have been cheering!

Woolington

They are probably also not happy it's taken 2 years to get the place on the market.

Council tax will kick in at 6 months after grant good job that got delayed.

2years empty won't have done it any good.

Was there anyone other than your dad living in the place at DOD or anytime after?

Dad went into a nursing home and optimistically intended to return to his house - he POINT BLANK refused to sell it - mainly because he didn't want his own children to have the money - 'why can't they just wait til I'm gone' he'd say. They were trying to sell it for a while which offended him.

I looked after the house for the duration, incl gardening the 100ft garden and clearing bit by bit. His cellars were a hoarder's delight!

It survived perfectly well - a bit of water ingress that was easily fixed. Nobody lived there for two yrs apart from a heck of a lot of those spiders with long legs! Now evicted!

Woolington

Get what you want to keep into your own houses.

the one thing that I want to take personifies my mum but is the thing they think is worth money. I've got a nasty feeling they've secretly had the contents valued, because it's suddenly cropping up a lot. It's her table - bought especially with my large family in mind, so that at Christmas we could all sit round and have room to spare. She polished it every day, and when she died her coffin was placed on it - she adored it! Getting the house ready for market, I too polished it every day - it's like an old friend. There is NO WAY I'll let them send it to an auction room.

They seem to be getting an awful lot of pleasure from my pain. When their mum died, it would never have occurred to me to value all her furniture! It's all very black.

Savvy_Sue

You could get an auction house and specifically ask about the value of the table, would they take it etc. Then, if you have to, offer the put the value into the estate. Remind them that items sent to auction do not always achieve their notional value.