Money Moral Dilemma: Should I keep the cash from selling the contents of our deceased dad's home?

gloriouslyhappy

RL11 said:

"If you trust and love your siblings, where's the dilemma?"

That is such a big 'if'! Things can change, so save the stress, and get it in writing. A brief email will do. Keeping records is a must. Not only for the family members, but also for the tax man who won't care if you kept your old dad's scarf / hat / favourite chair in memory of him, but will care if you keep his gold coin collection or valuable Eames chair without declaring it. 

frayedknot

No legal problem, even assuming the estate is shared. Your sibling has deemed the contents of the house to be valueless, even a negative value factoring in the fly-tippers,. er.. I mean house-clearers, and does not want anything. (Maybe get this in writing in case you find a faberge egg)  Therefore you can do what you want with the contents and are actually doing him a favour.

FriendlyOgre

As already pointed out, it depends on the wording of the Will. 
In a similar position, we got the beneficiaries of the will together, and agreeably shared out what we wanted to keep, and what we did not want. The latter was given to a charity in its entirety (mostly dated furniture). All beneficiaries signed an agreement in the presence of a solicitor to confirm that this was the preferred outcome, and renounced any and all future claims to all and any items which had been thus been dispersed. 
The beneficiaries of the will, are the only people of relevance,  despite what the inevitable close family 'clingers on' might think, and the named Executor/s of the will will make the ultimate decisions as to the administration of the estate. All monies from any source form part of the estate, so must be equally shared once disbursements (costs) against the estate have been deducted. 
We had exactly the same situation with a sibling /beneficiary who couldn't be bothered doing anything to facilitate the disposal of the estate, never visited her Mum, but wanted only financial gain when she passed away.  
My advice would be to ALWAYS use a solicitor to oversee the administration of an estate. It's worth every penny. 

Jack_Russell_Lola

Sell everything and keep the money for yourself.

Nuttiella

"...should I split it with my sibling?"

Whilst I’m truly sorry for your loss, your father has now sadly gone, but your brother is still very much alive. Will you feel comfortable knowing that you had financially benefitted more from your father’s life than your brother? Are a few extra pennies likely to damage your relationship? Those are questions that only you can answer. No biased friends or strangers on a forum can answer them for you. But be honest and open with yourself and your brother.

Your brother is happy to pay toward removal costs and not reap any benefit once the belongings are out of sight, “dumped” by the removal company. Suggest that instead of them being “dumped,” they be removed and delivered to a Storage Facility [1] paid for by yourself. He gets the house emptied, and you get the time that you need to go through the belongings. Suggest this in writing, though, so that his response is also in writing. An email will do. Make it clear that if he agrees, you will be assuming full ownership of the belongings, and whether you save or sell, the proceeds belong to you, just as they would have belonged to the removal company. 

[1] I have looked myself, and I was surprised that the cost of hiring space wasn’t as expensive as I had expected. Try and clear as much as you can before things have to be removed, though. Larger items first. The smaller the space you need to hire, the cheaper it is. 

MoneySeeker1

Whatever you do - your sibling has to be kept fully informed - in writing - and have their agreement back (also in writing).

The fact you did more of the "care" for your parent is totally irrelevant and there could be all sorts of "ins and outs" on that one (eg the sibling was around for many more years visiting and keeping company with them and then moved - so couldnt do any caring, as they were too far away to be able to do it). All sorts of special pleading could be done by one sibling or another in many cases and that is irrelevant and practical considerations only have to be taken into account.

Even if you unexpectedly come across "hidden treasures" in the course of clearing the house (and yes I expect you know that there are elderly people that it's found have kept stashes of cash all round the place!!) then you are honour-bound to tell the sibling, for instance, "I've unexpectedly found £10,000 cash stashed around the house and so I'm giving you £5,000 of it".

keith_of_london_2

What does the Will say and what does the Executors say and what does the taxman say?

The above are the reasons for writing a Will and appointing Executors that are trustworthy!

When is free”write a will” month?it may cost nothing to do it right but breakups of families to do it wrong.

is there really a dilemma?

Husbandofstinky

Purely a legal question imo. Sell/dispose and all proceeds/costs to the estate end of.
Do not lay yourself open at all on this one.
Emotions and families are involved but seriously unilateral decision making on the estate's assets is a no no. Always through the executor first. Be very careful

lilmisstrouble

If sisters delegated emptying the house to you then you should keep the proceeds. Selling goods takes time and effort. If you get a tidy sum then maybe split it after deducting any expenses incurred. If it’s not much then just keep it for yourself.  I was n same situation but my sibling lives abroad, came over for just 5 days and left it all to me to sort out. I split all the house proceeds and investments, but after sorting out the house sale by myself, threw away a lot of stuff, left some stuff for the buyer and gradually sold, gave away, kept or recycled the rest and kept any proceeds. 

dgp1000

Legally all the receipts from the sale of contents form part of the estate so should  be shared. The easiest option is to use a house clearance auctioneer as you get the best of both worlds - just in case there is something of value. But first you should ask whether there is anything of sentimental value that people want and clear the rubbish yourself. More than likely the contents aren’t worth very much in any case. Doing anything else is a recipe for disaster in family relationships.