Inheriting a house - should estate pay all bills and gardening costs to date before transfer

KallyM5

I have inherited a house.  Executors have said I am liable for all maintenance and upkeep of the property incurred after the date of death as I am the legatee under the will and should not be a liability of the Estate even though the house has not yet been legally transferred into my name (just over 2 years now since deceased passed away).  The executors have added that the residuary beneficiaries who are various charities say they are not happy for any of the expenses to be borne by the estate especially gardening expenses as it has solely been for my benefit and thus should be paid by receiving beneficiary.  Would appreciate any advice. Thanks

molerat

Very similar question being asked here about who pays and when and the answer is the estate, as owner of the property, is responsible for all bills incurred right up until the property is actually transferred into your ownership. Of course charities are not happy about any loss to their share. What are they going to do if you refuse to pay ?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6191010/inheriting-house-should-estate-pay-expenses-to-date-of-grant-of-probate-or-only-to-date-of-death#latest

kangoora

I'd say the executors are wrong, until it is transferred to your name then you don't own the house, the estate is the owner. How can you be responsible for costs on an asset you don't own?

Exception may be if you have been living in the house whilst waiting for the transfer to happen of course.

KallyM5

Thank you all for your valuable advice.   Just to let you know the executors are a firm of solicitors and they have even quoted some case law to support their stand that the general rule is that "Liability of expenses in maintaining  or preserving a property lies with the receiving beneficiary" (their exact words).
The case law quoted being:
Clough-Taylor, Coutts & Co v Banks [2002] EWHC 2460 (Ch)
Rooke [1933] Ch 970
Pearce [1909] 1 Ch 819
They also say maintaining and preserving the garden are for the benefit of the receiving beneficiary as opposed to preserving the value of the property, therefore these expenses should not be paid by the estate.  
For a lay person to understand all this is very confusing.

naedanger

KallyM5 said:

Thank you all for your valuable advice.   Just to let you know the executors are a firm of solicitors and they have even quoted some case law to support their stand that the general rule is that "Liability of expenses in maintaining  or preserving a property lies with the receiving beneficiary" (their exact words).
The case law quoted being:
Clough-Taylor, Coutts & Co v Banks [2002] EWHC 2460 (Ch)
Rooke [1933] Ch 970
Pearce [1909] 1 Ch 819
They also say maintaining and preserving the garden are for the benefit of the receiving beneficiary as opposed to preserving the value of the property, therefore these expenses should not be paid by the estate.  
For a lay person to understand all this is very confusing.

A google search on the last case gives:

"The general principle is that any expenses incurred by personal representatives (PRs) in maintaining or preserving property that is the subject of a specific gift between the testator’s death and assent of the property are payable by the receiving beneficiary "
source:
https://ca.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/a-009-3806?transitionType=Default&contextData=(sc.Default)&firstPage=true
It seems to confirm the solicitors views. If you disagree you could seek your own legal advice and challenge, via the courts if necessary. 

Aranyani

I don't understand how you could be responsible for a bill you didn't agree to pay in advance?  What if you would have been fine to leave the garden a mess and then sort it yourself once you were the owner?

naedanger

Aranyani said:

I don't understand how you could be responsible for a bill you didn't agree to pay in advance?  What if you would have been fine to leave the garden a mess and then sort it yourself once you were the owner?

Is that not the position with any bill the estate pays? (The beneficiairies generally won't have agreed to them specifically.)

If you thought the executor had not managed the estate well then you presumably could take legal action against them. (However they would presumably argue the money was reasonably spent e.g. to maintain the value of the inheritance.)

jimbo6977

Sounds like a recipe for a juicy scam. A jealous executor could issue invoices for "maintaining the property" to any value they choose, in their role as a "maintenance contractor" rather than executor, and could leave the legatee with a debt, ooooh let's say roughly the same value as the bequeathed property. 

kangoora

I'm not a lawyer but have looked at the cases quoted. They are pretty abstruse, such as maintaining furniture, horses and carriages and retaining 'staff', costs of transporting chattels from abroad and who is liable should someone nick an item and sell it before distribution. It seems obvious that the executors are effectively saying 'nothing to do with us, guv - here's the case law'. I still think it is ridiculous that you are liable for costs on something you will own in the future, but don't currently own.

On the face of it they appear to be correct but you could always go to a different firm of solicitors for a second opinion.

If you wanted to be bloody minded (and have money to burn) I suppose you could argue that the current executors have taken too long to distribute the estate therefore they should be liable for at least part of the maintenance and gardening costs - note: I'm joking, I'm not seriously advocating this approach

The problem you will have, unless advised differently by another solicitor, is it looks like you'd have to go to court which could get very expensive - you need to compare possible court costs vs. what you would save by not paying for the maintenance/gardening etc.

I'd take 2 things from this, 1. I'd never use the executors again in any capacity and 2. NEVER, EVER make a charity a residual beneficiary (unless you deliberately want to cause grief for your beneficiaries ) Only give charities a specific bequest that you are 100% certain will not impact any residual benificiaries. Personally, my will goes only to family, charities can carry on trying to guilt-trip me with mid-afternoon TV adverts for their cash.

naedanger

jimbo6977 said:

Sounds like a recipe for a juicy scam. A jealous executor could issue invoices for "maintaining the property" to any value they choose, in their role as a "maintenance contractor" rather than executor, and could leave the legatee with a debt, ooooh let's say roughly the same value as the bequeathed property. 

The question really is who is responsible for paying the reasonable expenses of adminstering and maintaining a property during the administration period. And it seems the answer in principle is the receiving beneficiary.

If the question is who is responsible for paying unreasonable expenses of adminstering and maintaining a property during the administration period then the answer will be the executor.

So in your example if the jealous executor was deliberately incurring unnecessary expense then they risk being held liable for those expenses.

Mickey666

I’d still like to know why it has taken the executor two years to transfer the house to the beneficiary.