Selling a loved ones car drama...

GetSmarterVictoria

Hi all, 

Just after some advice to see if there's anything that could be done.  A deceased family member had a special car and it was placed up for sale by an non immediate family member who was helping out for £60k.  Buyer offered £57k and all 3 siblings were advised and agreed upon the amount pre-sale.

Phone call comes advising the car has sold and been taken away but went for £50k as the buyer said it had a few snags (it didn't!) the family member dealing with it sold the car....which a week later appeared up for sale at £70k!!!

The deceased's children were not given an option to contest before the car sold and I'm gathering that post sale to this trader, who's advertising it as perfect (which is was!), there's nothing that can be done to get it back (legal and binding sale etc). 

With selling a passed loved ones car, would all beneficiaries have to agree upon a sale price or can one just sell it? It's just sad that the family have been tricked by a lucky trader knowing that he was dealing with someone who wasn't fully up to speed on the car and knew that the family were grieving.

Thank you.

SevenOfNine

It's not the beneficiaries who make decisions on 'price', it's the responsibility of the executor/s, & they should be getting the best they can.  So the starting point with this is going to be who is/are the executor/s?  What permission did they give the 'seller'?

Sadly, though I've no idea what could be done now, it may end up best to see it as £50k going into the estate for the beneficiaries, as opposed to £7k 'lost'.  Once disagreements & bad feeling come into play it all turns nasty & can get drawn out & expensive.

74jax

SevenOfNine said:

It's not the beneficiaries who make decisions on 'price', it's the responsibility of the executor/s, & they should be getting the best they can.  So the starting point with this is going to be who is/are the executor/s?  What permission did they give the 'seller'?

Sadly, though I've no idea what could be done now, it may end up best to see it as £50k going into the estate for the beneficiaries, as opposed to £7k 'lost'.  Once disagreements & bad feeling come into play it all turns nasty & can get drawn out & expensive.

⬆️ A really good way of looking at this.

If the 3 siblings were benificiaries then just over 2k less each. 

Also maybe try and see it as the seller took some 'hassle' away from the executors in helping out? 

HampshireH

And remember if it had been priced at £70k it may have sold for £60k. Who valued it?

Any buyer will try to haggle.

The dealer obviously had a better understanding of it's worth than the whole family else it could have been priced 10k higher in the first place 

I would remove the blame game it's counterproductive and will just get upsetting

p00hsticks

I'd say that if the car was specifically left to someone in the will, then it's up to them what happens to it.

Otherwise it's down to the executors, although with something like that I would expect them to be at least offering the close family members/beneficiaries  an opportuntiy to buy it at market value / receive it as part of their inheritance before selling it elsewhere.

TBagpuss

The executor(s) would be responsible for selling it and have a duty to the beneficiaries to get the best price. 

If the executors authorised the family member to sell for £57K then the family member should have checked with them before agreeing anything lower (and the executors should probably have dealt themselves or given the person selling explicit instructions about whether and how much they could haggle) 

This is why it's sometimes better for unusual items to be auctioned rather than sold privately, as it makes it harder for anyone to claim it was sold at an undervalue.

That said, if all the beneficiaries are family members you do need to factor in the value of the loss against the relationship cost of making an issue of it - the person dealing with the sale appears to have acted in good faith, and has not benefited in any way from their actins (the reverse, if anything) 

GetSmarterVictoria

TBagpuss said:

The executor(s) would be responsible for selling it and have a duty to the beneficiaries to get the best price. 

If the executors authorised the family member to sell for £57K then the family member should have checked with them before agreeing anything lower (and the executors should probably have dealt themselves or given the person selling explicit instructions about whether and how much they could haggle) 

This is why it's sometimes better for unusual items to be auctioned rather than sold privately, as it makes it harder for anyone to claim it was sold at an undervalue.

That said, if all the beneficiaries are family members you do need to factor in the value of the loss against the relationship cost of making an issue of it - the person dealing with the sale appears to have acted in good faith, and has not benefited in any way from their actins (the reverse, if anything) 

Thank you, I found that really helpful and pretty much how I felt.  All parties (executor being the son of the deceased) agreed to the original fee but it was sold by the family member at 7k less without agreeing. I think it's probably a hefty mix of a sense of loss as the car was his life and seeing it being "flipped" as such stating perfect condition with a sob story about the poor family having to sell it on when he's aware that he took 7k off the agreed price for it having lots of issues. Made the whole family want it back to sell it properly themselves as they wanted it to go to a home where it'd be cherished (the trader pretended to be this). 

We live and learn though! Thanks for all of the replies! V.

sheramber

 Advertising it for £70k doesn't mean it will sell for that price.

Sea_Shell

Maybe think of it this way...

If the car had gone to auction, what reserve price would you have put on it?