Paying yourself costs

ford2

I was granted letters of administration for my dads estate,the house is now sold and the proceeds are to be distributed accordingly ,could I award myself the cost of removing the contents of the house,ie the price of a skip as there are two other beneficiaries one of who benefited from myself removing his rubbish which has accumulated at the property I was initially trying to save the expense to the estate but it seemed to all fall on myself with little or no help from the other beneficiaries 

JGB1955

Absolutely - you can also charge lots of other things (mileage, postage, redirection of mail costs, share dealing charges, etc etc).  What you can't charge for is your time.  I don't think people appreciate the mental and physical cost of clearing a house... the best £750 I've (I lie... the executors)  ever spent is to a house clearing company!

SevenOfNine

Exactly as JGB1955 has said, I couldn't (& didn't) charge for my  time, but I certainly charged for the skip, post, paper, a printer cartridge, stamps, calls, petrol for house & tip visits......EVERYTHING!  It does mount up.

My brothers were happy to sit back & I didn't mind doing it all, but I didn't try to save the estate money at the expense of my own bank account! I reimbursed myself, kept scrupulous but simple financial records, with receipts wherever possible.

To be fair all the family helped get 65 years of hoarding 'skip ready', mainly because they wanted to scavenge, I'd warned them if they didn't help I'd get a house clearance company in & the estate would pay

Your time is free, nothing else.

ford2

Thank you JGB1955 and SevenOfNine,I’ve done several trips to the tip as if a skip was hired people would be in it overnight so would be left with the cost of a empty skip so wasn’t sure if I could award myself that cost,and of course any costs incurred to myself  while sorting the estate 

Savvy_Sue

Another one to vote for the considerable number of pennies spent on a house clearance company being worth every single one of them ... 

You may manage to do a fair bit on your own, but at the end of the day, there's a limit. I was well over that limit when my co-executor idly wondered if we really NEEDED their services, surely we could just take all the furniture to the tip ourselves? I just looked at them, reminded them they'd already managed a fridge/freezer and the largest CRT TV still in existence but only with the help of youngsters who were no longer available, but that there remained two or three more fridge/freezers (don't ask), plus several rooms full of substantial furniture - and I have a Yaris! 

RAS

Sometimes I'm glad my mum had to go into care so we had to clear the house to sell. We weren't in a massive hurry, so could recycle at lot to various charities, but also hired several skips. As POA, I can assure you the cost came from mum's account. Anyone who challenges can clear the house by a specified deadline.

Flugelhorn

cost should definitely come from the estate and I give another vote to paying for house clearance, cousins and I did a day and half and then decided that £700 was a bargain

thegreenone

I paid the house clearance company the equivalent of two skips worth.  Money well spent as I didn't have to lift a finger.  I'd already cleared dumped/sold/freecycled absolutely everything I could, but the big furniture was a step too far.  Yes, the money came from the estate.