I don’t know where to start

acblog

Hi all.
Unfortunately I’m having to sort out my father estate who passed in April. He was my last surviving parent. 

My mum passed in 2015, I sorted the probate out myself (after putting it off for a year) as it was fairly simple- everything going to my father.

Now things are more complicated as it will all go to my brother and myself and of course inheritance tax is now involved. 

I put off sorting out my mums as I was in a really bad way and found it upsetting and felt like ‘closure’, but with dad’s case I understand there’s a time limit so I’m having to pull myself together and get on.

One step at a time- First of all the house, my brother and I still live here and plan to stay here for a bit a least. Now I understand the house needs to be valued, would a normal high street estate agency be ok? What does a valuation for probate purposes involve? Would they need to come in and measure each room? I’m really anxious at the moment with everything going on, I’m not going to lie, some of the rooms are an absolute state too so that’s making me feel worse and putting stuff off. Even writing here is making me upset.

I’m so reluctant to get a probate solicitor involved. I imagine the inheritance tax will be high already (after the threshold) and I can’t justify paying a solicitor so much too. 

Thanks in advance. 

kuratowski

Get it valued by a RICS surveyor.

For inheritance tax - the threshold may be higher than you think.  Your dad has a Residence Nil Rate Band as well as his Nil Rate Band.  And he presumably will inherit those of your mother too (assuming they owned the property jointly).  Is the estate worth over £1 million?

If you are finding it stressful and painful to deal with the estate, maybe that is a good reason to get a solicitor to do some of the work?

acblog

kuratowski said:

Get it valued by a RICS surveyor.

For inheritance tax - the threshold may be higher than you think.  Your dad has a Residence Nil Rate Band as well as his Nil Rate Band.  And he presumably will inherit those of your mother too (assuming they owned the property jointly).  Is the estate worth over £1 million?

If you are finding it stressful and painful to deal with the estate, maybe that is a good reason to get a solicitor to do some of the work?

Hey. Thank you. They owned the house together and Yes I do believe the threshold for us will be the £500,000.
Without the house valuation I’m not totally sure if it’s below £1million as they had savings and some shares which I also need to work out. However I’m am 98 percent sure that it falls below £1million altogether. 

RICS surveyor, will I only need one quote or would a need a few and work out the average?
Thanks for your time 

kuratowski

One surveyor is sufficient.

Assuming your parents were married (apologies I don't think this has been explicitly stated) then you can transfer your mum's unused NRB and RNRB to your dad.  So the total nil rate band available would be £1 million.  Thus little or no IHT to pay.

thegreenone

I am sorry for your loss.
I asked a local EA to value my late Mum's flat and probate accepted just one valuation because I wanted to sell it BUT they did say if you are keeping the property you should get three valuations.  I did all the legwork ie closing down bank accounts and informing all the utilities, council, DWP etc and then handed everything over to Mum's solicitor (they held the Will and Deeds) to do the serious paperwork - HMRC and Probate.  Forms are not my forte.  Once granted, I paid out to the beneficiaries and the property is under offer with the same solicitor doing the conveyancing.  £1200 fee for the HMRC and Probate.  I know others disagree but it was money well spent for ME.

Edited:  If you and your brother are not moving out, don't worry about the state of the rooms.  They won't measure anything, it's just a current market figure.

xylophone

A valuation from one RICS surveyor will be fine.

Your mother's whole estate went to your father.

This left him with sole ownership of their home and sole ownership of their other assets.

Your father has left the house and other assets to be divided equally between his children.

You will have your father's nil rate band, your father's  residence nil rate band, your mother's nil rate band (transferred to your father) and your mother's residence nil rate band (transferred to your father) to be set against the value of your father's estate.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/inheritance-tax-nil-rate-band-and-residence-nil-rate-band-thresholds-from-6-april-2021/inheritance-tax-nil-rate-band-and-residence-nil-rate-band-thresholds-from-6-april-2021

acblog

kuratowski said:

One surveyor is sufficient.

Assuming your parents were married (apologies I don't think this has been explicitly stated) then you can transfer your mum's unused NRB and RNRB to your dad.  So the total nil rate band available would be £1 million.  Thus little or no IHT to pay.

Yes they were married (don’t apologise, i should have stated that.) I had no idea that they had an allowance each which could be transferred. Actually, now thinking about it, I remember the solicitor who did mum’s will shortly before she passed in 2015 mentioning two lots of thresholds. My mum actually wanted her will to say to share her personal savings equally between my brother and I. The solicitor explained the only way to avoid IHT at that point was to give everything to dad and he can give it to us. As the individual amounts are above the ‘gift’ limit amount, she did explain if he doesn’t live for the seven years then that will have to be declared. He didn’t live for seven years so I’ll have to declare those amounts too. 

Thanks for your help, that’s made me feel a bit better knowing that the IHT shouldn’t be as high I initially thought. Perhaps you are right and I should get someone to help. I see a few places like the Co-op give a fixed fee to help with probate so I’ll make some enquiries.
Thank you again. 

acblog

thegreenone said:

I am sorry for your loss.
I asked a local EA to value my late Mum's flat and probate accepted just one valuation because I wanted to sell it BUT they did say if you are keeping the property you should get three valuations.  I did all the legwork ie closing down bank accounts and informing all the utilities, council, DWP etc and then handed everything over to Mum's solicitor (they held the Will and Deeds) to do the serious paperwork - HMRC and Probate.  Forms are not my forte.  Once granted, I paid out to the beneficiaries and the property is under offer with the same solicitor doing the conveyancing.  £1200 fee for the HMRC and Probate.  I know others disagree but it was money well spent for ME.

Edited:  If you and your brother are not moving out, don't worry about the state of the rooms.  They won't measure anything, it's just a current market figure.

Thank you. Yes the more I think about it, the more I feel I should get help with it all. 

xylophone

My mum actually wanted her will to say to share her personal savings equally between my brother and I. The solicitor explained the only way to avoid IHT at that point was to give everything to dad and he can give it to us. As the individual amounts are above the ‘gift’ limit amount, she did explain if he doesn’t live for the seven years then that will have to be declared. He didn’t live for seven years so I’ll have to declare those amounts too. 

Are you saying that once all your mother's savings etc were transferred to your father, he made you and your brother substantial gifts and this was less than seven years ago?

Keep_pedalling

What is the approximate value of his estate and how much of that did he gift you after your mother’s death,? In case taper relief is applicable when did he make those gifts?

acblog

xylophone said:

My mum actually wanted her will to say to share her personal savings equally between my brother and I. The solicitor explained the only way to avoid IHT at that point was to give everything to dad and he can give it to us. As the individual amounts are above the ‘gift’ limit amount, she did explain if he doesn’t live for the seven years then that will have to be declared. He didn’t live for seven years so I’ll have to declare those amounts too. 

Are you saying that once all your mother's savings etc were transferred to your father, he made you and your brother substantial gifts and this was less than seven years ago?

Yes that’s Correct