Inherited property - agreeing a value

charliewhisky

Hi there

I have inherited a property (childhood home) with my 2 brothers and wish to buy them out and have the house as my main residence (They are happy for this to happen)
My current house is in the process of being sold as we speak

the issue i have is that one brother who has never dealt with owning a property or officialdom,(kind of anti establishment, big brother watching him type) does not believe the 3 estate agents who have valued the property (Im having a 4th EA visit tomorrow to get even more info.) actual sale price valuations and thinks the house should be worth more (based on feeling).

He wants to "squeeze" (his word) what he can from it as he has no other chance to get money and has no pension etc etc of course

I'm thinking the only way is to have the house put on the market and get him to manage it to see what it offers it gets (which could be wasting a lot of peoples time ) however he has done nothing in regards to my Mum's passing,funeral,  probate etc in fact anything official and he doesnt really do email so nothing would actually get done as he hasnt a clue.

Does anyone know if there is another way to get a valuation on the property that isnt estate agent generated??....fyi i have offered him £165k which is the average of the valuations (which is a lot of money for doing nothing!)

Thanks

AdrianC

What value was put on the property for probate?

Why isn't that good enough, considering it's the value as of the same date... If his third is £165k, then we're looking at a £495k property, so it must have been valued for IHT... And let me guess, he thinks that was low to reduce tax, right...? Can't have it both ways! Remind him that if he sells for more than that probate valuation, then there may be CGT implications for him...

All valuations are opinions.
Some are an EA's opinion. Some are a putative buyer's opinion. Some are a surveyor's opinion for the mortgage lender.

user1977

Get an actual surveyor to give you a proper valuation rather than an unqualified person in a shiny suit? Whether that satisfies your brother any more is of course a different question. Has he indicated what his "feelings" suggest the true value is?

TojoRalph

I would say AdrianC has given you very good advice regards using probate valuation and the potential CGT implications if that figure is not used.

Assuming that your other brother accepts the average of the valuations, what is the monetary difference to you if you used the higher valuation to pay off the one brother, were he to agree to that figure? I know that might stick in your throat, but unless you can come to some kind of agreement amongst yourselves, you may well need to put the property on the market, which runs the risk of you losing the opportunity to purchase at any of the valuations.

theartfullodger

They don;t have to sell their shares to you.  Deal only happens if you BOTH agree to the agreed price.  If someone wants to hold out for a higher price you are stuffed.  It's not about who values what, it's about can two people agree a price: Just like any other property transaction.

If one of them insists (yes I know it's a silly price) that their share is only for sale at £250k, then it's only for sale at £250k. Capitalism.  What Proudhon said etc etc 

theoretica

Ask him if he has a proposal for getting an independent valuation? 

Is he meeting the 4th estate agent with you?  I am thinking that personally when I had a large shared bill I balked at the quotes the other people involved had got, but when I spoke to someone myself and got another quote which was in line with the others I accepted the situation.

Slithery

charliewhisky said:

Hi there

I have inherited a property (childhood home) with my 2 brothers and wish to buy them out and have the house as my main residence (They are happy for this to happen)

Does the will state that the property ownership is to be split 3 ways, or does it say that it is to be sold and the proceeds split 3 ways?

FreeBear

user1977 said: Get an actual surveyor to give you a proper valuation rather than an unqualified person in a shiny suit?

A RICS surveyor - They would be the same bunch doing a valuation for a mortgage company. If the valuation is good enough for a mortgage Co. it should be good enough for the sibling. On an open market, you'd be hard pushed to get much more and you'd also have EA fees and other expenses to reduce the actual money received.

MobileSaver

charliewhisky said:

He wants to "squeeze" (his word) what he can from it as he has no other chance to get money

Can you point out to him that an empty house still costs money (insurance, electricity, heating in winter, water bills, council tax, essential repairs etc.) so the longer it takes to sell the higher the risk he'll actually end up with less inheritance?

Who is the executor or administrator of your mum's Estate?

daveyjp

And Council Tax may will increase each year it is empty.

Agree it should be an RICS registered valuer who does a valuation for probate purposes.  That's how my parents dealt with it when mum's parents died and mum wanted their house, but her brother was entitled to half the value.

If this isn't accepted the only way is to put it on the market, get an offer and then pull out of the sale, but that's a faff and not honourable to the agent or potential buyer.

charliewhisky

Thanks for replying everyone, i wrote a response which seems to have disappeared  ,I'll see how this afternoons valuation goes
then decide whether to offer him same ,a little more or just put on the open market, we're all executors, but only 2 of us have done any of the admin of course.
originally he wanted over £600k on a house valued at £500k for probate because zoopla said so!...i explained about zoopla which fell on deaf ears and he wanted me to get zoopla to visit the property :-)
CCT should not apply in this case as the individual threshhold wouldnt be reached and probate was granted a couple of months ago so  house value wouldnt have increased (if at all in that period)
I agree re RICS survey and did mention this however he says that an interested potential purchaser would offer more than they would value it at!

Every family has one i suppose!