Probate property valuations

jackie201616

My father passed away in July, I've now pretty much contacted all companies to advise and got accounts closed or valued. I am still to get 2 properties valued... can I get normal estate agents to give a market valuation as with my mum 10 years ago or do I need to pay for a EA probate valuation?

Keep_pedalling

Based on the fact that both properties are partly owned by a discretionary trust I don’t think EA guesstimates are good enough. 

Savvy_Sue

What you need is a valuation for probate from a surveyor rather than an estate agent. You will probably - although not necessarily - have to pay a fee for this: the surveyor we used said he did not like to charge for these, and as he was linked to an estate agency I dare say quite a bit of business came their way after his valuations. 

Mrs_pbradley936

I went through this recently and you have to get a member of these: RICS: Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors that is because their word is believed by the Government and Courts. It cost £600 but we used the same firm to sell the property and got a discount. The Estate pays for it all anyway.
 

Robert_McGeddon

Is there expected to be an IHT liability?  If not, the need for precise valuations is lessened and a (free!) EA valuation may well suffice.

p00hsticks

Robert_McGeddon said:

Is there expected to be an IHT liability?  If not, the need for precise valuations is lessened and a (free!) EA valuation may well suffice.

Agreed - especially if the intention is to market and sell the property straight away. In our case we got two estate agents in to provide valuations, and could also quote a comparable property across the road that had sold shortly after the death. The agreed selling price is now actually £5k less than what we put on the probate form, but as the estate was well under the IHT threshold it's neither here not there....

If you intend to keep the property - especially if you will not be living in it yourself - then I think a more formal RICS valuation would be more important as a precise 'official' valuation at the time of death would be needed  for any later CGT calculations.