house valuation

terry2

This is probably a silly question, that is written up somewhere, but I haven't spotted it.
My wife died, our house is joint owned, and I am the sole beneficiary. Now do I have to get the house properly valued before I start to do the inheritance tax and probate, or will an estimate be enough?

Keep_pedalling

As her estate is subject to spousal exemption you do not need an absolutely accurate valuation, so you can simply do it base on recent sale prices of similar properties.

You don’t need probate for moving the house into your sole name, did she have other assets (equities or large cash deposits) that will require it? If not you don’t need to apply, just make a record of all assets passing to you and keep that with your will which will simplify things for your executors.

terry2

Thanks for that.