Business Vehicle

Confused_Chris1982

My brother has passed away.  He owned his own limited business.  From what I can see he has no assets or money in the business, only debt.  All he has is a van that is registered in the business name.
The business only had one director, my brother
How do I legally change ownership of the van to myself to help pay for the funeral?
There is no money in his personal estate either
Thank you

Sandtree

Confused_Chris1982 said:

My brother has passed away.  He owned his own limited business.  From what I can see he has no assets or money in the business, only debt.  All he has is a van that is registered in the business name.
The business only had one director, my brother
How do I legally change ownership of the van to myself to help pay for the funeral?
There is no money in his personal estate either
Thank you

Sorry for your loss

Its the company's vehicle and so the only way you can make it become your vehicle is to buy it from the company. There are potential ramifications if you pay the company anything less than fair market value.

DB1904

Won't the sale of the van go to settling some or all of the debts?

Sandtree

DB1904 said:

Won't the sale of the van go to settling some or all of the debts?

Yes                               

NBLondon

Are you the executor Chris?   Then you don't need to transfer ownership you can sell the van directly and the proceeds are part of the estate and pay off the business debts.  

born_again

Might be better posting here.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/deaths-funerals-probate

Was it a limited company?

user1977

born_again said:

Might be better posting here.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/deaths-funerals-probate

Was it a limited company?

I presume that's what they meant by a "limited business". In which case the OP needs to be careful to distinguish between the company's assets/debts and the deceased's personal assets/debts.

Aretnap

NBLondon said:

Are you the executor Chris?   Then you don't need to transfer ownership you can sell the van directly and the proceeds are part of the estate and pay off the business debts.  

Assuming it's a limited company as opposed to the brother being self employed/a sole trader, it's likely to be a little more complicated than that. 

The business and the estate are two separate entities. The van would have to be sold by someone authorised to act for the company (not necessarily the executor of the estate) and the company's debts would have to be paid off before any money could be transferred to the estate or used to pay funeral expenses.

The alternative would be for the estate to sell the company as a whole, however I suspect it would not be easy to find a buyer for a company with no ongoing business, some debts and a second hand van.

When administering an estate, funeral expenses can be paid ahead of most debts, but I'm not sure that the same exception applies to assets of a business that happens to be owned by the estate.

The OP probably needs specialist advice as it's a complicated situation with the potential for him to become personally liable for the unpaid debts if he does things wrong. At the very least I agree he should post on the deaths and probate board rather than the motoring board. 

CKhalvashi

Assuming the business is a Ltd company, it may be better to wind that up if there's likely to be a deficit, there is no ongoing income and it's going to be difficult to sell.

If there's a surplus, it may again be easier to wind the business up which would go some way to paying the personal debts, of which a funeral would be the first to be paid.

The assets of the company are very different to personal assets and therefore need to be treated as such.

I, too, am sorry for your loss.