House and House contents 9 June 2022 at 11:08PM in Deaths, funerals & probate 5 replies 728 views

AlmereIan

My father left his house to my sister and myself in his will.
I have been told by the executor that it just stated the property and there was no mention of the contents.  I assumed the contents automatically came with the property, but I have been told anything that is sold from the contents needs to go into the "pot" for the funds distributed amongst all 7 beneficiary's. Is this correct?

Marcon

AlmereIan said:

My father left his house to my sister and myself in his will.
I have been told by the executor that it just stated the property and there was no mention of the contents.  I assumed the contents automatically came with the property, but I have been told anything that is sold from the contents needs to go into the "pot" for the funds distributed amongst all 7 beneficiary's. Is this correct?

Depends on the precise wording of the will, but if the contents are not specifically mentioned as being left to you and your sister, it is indeed likely that you and your sister have only been left the actual house itself. 

Keep_pedalling

Anything not specifically mentioned in the will forms part of the residual estate. Who are the residual beneficiaries? I would class fixtures and fitting as part of the house.

This seems a very poorly drawn up will, had his house had to be sold before his death you would have lost much of your inheritance unless you and your sister were the only residual beneficiaries. 

p00hsticks

As Marcon says, it really depends on the wording of the will ,but if there's no mention of the contents they'd form part of the residual estate (I'm the other way round - I've inherited the contents of a house, but not the house itself. In my case the contents were specifically mentioned in the will and the house wasn't)

Flugelhorn

on the whole the contents of most properties are not worth very much at all (unless they have some fancy antiques etc) - certainly people put quite small valuations on the probate forms - I think I put £500 which was way off as I had to pay for it to be cleared, nothing was sold, most valuable thing was a nice antique table I gave to a helpful neighbout and the mobility scooter which I gave to a local care home

AlmereIan

Thanks for the responses everyone. 
It would seem it is correct then. We auctioned a lot of the contents. After costs, there wasn't  a lot left over to be honest. Thanks anyway people. 😀