CGT

Elemental_Wish

Thanks all for your replies and kind words. 

Keep_pedalling

BooJewels said:

Keep_pedalling said:

It is very rarely worth putting money into renovating before selling and you will not be able to deduct renovation costs from any gains you might make. 

That's not strictly true - you can't deduct minor things like painting and cleaning - anything that would be considered maintenance - but can claim for major building improvements, like extensions, new kitchen etc.  https://www.gov.uk/tax-sell-home/work-out-your-gain

I would also endorse the idea of not doing the work and saving yourself the aggro.  Just sell it in an honest state, marketed as such.  I took advice from various sources when in the same position and am glad that I took that approach.  The buyer is in the trade, but buying it for his own family - his second visit to the house was with his architect and they commented that they were glad we hadn't tried covering things. Many of the internal walls are currently in a skip in the drive - so not much point in us wasting time and effort painting them.

The gain you potentially have to pay tax on, is any increase in value between the value put on the Probate form (which should be the value at the date of death - your father's,  not the earlier one of your Mum) and what it eventually sells for.  We ended up making a gain because we had to delay everything due to Covid and the stamp duty stuff sending the housing market daft.

Sorry for your losses. 

Yes you can claim for things like an extension or a new kitchen, but renovation usually just replacing worn out stuff, replacing new for old kitchen units is not adding a new kitchen.

The other issue is the expense of maintaining an empty building, including insurance and council tax. I would do no more than a good clean and a lick of paint.

BooJewels

You'd have to discuss the semantics of what exactly qualified as 'the cost of improvement works' as per quoted on the Gov website, with HMRC, possibly via an accountant or tax adviser.  I was merely correcting your blanket statement - with a reference link - that you can't 'deduct renovating costs' from your gain.  Some you can.