Household and personal goods IHT 407

Keep_pedalling

Assuming he inherited your mother’s entire estate then there will be no IHT to pay unless the total net estate is over £1M. If the total estate is under £650k then you will be able to get away only having to submit a probate form, over that you will need to do a full IHT return to be able to claim his residential NRB and if necessary your mother’s RNRB.

Do you have an idea of the value of the home he lived in? 

Newly_retired

Have a look at gov.uk/probate, though it's Letters of administration you need.
There is a calculator which enables you to find out if IHT is due. 

theoretica

To be able to claim the full 350k residence allowance for him and his wife the home that he lived in (or one he or they downsized from) needs to be worth 350k - so whether the allowance for this case is the £1 million or a bit less may depend on the values of the properties.

RAS

Ok, based on your comment maybe not, but did dad have a will? If not, the rules of intestacy apply so the estate is shared between descendants. 

Two times the basic personal allowance = £650k, as long as dad inherited mum's estate, which looks like to be the case.
Plus two times the residential allowance as long as descendants inherit the value of the houses, so another £350k.

So the IHT allowance looks like being £1m. Does the estate exceed that value? 

Are there no liquid assets that you can use to pay interim estate costs? Most banks will release upto £30k just based on the death certificate and a signed indemnity.

Value of personal and household items generally £1k unless he has a very new very nice gaming set-up. If you think there are real antiques, it might be worth as getting someone in to value them, but the value of most "brown furniture" is very low these days.