Evaluating content for IHT

Lilio8

Hello.

I'm the executor of my latest dearest friend and I need to have the content that he left to me, as part of the inheritance, evaluated for IHT purposes. Yesterday I had the house evaluated by a real estate agent and it is around £300K-£325K (so it'll all go to probate and yes there's going to be IHT to be paid unfortunately ).

I asked the legal firm I'm with to no avail (no answers, pretty much silence ). And I'd like to have some idea as to the values of various items (e.g. stereo, TV, various glass artwork, paintings, binoculars, camera lenses, bits & pieces, motorbike, etc.).

I also need to know what I can dispose of/give away or sell (I need to raise funds for various expenses before grant of probate, which is going to be a looong way away!).

How do I get the content evaluated? Who should I call? What can I sell? Can I sell any of the content now or do I have to wait till Grant of Probate? 

 

Keep_pedalling

Most household chattels have pretty low second hand value so for most you can lump together for a nominal value. Things like binoculars and camera lenses can have significant value and it is fairly easy to get an idea of those by looking at eBay to see what things are going for. I would only list individual items that are of significant value (£1,000+).

Things like furniture is hard to sell and in most cases has so little value you can simply donate them to charity.

I would recommend you apply for probate and do the IHT return yourself rather than use professionals who will nearly always take far longer to obtain probate than you will. 

Voyager2002

Have a look at the household insurance and see if any valuables are mentioned: that should give you an idea.

So far as tax is concerned, follow any reasonable process. If you simply use the values that were declared for insurance that should satisfy HMRC, although you might find that these values are unreasonably high.

Linton

My understanding from experience as an executor is that used personal items like TVs,  old binoculars, “bits and pieces”, household furniture, are worth virtually nothing and can be ignored or bundled together in say a £500 miscellaneous category.  As a whole they may cost more to dispose of than any money you could get from them.

You don’t need probate to sell or throw out minor items. Perhaps any money you do get could be used to pay for minor expenses.

what is important are major items, eg £20k jewellery , a Rolex watch and similar which justify professional valuation. 

Murphy_The_Cat

When I was involved doing the same process, the chattels were collectively valued at a £1000. In your case, possibly the motorbike may need to be valued seperately (depending if its a runner, model, age, condition etc etc).

The £1000 valuation was accepted.

p00hsticks

If there is any doubt, perhaps see if you have a local auction house that could send someone out to have a look round and say if any of the items are worth putting up for auction ?

Lilio8

Keep_pedalling said:

Most household chattels have pretty low second hand value so for most you can lump together for a nominal value. Things like binoculars and camera lenses can have significant value and it is fairly easy to get an idea of those by looking at eBay to see what things are going for. I would only list individual items that are of significant value (£1,000+).

Things like furniture is hard to sell and in most cases has so little value you can simply donate them to charity.

I would recommend you apply for probate and do the IHT return yourself rather than use professionals who will nearly always take far longer to obtain probate than you will. 

Thank you for your reply.

The house wasn't insured. It is at the moment, unoccupancy type (provided by the legal services).

Lilio8

Voyager2002 said:

Have a look at the household insurance and see if any valuables are mentioned: that should give you an idea.

So far as tax is concerned, follow any reasonable process. If you simply use the values that were declared for insurance that should satisfy HMRC, although you might find that these values are unreasonably high.

Thank you for your reply.

There was no insurance. There is now, unoccupancy type (provided by the legal services).

Lilio8

Linton said:

'....

You don’t need probate to sell or throw out minor items. Perhaps any money you do get could be used to pay for minor expenses...'

Oh good! I could do with clearing the place up, redecorate and get it ready to be sold once grant of probate will come through.

Thank you for your reply.

Lilio8

p00hsticks said:

If there is any doubt, perhaps see if you have a local auction house that could send someone out to have a look round and say if any of the items are putting up for auction ?

Will look for auction house/s .

Thank you for your reply.

Savvy_Sue

Lilio8 said:

p00hsticks said:

If there is any doubt, perhaps see if you have a local auction house that could send someone out to have a look round and say if any of the items are putting up for auction ?

Will look for auction house/s .

Thank you for your reply.

Auction House is a sensible start, but be aware that although they'll give you a value for many things, they may not wish to sell everything. However, they may have a link to a good house clearance company, which may not be cheap but in our case was worth every single one of the vast multitude of pennies we paid them. 

Also, don't be tempted to do TOO much by way of decoration, and certainly don't rip out kitchens, bathrooms and windows. You're unlikely to recoup what you have to spend. Make it weather proof, secure, and clean, then sell it as a fixer-upper. Last time we had a valuation that was the advice: we could rip out kitchen etc (which definitely NEEDS replacing), but it might not be to the buyer's taste. Soe we might be thinking "new kitchen, increases value", and a buyer might be thinking "what have they done to this kitchen, that'll need to come out, decreases value".