Newly Inherited Disrepaired House - Options/Suggestions

poseidon1

Location is key.

A house in disrepair in London or other desirable UK location is an easy sale, so where is this house located?

You indicate this is a joint inheritance with your sister so you have a legal and moral obligation to provide her with her half share.  Therefore presenting this as your sole decision making process suggests you don't see her has having any input, clearly not case.

Your age and salary does not in anyway make you unmortgageable. Quite the contrary,  I recently concluded a mortgage to age 83 at age 66 on the sole basis of the basic state pension ( all my other income sources were disallowed for mortgage purposes). You,  however appear to be  a classic mortgage candidate - jump on your Bank's website and see what you could borrow given your current financial circumstances.

As you have suggested, 1st get a current market appraisal for the property in its current state, and potential resale value after essential structural repairs.  A desirable location does not necessarily mean auction sale would be the only option.

Trying not to be rude, but sounds like it's time for you to progress on the next chapter of your life and look to embark on certain of  life experiences many of us take for granted. In any event you appear to present the house as more  a burden to you rather than a blessing. 

FreeBear

ReadySteadyPop said:

fullyrendered said:

ReadySteadyPop said:

flegg said:

Hi All

I'm looking for some advice and recommendations really on what my next steps could or should be:

Background:
I currently live in the 1910 family home and lost my father around 12 years ago, this hit my mum pretty hard and lost her just over a year ago. When my dad passed she never changed the ownership into her name even though there was a will. When my mum passed there was no will so I gone through all the paper work to get the intestacy sorted between me and my sister.

Because the death of my dad hit my mum hard, she let the house get into a state of disrepair, where guttering has broken and each time it rains it runs down the outside wall which has caused paint and plaster to flake off the wall due to damp. There's also a few holes in the roof that has caused water to seep in and caused the ceiling plaster to fall down in 3 of the rooms and now when it rains heavy water comes into via those gaps into the rooms.

I initially started some applications for grants like the HUG when my mum was alive but they've only now managed to get back to me. HUG was approved to get installation for solar panels, outside heat pump (as there's no central heating and only 1 working fire in the house, and no hot water in the kitchen, only in the bathroom via an immersion heater), room-to-room insulation, loft insulation and a few other things. However, this was followed up with them not being able to proceed due to them not being able to raise the EPG to level C before the grant funding ends in April. As part of the assessment they also send out someone to check and measure for damp who recommended a structural engineer to check the roof and also highlighted the level of damp in one of the bedrooms (where the water comes through the ceiling.

So, as I've never owned a house before, changing the owner of the house into my name would remove any benefits of a new home-owner if I did move out. Changing it into my sisters name would cause her to effectively own 2 houses and be taxed on that (she moved out over 30 years ago and is happily married)

Options/Suggestions:

So how I see it at the moment is as follows; get a house valuation now and see how much the house is worth in it's current state of disrepair, then get a quote for the work to rectify it and see i the cost vs additional value it would add be worth while. If it's not then potentially sell the house as is as a DIY/Renovation project for someone but obviously not getting as much as I could for it. If the valuation was worthwhile in repairing it, then take a mortgage out to fund the repairs on the house then pay that off when the house sells, but I've seen a few other comments about some properties not being able to get the mortgage is the house is in a bad state of disrepair.

Sell it as is, split the money with my sister and then attempt to get my own apartment or flat. However as I'm 44 this year, what's the likelihood of my being able to get a mortgage as it could now run past retirement age and the bank may not authorise that?

Or am I best to stay here for the rest of my days and allow the house to degrade.

I'm male, 43, single, no partner, no children, no dependants, good job circa 50K/year, but also around 30K debts which I'm attempting to clear month by month but will take at least 5-6 years to clear them I'd have thought.

Any and all advice welcome as I've never owned a house before, never done repairs, never moved house etc

Thank you everyone!

No, in my opinion you are best to stay there and start using some of your 50k salary to begin repairing the house, you already have 30k (credit card?) debt, are you going to take on another what 300k, 400k mortgage debt when you already own a place to live!

But they only own half of this house. They need to raise a mortgage to buy out the sister and raise funds for renovation. Not so simple.

Get a lodger, get a valuation and ask the sister if you can pay in instalments?

If the house is in a state of disrepair, the only type of lodger you might get is a Crashy Time or a smackhead. Neither will provide a decent revenue stream and could end up costing the OP more than it is worth.

Bigphil1474

OP, we took out a new mortgage last year, admittedly for a low LTV purchase, and we're both mid 50's. 

If you and your sister are executors of the will, I would say your best bet is to sell the house as part of the estate, split the funds and you look for somewhere else as a FTB. If you have already inherited half the house, then that boat has sailed. 
There will always be a buyer for the house it's just a matter of how much £££, which depends where you live. In London it could be worth a big chunk, elsewhere it might be virtually worthless. I would start with getting an EA in and valuing it, and maybe see if you can get the leaky roof sorted in the meantime. Ask around if anyone knows a decent roofer - they'll look at the roof and guttering etc. so should be able to do those works. You could then do some DIY cleaning up on the inside at least. If the house is still in your parents estate, the cost of those repairs will be paid by the estate, but should help with the property value.

Good luck,

flegg

Thank you everyone for your kind, helpful and quick replies already, it's very much appreciated! I'll try and answer any questions people have asked.

flegg

p00hsticks said:

As you say the property is still in your fathers name I suggest you look into what you need to do to be in a legal position to be able to sell the house, if you haven't already.. 
 
You say that the property is in your fathers name and he left a will leaving it to your mother. Who was the executor of that will and was probate obtained ? I'm not an expert but It may be that you have to go back and get probate for your fathers estate if it wasn't done already. 
Is the property registered with the electronic land registry ? You can check here.
** Link removed because I'm a new account and cannot post links***
You don't need to purchase anything - just see if it shows up at all. If not ,do you have the paper deeds ?  

Yes that's correct, my father left a Will and made myself, my sister and my mother executors of his will. Within the will he left everything to my mother (we still have some original copies of his will around. Probate was obtained.

I've checked with the link you've provided and it does exist on there as a freehold property, I also believe we have the paper deeds in the house also.

flegg

poseidon1 said:

Location is key.

A house in disrepair in London or other desirable UK location is an easy sale, so where is this house located?

You indicate this is a joint inheritance with your sister so you have a legal and moral obligation to provide her with her half share.  Therefore presenting this as your sole decision making process suggests you don't see her has having any input, clearly not case.

Your age and salary does not in anyway make you unmortgageable. Quite the contrary,  I recently concluded a mortgage to age 83 at age 66 on the sole basis of the basic state pension ( all my other income sources were disallowed for mortgage purposes). You,  however appear to be  a classic mortgage candidate - jump on your Bank's website and see what you could borrow given your current financial circumstances.

As you have suggested, 1st get a current market appraisal for the property in its current state, and potential resale value after essential structural repairs.  A desirable location does not necessarily mean auction sale would be the only option.

Trying not to be rude, but sounds like it's time for you to progress on the next chapter of your life and look to embark on certain of  life experiences many of us take for granted. In any event you appear to present the house as more  a burden to you rather than a blessing. 

The house is currently located in The Black Country, approx. 12 miles west of Birmingham city centre.

After my mother passed I dealt with all the legal paperwork without the help of a solicitor and applied for a grant of probate which was granted and now have the Letters of Administration that are in my name. I've contacted all services and banks that she had and had them all transferred into a separate bank account that I had. Once completed I then divided that total some between myself and my sister. So that distribution of assets has been completed, it's just the house that hasn't been done yet as I wanted to understand the legal ramifications of transferring it into my name (as not owned a property before and what I would gain or lose out on by becoming a first timer "home-owner" or transferring it into my sisters name when she already owns a property and the financial impact that would have on her.

My mother had told my sister that she wanted me to have the house (as I've lived here all my life) but obviously without a will stating that, there's no proof and wouldn't want anything to come between my sister and me so there is a moral obligation to split the house 50/50.

Also, thank you for your advice, you don't sound rude at all, and I agree I do feel it's time to move onto the next chapter of my life. I just want to ensure I make the best and/or correct decision without doing something and regretting it in the future if I could have done something better. Thank you again though!

flegg

Bigphil1474 said:

OP, we took out a new mortgage last year, admittedly for a low LTV purchase, and we're both mid 50's. 

If you and your sister are executors of the will, I would say your best bet is to sell the house as part of the estate, split the funds and you look for somewhere else as a FTB. If you have already inherited half the house, then that boat has sailed. 
There will always be a buyer for the house it's just a matter of how much £££, which depends where you live. In London it could be worth a big chunk, elsewhere it might be virtually worthless. I would start with getting an EA in and valuing it, and maybe see if you can get the leaky roof sorted in the meantime. Ask around if anyone knows a decent roofer - they'll look at the roof and guttering etc. so should be able to do those works. You could then do some DIY cleaning up on the inside at least. If the house is still in your parents estate, the cost of those repairs will be paid by the estate, but should help with the property value.

Good luck,

Thank you, for that very reason we haven't done anything with the house yet, so legally it's still in my fathers name until we decide what the best way to move forward is (transfer to my name, or my sisters, or both, or leave it as is and sell it still in my fathers name and get it transferred at point of sale with my fathers will and my mothers letter of administration as authorisation to do so). I'm currently based approx 12 miles west of Birmingham, so definitely not London prices, but commutable into Birmingham City Centre in 30 mins by train or an hour drive.

Thank you for the luck, it's appreciated! 

i_like_cats

Sorry to pry, like people tend to online, but is there a backstory here?  

Because it sounds like you didn’t offer to pay for these necessary repairs out of your £50k salary at any point during the presumably 12 year period when your parents and then your mother were letting you live there for free?

Despite knowing you’d inherit half of the house one day, so you’d have been not just doing right by your ageing parents but also safeguarding your future inheritance. 

And you actually ran up £30k of debts in that time too.

Sorry if this is rude but it has me scratching my head.  Was there something else going on - like a gambling addiction - that may affect your ability to get a mortgage in future? 

Herzlos

The easiest thing to do is to sell as-is; there's always going to be a house flipper who can do all of the work cheaper than you'd contract tradespeople to do. There's no point paying £50k in repairs to get £20k more for the house.

That said, if there's water coming into the house when it rains now, you really need to get that addressed before it gets any worse.

If you're wanting to stay there long term I'm sure you'd be able to get a mortgage and restore it, but if your'e planning on moving in the next few years it's probaby best to just try and sell it as is.

ian1246

OP, the problems you describe sound fairly easy to fix. Get a few different roofers there and see what they say and quote - you might need a whole new roof or you might just need it patching. Have you been in the loft? What's the wooden beams & structure like? Push a screwdriver into the wood at various points to see if they are hard or rotten. Rotten = terrible news, hard = the structures likely intact & worst case could mean the house needing tiles & felt stripping and then new felt put down & tiles (reused) - Cost me £6400 for a semi-detached 3 bed in 2024 to do that. Or it could just be a couple of slipped tiles!

Likewise, the guttering you can fix yourself or get the roofers to.

That's the damp issues, as you describe, fixed. Give it the summer to dry out & then get a plasterer in to fix the ceilings / walls. You can then freshly paint the walls & ceilings - these measures alone will significantly increase value (no leaks or damp)

The great British insulation scheme should allow you to go to the energy provider for an upgrade to insulation & perhaps revisit what funding is available for a heat pump?

What's the kitchen & bathroom like?

If the roof & guttering are cheap to fix I 100% would do that & leave it a few months then to allow the damp to dry out. Spend £200 and get an industrial dehumidifier and speed up the process by drying he rooms one at a time. 

If the bathroom & kitchen are functional, then the above measures would mean odds would be good you could get a mortgage to buy sister out plus extra to do the work to sort the central heating situation & any other work needed.

Buy sister out, then do the remaining work & increase its value - then you can either live there or sell it yourself? 

Most importantly - GET HOUSE INSURANCE if there isn't any already, just incase the worst happened (house burns down).